“It was important to make it clear that the teeth only come out when they're needed and if the guy's intentions are good then everyone will be fine.”

~ Mitchell Lichenstein

By Catzie Vilayphonh  |  Send to Friend

The old folk tales foreworning men of the dangers of having sex with women has followed us for years. Maybe it goes back to Adam and Eve's trust issues or maybe its origins stem from a promiscuous man scorned. But no cautionary tale sounds as bizarre as the myth of "vagina dentata", or the toothed vagina. Mitchell Lichenstein decided it was time to deal with it, literally, and wrote and directed a film calling it Teeth. And so came the story about a girl named Dawn who discovers she's the living example of the having teeth in her vagina. And not just cute nibbly baby teeth either. No this girl's got canines in her cooch. Add that to the fact that she's also a teenager and a proponent of chastity. Black comedy ensues.

Below is an interview with Mitchell and Teeth producer Joyce Pierpoline.


Catz: If some one told told me that I was going to see a film about a teenage girl with teeth in her vagina, I would have thought it was a Japanese anime movie. Has anybody ever told you that?

Mitchell: I don't know if I ever heard that directly but the only other movie I know of that's directly about vagina dentata is a Japanese horror movie, that I've only been able to see the trailer [for]. I don't know what it's called but what you can tell from the trailer is that it's very gross, it's very bloody and [the main character] is a monster. It's very different.

C: What inspired you to write a story about a girl with teeth in her vagina?

M: Well I met Joyce and she said 'I'm looking for someone to do a story about my life…' [laughs]. Just knowing about the [vagina dentata] myth for years, as you learn in the movie and if you didn't know before, it's a myth in so many cultures. The fact that it has been so pervasive seems to say something about a certain fear that men have of women and it seemed like something to deal with directly. I knew it would be comedic in a way, but there is something serious about it.

C: Joyce, what was your interest, both as a producer and a woman?

Joyce: I thought the script was fun and original and it's very difficult to come by a well-written and original script. It was so cool, had never read anything like that, and it's also just fun to see a film like that where the female is the heroine, she is the super-hero.

C: At some point I almost felt bad for her because I thought she might never experience "good sex," not because of the chastity thing but because of the teeth. Was it important that she eventually did get to enjoy sex, instead of her only using it as a weapon?

M: It was important to make it clear that the teeth only come out when they're needed and if the guy's intentions are good then everyone will be fine [laughs]. So in order to do that she had to have one good -- actually the one time that she does have "good sex," she hasn't learned to control it yet. She wasn't quite sure and dealing with "Was it real?" She was in a state, [one of the characters] offers her some tranquilizers, so she's a little out of it. But even besides that, even though he is taking advantage of her, he does ask her "Do you want me to stop?" and she is coherent enough to say "No." But it was important to learn the rules of the teeth, and then she learns to control them more. I didn't want it to be an anti-sex movie.

C: One of the bad guys in the movie is the stepbrother Brad who has no remorse for anything, treats his girlfriend and his own family like shit and worst of all wants to have sex with Dawn, even though they're technically related. It just seems he's too easy to hate, especially without a backstory.

M: The backstory to me, is in the first scene (he tries to fondle Dawn when they are toddlers and gets "bit"), he was pretty mean in the first scene, so he was just born mean. But certainly his whole sexuality was formed in that scene, if you assume that's his first sexual experience, then that was a painful, sort of alienating experience. So, as you find out later, he doesn't have vaginal intercourse, has intimacy issues with his girlfriend and then having been in love, or whatever, with Dawn -- that whole frustration would've built up his anger.

C: Are you familiar with the recent inventions of anti-rape devices?

M: The Rape-axe Condom? Yeah.

C: Where there are two. Both from South Africa. The first one was invented in 2000 by a guy actually, (Jaap Haumann), and it had a spring blade that would slice off the tip of a penis so the attacker is basically disfigured. And then there's that one you just mentioned, invented by a woman (Sonette Ehlers) in 2005, and I think went into production last year. That one's like a female condom with barb wires inside. But yeah, she was inspired by a rape victim who told her, "If only I had teeth down there." So even though they're supposed to be protective, it's received a lot of criticism because the person wearing it doesn't show any visible signs, so the device seems more vindictive rather than preventative. Which reminds me of the rape-revenge fantasy theme, another thing that leads back to the Japanese anime genre because sex is commonly used as a weapon.

M: It does tap into the desires of some women, who may not necessarily have been raped, but taken advantage of. It does have a wish fulfillment about it. But I wouldn't want Dawn's character to take out something that happened in the past on another man, it's only the ones who actually [do something]. But that one with the blade sounds extreme. There should at least be a license to carry it [laughs].

C: So Mitch, your father is Roy Lichenstein, whose work is inspired by comics. Do you see your work being inspired by the comics as well?

M: Probably, not consciously, but I am inspired by him as a person and his sense of humor, He had a great sense of humor. Maybe visually there are some things, kind of the real super innocence of the romantic, the kids in the beginning are sort of like those love comics.

C: So, in the end of the film Dawn leaves town. Where do you think she's gone?

J: That's for the sequel!

M: Well, she leaves town, because she will probably be arrested. Something tells me that Brad wouldn't be able to keep it to himself.

C: Well you never know because the doctor, when he's lying on the operating table, they ask him if he's willing to explain what happened and he refuses to answer out of embarrassment. Obviously none of these guys are going to confess that they tried to take advantage of a woman. That sort of goes back to the myth of vagina dentate and its association with the Freudian--

J: the castrating female, the strong female.

M: There's a good line about sex and the possible origins of the myth - "Men always enter triumphantly, but leave diminished." It's also about to going to the place from before they existed so it's also about annihilation.


Next Week: Author Ed Lin