Canadian producer Pierre David is always a welcome face in my collection, the man behind so may fun genre movies (including several with David Cronenberg - and all the sequels and spin-off's to Scanners). During the nineties he had a thing for titles like The Neighbor, The Paper Boy, The Secretary, The Nurse, The Landlady... and The Dentist. It seems he found a winning concept there.
The Dentist is one of the few really good movies directed by Brian Yuzna. I have some kind of love-hate relationship with the man. I like Society... and the his latest monster mayhem Amphibious is a lot of fun and very well made, but in-between... no, I'm afraid I never been a fan. Here he have Stuart Gordon among the writers and genre fan Corbin Bernsen in the title role, which is good signs. These are smart guys who loves horror and the macabre and it's visible in the final product. Of coure I'm not totally sure how much Gordon was involved in the finished product, but I imagine I can see traces of his humor in what later become a huge success on video.
It's a good movie, no doubt about it, perfectly walking the line between totally tasteless, funny and quite disturbing. Bernsen does a typical "ordinary rich guy going mad" and does that with bravura. I've seen people like him in real life, trying to control everything - including their loved ones, sick by jealousy, violent. He's both like a comic book adaption of an abusive husband and something from real life.
Most of the story, bascially him going mad, is shot in a luxery villa and in his office, with a couple of more less colorful patients waiting for their turn to get their dental problems fixed. One of them is a very young and innocent looking Mark Ruffalo, which was a surprise. Totally forgot he's in this film. The comedy is pitch black, on the verge on not being funny at all, the laughs get stuck in your throat and the awfully detailed damaged created to teeth and inside of mouths is sickening - in a fun way. Because here we like it graphic. Very graphic.
Somehow I think it was meant for Stuart Gordon to have directed this film from the beginning. It bears his trademark comedy and the story is very far from what Yuzna has done before and after. It's a bit too realistic, too down-to-earth - and most of all, a lot more sadistic than Yuzna does it normally.
It was fun to see this old DTV classic again. It's a fine movie, fun for the whole sicko family. Gonna try to squeeze in the sequel before this week is over!
"I have some kind of love-hate relationship with the man. I like Society... and the his latest monster mayhem Amphibious is a lot of fun and very well made, but in-between... no, I'm afraid I never been a fan."
I haven´t seen that much of him.....but Society(1989)is a very sharp, dark, satire that I like.
"and genre fan Corbin Bernsen in the title role, which is good signs."
I missed much of his filmography....especially the genre stuff.
"Because here we like it graphic. Very graphic."
I like it too.....as long as it has story to go along with it.
"It was fun to see this old DTV classic again. It's a fine movie, fun for the whole sicko family. Gonna try to squeeze in the sequel before this week is over!"
Looking forward to the next review then, good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | April 10, 2013 at 00:11
"It's a fine movie, fun for the whole sicko family."
Oh brother. I remember a whole bunch of cousins getting together during summer holidays sometime in the late 90s at my grand dad's place and renting this movie from the video library. My grand dad was a doctor with a love for horror and the macabre and it was about a dozen cousins of all ages sitting around with him and watching this one. Fun for the whole sicko family indeed :)
Posted by: gk | April 11, 2013 at 12:10