Los Angeles Jesuits Have Teeth Into A Hedonistic Movie

Unlike anything you’ve seen before
Academic freedom hits new low at Loyola Marymount University.
An Oct. 1 board editorial in the Loyolan, the student newspaper of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, in listing examples of the Jesuit school’s embrace of academic freedom, noted that “even the ‘Vagina Monologues’ has visited LMU.” Now, the Jan. 28 Loyolan reveals that the university’s progressive administration has allowed the showing of a movie, also about vaginas – or a vagina. A toothed vagina. “Every now and again, a horror film comes along that is so creative and so fresh that it causes a buzz of which cannot be ignored,” said the Loyolan article, “’Teeth’ Proves a Mouthful.” The movie, Teeth -- “one of those movies,” said the article -- was recently screened at the LMU School of Film and Television.

The film, which had its world premier at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, is a story about a “Christian high school girl caught up in her school’s purity campaign – saving herself for marriage, as it were,” said the 2007 Sundance Film Guide. According to the film’s web site, the student, Dawn, “works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the local chastity group’s most active participant … A stranger to her own body, innocent Dawn discovers she has a toothed vagina when she becomes the object of violence.”

Teeth, says the Loyolan, has an “utterly ridiculous premise;” it is a “hilariously black comedy” with the “ability to make you laugh and scream within the same frame of film.” Its

“dialogue is clever, witty and fresh, and when put to work via Jess Wexler, who plays Dawn, it allows for a depth not commonly found in horror comedies.”

The film is slightly more a horror than a comedy flick, says the article. “Dawn turns into a pseudo-Freddy Krueger of feminine empowerment.” The film “goes the traditional slasher route in setting up a handful of scenes similar to the first,” and viewers need “be prepared for some shockingly graphic scenes of penile aftermath.” The Loyolan writer said he was

“shocked at how far the film went in making sure you knew what Dawn's beaver
was gnawing on.”

Teeth, however, is not “a mindless, derivative remake or sequel. It most definitely isn't your typical coming-of-age teen sex comedy,” said the Loyolan. “And it is unquestionably not like anything you have ever seen before.”

Link to the California Catholic Daily (here)