By Amelia Devorak
Staff Writer
Netflix released the film “Night Teeth” on Oct. 20, starring actors such as Jorge Lendeborg Jr, Debby Ryan and Lucy Fry.
In the film, Benny (Jorge Lendenborg Jr.), a naive college student, takes the place of his brother, Jay (Raúl Castillo), for an all-night gig as a chauffeur. As per assignment, Benny picks up two girls, Blaire (Debby Ryan) and Zoe (Lucy Fry) from a large mansion and drives them to several LA nightclubs. Zoe tells him he has to hit all of the clubs by morning, no exceptions.
Along the way, Benny grows suspicious of the girls and their odd behavior, but assumes it is nothing more than it seems. Finally, Benny finds out that the girls are actually vampires and are on the task of causing chaos all around the city as a way to distract the vampire hunters.
Benny’s brother, Jay is secretly part of a human council that tries to maintain the peace between vampires and humans, but after the kidnapping of his girlfriend, Maria (Ash Santos), Jay is on the hunt for those who took her, not knowing his own brother is with vampires who might have an idea of her whereabouts.
The film received an approval rating of 36 percent based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10 on Rotten Tomatoes. The assessment of the film feels fairly accurate, the film not being anything more than just another corny vampire movie.
Throughout the film, there are several storylines, including Benny’s big dream to be a musician, Jay’s search for his girlfriend, the history of the existence between humans and vampires, and Blaire and Benny’s bubbling romance.
There is never any deep expansion into any of these storylines. No chemistry is established between any of the characters, and there is little explanation of what is happening throughout the film.
While supernatural films like such are always exciting, especially if they’re action packed and have a pop of romance like “Night Teeth,” one can’t really stray away from the fact that the film is poorly written in terms of dialogue or explanation of the plot.
The film pushes too hard on the “urban feel” that it was going for; this shows in some scenes where there’s overexaggerated graffiti, or abandoned buildings — all of it was unnecessary and excessive.
One thing that can be appreciated about this film is the clever use of lighting and color. Hues of colors express the scene well, adding to the mood and scene. The lighting effect is similar to the movie “Thirteen,” where the lighting increasingly turned darker to convey what was happening throughout the film. In “Night Teeth,” when characters are in danger, a red traffic light shines on their faces. When they are in a convenience store late at night, an eerie green hue adds to the drama.
The cinematography as a whole is nothing short of beautiful, showing city lights of buildings, cars driving by or bright neon light art outside of a building illuminating the whole street.
“Night Teeth” is just another vampire movie.
The movie’s likely something that I would either put on for background noise — or if I was in the mood for something spooky — but unfortunately, nothing more. While the film may gain popularity for being released a week and half before Halloween and for featuring well-known actors like Debby Ryan and Megan Fox, “Night Teeth” is nothing special.
