Thriller films are exciting. You either feel extremely anxious and nervous or they give a sense of excitement that keeps you incessantly interested. Regardless, a true thriller isn’t a thriller without a constant supply of suspense. Unfortunately, Netflix’s “Night Teeth” doesn’t seem to understand this notion.
The film centers around Benny (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), a gawky and naive college student who is filling in for his brother as a chauffeur in Los Angeles. Benny spends the night driving around two young women all across the city to different clubs, eventually realizing that they are actually vampires. However, the two vampires, Zoe (Lucy Fry) and Blaire (Debby Ryan), mistake Benny for his brother, Jay (Raúl Castillo), who is a vampire hunter and cop. When they find out the truth, they decide to keep him alive and use him to continue their plans for the night. What follows is a jumbled mess of different scenes that ultimately make no sense at all.
There is a torrent of chaotic action scenes, combined with far too many irrelevant plot points that make this film somewhat of a flop. So much happens so fast in the first five minutes of the film, giving hope for a suspenseful and thrilling watch. Instead, the rest of the film is as underwhelming as possible. There are one too many clips of Benny driving, views of L.A., and there is more music than dialogue in certain scenes. It makes one wonder, what is the plot of this film? There are innumerable scenes that could be argued as moving the plot along, but they don’t connect to anything. There’s even a scene where Megan Fox and Sydney Sweeney show up for two minutes and are never seen again. While that was clearly a marketing move, it doesn’t help but make the movie more disorganized.
One particular struggle of this film is that the audience is supposed to root for Benny, but he’s not consistent as a character. It is pretty evident that Benny is an average, sweet college kid who is just trying to make it through school — a relatable experience that makes viewers instantly connect with him. However, once Benny starts to fall for Blaire, he also protects the vampires and goes along with their plans. Does this mean the audience is also supposed to root for the vampires? Or just Benny? Or no one at all?
Still, the film manages to create a comical watch. The upside of a trashy movie such as this one is the superficiality and the cringeworthy laughs that come from it. Sure, the film’s ending is predictable and no scene makes you worried about the next. “Night Teeth” obviously wanted to be a facinsinating L.A.-based vampire thriller, but it became an awkward and trivial teen flick. It is an undoubtedly laughable watch because of this.
There are clearly far more faults than positives shown in this movie. While this film fails to have much charm, it creates a mirage of a thrilling vampire story and manages to make amusement its focal point, albeit unintentionally. Regardless of if you’re looking for a vampire film or just something to take your mind off of things, the flair and humor of “Night Teeth” might be the answer to your problems.
“Night Teeth” is streaming on Netflix.
By Cyna Mirzai