With Halloween fast approaching, who doesn’t want to watch a new vampire flick? That’s obviously what Netflix was thinking with the release of Night Teeth this month. But, as any vampire movie fan knows not every new release is A positive. Some just suck. So, what to make of Night Teeth? Should you add it to your pre-Halloween viewing? Check out our mostly spoiler-free review below.
What’s Night Teeth About?
The setup is that a young college kid named Benny picks up a shift driving his older brother’s limo for an evening. Unfortunately, he ends up driving two women who happen to be vampires around to various parties and hot spots all night long.
We learn early on that vampires are real and that they have an uneasy truce with humanity, forged after generations of bloody battle. For some reason, the treaty was forced in a neighborhood in Los Angeles around 100 years ago. There are a number of things you just have to accept in order to watch many horror movies and this one is no exception. Vampires exist.
They are fairly traditional vampires in that they are undead, live forever (seemingly anyway), drink human blood, have enhanced strength and speed, and can be killed by various extreme methods. Some humans know about them (it’s not entirely clear why most people don’t), some work for the vampires and there also are those who stand against them or at least keep them in check.
Benny’s brother is the local leader of the humans who uphold the treaty. The movie opens with a quick bit of history about the treaty and then we see that a few vampires have decided it’s high time they stopped playing by the rules.
The Girls
The real main characters of the movie are Benny and his two vampire passengers (Zoe and Blaire). The trailers give a pretty good idea that the evening is going to get very bloody and Benny will come face to face with a world he never knew existed as he drives the two vampires around the city.
Zoe is the older of the two (at 200+ years) and Blaire is younger, having been turned into a vampire in the 1970s. They are predictably vampy, with Zoe being the more traditional predator and Blaire seeming to have a bit of a soft spot for Benny.
The Action
Oddly, for a vampire movie, the violence and blood are fairly minimal. Most of the mayhem happens offscreen, as the camera mostly sticks with Benny or his brother Jay. While Benny is driving the girls around on their spree, Jay is working to stop the vampire treaty breakers. Their paths will, of course, collide eventually, bringing about the big finale.
So, the majority of the movie is more talking about the action than actually seeing it. So, don’t go into this expecting action or blood similar to vampire movies like Underworld or even the more recent Netflix movie Blood Red Sky.
Watch Night Teeth or Not?
Well that’s the question, isn’t it? As mentioned above, you need to accept certain realities if you’re going into a vampire movie. But, the best ones then stick to some internal logic so that it all makes sense, given the things you accept as part of the movie’s reality.
However, in this case, I had a very hard time not thinking about a lot of things that don’t really make sense in the plot. The 3 main characters are somewhat interesting to spend the evening with. The two vampires are attractive and leverage the standard deadly/sexy dichotomy of many memorable female vampires from past movies.
But for me, too much of the plot relies on things that just don’t make sense, given what we know about the world of the movie. What does the main vampire villain Victor really hope to gain by breaking the treaty? Why was a neighborhood in Los Angeles ground zero for this old battle and treaty anyway? What about all the other vampires around the world? So many questions I couldn’t really answer, or ignore.
So, should you watch Night Teeth? If you have a couple of hours to kill and you are just a fan of vampire movies, why not? But, try not to ask too many questions or think about the whys and hows behind a lot of the plot. Definitely don’t expect it to compare to any of your favorite vampire movies. If you can do all that, then you’ll find it a perfectly fine way to spend a night on the couch. Check out Night Teeth on Netflix today!
