Editorials

‘The Dentist’ Brings Oral Hygiene Nightmares To Life

February 15th, 2024 | By pine breaks

At first glance, The Dentist seems a run-of-the-mill, low-budget psychological horror film that does what it says on the tin. Yet under Brian Yuzna’s skillful direction and a talented cast and crew, the movie transcends its genre constraints. While delivering middling slasher thrills, Yuzna explores the darker aspects of the American Dream, creating an intriguing narrative exploring its inevitable pitfalls. 

In the lead, Corbin Bernsen — fresh from a lengthy and critically acclaimed stint on television’s LA Law — delivers a compelling performance as Dr. Alan Feinstone, a successful and fastidious oral hygienist. However, as the story unfolds, Feinstone’s seemingly flawless life unravels, revealing the truth behind the glossy façade of his Los Angeles reality.

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Dr. Feinstone has everything: a beautiful blonde wife, a luxurious modern home, a thriving business, and a taste for high-end clothing and cars. Yet beneath this veneer of material wealth and success, Alan is clearly an unhappy bunny. The good doctor tells of his internal turmoil during a voice-over in the opening five minutes. “I had a beautiful wife,” he explains. “I had a beautiful home. We had a perfect life together. But underneath that clean, white surface, there was the stench of decay.” Here lays the film’s central premise. In the relentless pursuit and preservation of success and perfection, the underlying challenges and sacrifices are minimized or dismissed. As the pressures to excel mount and the drive for perfection intensifies, Feinstone’s descent into psychosis unfolds, culminating in acts of violence reminiscent of Michael Douglas’ character in Falling Down. 

As Dr. Feinstone unleashes violence upon those in his private and public spheres, these characters’ symbolic roles offer incisive critiques of established norms. For instance, his wife (Linda Hoffman) engages in a steamy affair with the pool man (Michael Stadvec), the local lothario for other disillusioned housewives. Within the professional realm, an intrusive assistant (Molly Hagan) challenges not only his ethics and expertise but also his management style. The narrative goes on to extend its scrutiny to the state’s authority. This plays out through the avaricious Inland Revenue Service auditor (Earl Boen), who will ignore accounting discrepancies in exchange for personal gains — including complimentary dental services.

Predictably, each of these four characters meets their demise at the hands of the doctor. While Hagan and Stadvec suffer relatively routine deaths — strangulation and slashing, respectively — the wife and taxman meet impressively gruesome downfalls. In these moments, The Dentist deserves contemporary classic consideration, as the escalating gore quota will appeal to those with a penchant for the visceral. In permanently disfiguring these characters, Dr. Feinstone employs an impressive array of dental instruments, which will leave viewers wary of the next dental surgery visit.  

Corbin Bernsen delivers one of his standout performances, portraying a man teetering on the brink of reality with depth and skill. Yet, the film’s mastery lies in effectively communicating Feinstone’s unraveling psyche through the symbiotic interplay of sound and camera. Director Brian Yuzna — known for his contributions to the horror genre with films like Society, Bride of Re-Animator, Return of the Living Dead III, and Progeny — demonstrates his expertise by assembling a production crew rich in genre experience. Cinematographer Levie Isaacks, following his work on Leprechaun and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, captures with aplomb Dr. Feinstone’s descent into madness. The strategic use of tilting and spinning cameras, often ascending or descending, visually reflects this increasing instability. Adding another layer to the film’s atmosphere, composer Alan Howarth — credited with scoring close to sixty films, including the Halloween franchise (excluding the first John Carpenter film) — contributes a unique, unsettling electronic score. 

Rounding out the experienced crew, we must acknowledge the longstanding collaborative relationship between director Brian Yuzna and principal writers here, Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli, known for their work on Re-Animator and From Beyond. Contributing to this cinematic alchemy, the special effects team, including Kevin Yagher, Christopher Nelson, and Anthony C. Ferrante, materializes the macabre in unsettling and captivating ways. For those eagle-eyed star watchers, Mark Ruffalo, in an early film role, graces the screen with a brief cameo as a sleazy model agent. Remarkably, despite the caliber of talent assembled, production stayed within a budget of just $700,000.

While The Dentist offers several arresting uses of film form and poignant critiques toward the pursuit of success, it plays to type in important respects. We see this most notably in the camera’s overt objectification of the female form. The lens often fetishizes several of the principal female characters. April Reign (Christa Sauls) is an aspiring model whose mouth “is the only part of me [her manager] hasn’t totally rebuilt.” Sarah Andrews (Virginya Keehne) is a young teen desperate to remove her braces, which will, swan-like, propel her into womanhood. Although these characters survive Dr. Feinstone’s attacks, the camera lingers with intent upon their flesh. This is especially obvious with April, as she lies comatose, being undressed by the doctor, in the mistaken belief she is his wife. However, it is with Feinstone’s wife, Brook (Linda Hoffman), that the male gaze reaches its zenith. She is the sole character seen nude on multiple occasions. In a protracted scene lasting approximately two minutes, the camera focuses on her shapely, stockinged legs wandering the dental surgery, seeking her husband in the prelude to a gruesome attack. 

Amidst these portrayals, issues arise with representing the sole character of color. Ken Foree assumes the role of Detective Gibbs, but unfortunately, this police officer lacks believability. Despite extensive acting credits — including a memorable performance in George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead — Foree delivers an inept investigator in The Dentist. One that engages in questionable actions at crime scenes, such as touching evidence and consuming contents from unidentified jars without concern for contamination or consequence. These depictions of race and gender raise valid concerns about how the film reinforces clichés and stereotypical roles for women and actors of color.

The Dentist is an important film that reminds us of the horrors in the everyday. Yuzna depicts the fears and anxieties associated with visiting commonly taken-for-granted institutions and explores the consequences of striving for an idealized existence that ignores the inevitable struggles accompanying such aspirations. The cinematography and soundtrack complement the mood of the film perfectly, but it is the film’s social commentary — even factoring in its racial shortcomings — that elevates it beyond conventional horror fare.