Show Teeth Fraught with terror for teenage boys and John Tn A u mature marketers Anderson i n u e Special to The Washington Post Jess has th the the ki kind d of blond eyed blue winsome WInsome good looks tha that could sell Ivory Snow Which probably make makes it even tougher for the th actress who's from what wha she calls highly highly Christian Kentucky to tc talk to the folks back home about her first big movie They say Oh youre you're doing a movie said recently in New York it called Teeth What's its it's about And th then n you tell them and you typically get Teeth in your And then I have to explain that its it's not porn Lets Let's not beat around the shrubbery Teeth is a horror movie And Anda a comedy But it isn't for the faint of heart In fact if you are faint of heart you'll want to stop reading right now Its It's also a movie about sex although its it's probably the only sex movie in which words like overbite or floss might be taken as is double Its It's violent funny and utterly inappropriate for virtually everybody The Rim film opened Friday in New Lost Angeles Its not age so much muc h says ays director Mitchell Lichtenstein But we decided among ourselves that no virgins should be allowed to see it because o. o if you dont don't know anything it might actually scare you off But its it's OK for non- non virgins of any age The questions began at last years year's Sundance Film Festival where Teeth premiered How exactly would the producers be describing the movie They haven't gotten much help from the media According to Salon its it's about a girl named Dawn yes as in Georgia and her flower paintings who comes to understand her remarkable genital gift In the NewYork New NewYork NewYork York Daily News where you'd expect more leeway to we got Still a stranger her own body a high school student discovers she has a physical advantage when she becomes the object the of male violence In Salt Lake City Tribune where one might expect an restraint it was about espousing abstinence-espousing teen who discovers a dangerous abnormality that freaks hei herout her herout out and you can imagine how The trailers meanwhile skirted every dangerous issue Issue constructing a preview via classic horror motifs and attaching the Every rose has its thorns One of the bigger stumbling blocks ordinarily would be the Motion Picture Association of America but its ratings board decided Teeth should have an R rating the thinking being Lichtenstein explained that parents should bring their teen-age teen boys to see it because the genuine message is if your intentions are good sex is fine if they're not you'll quickly regret it And that really is one message of the movie ratings matter inno in inno inno no small part because of their effect on where and how a company in this case Roadside Attractions can advertise its movie An NC 17 precludes promotions in certain papers and TV outlets There are enormous marketing difficulties with Teeth acknowledged Howard Cohen co- co president of Roadside which is releasing Teeth on behalf of and the Weinstein Co which bought the film cooperatively at Sundance last JaI January But B t there are a marketing hooks as well So its it's a mixed bag he said Our approach has been to not shy away from it but there are two ways to go Sell it as a kind of John Waters campy horror film or try to push into pure horror territory like Saw or something Our final approach was was' to do a little of both a little moreon more moreon moreon on the scary side than the camp side not a on full comedy The idea is sort of an adult horror honor movie a horror movie for thinking people For Lichtenstein the campaign is geared a bit too much toward horror But this is their job and andI I dont don't pretend to know anything about marketing I think even with a typical independent movie things would have been smoothed out a bit and channeled more into one genre or another I didn't want to do that And I didn't have to tl C W M N I Mt A J I Ikin Ii 7 I l t kin l u do it The subject matterand matterand matter matter- and the fact that hes he's a time first-time director were a two-pronged two obstacle to traditional financing So Lichtenstein made his film with venture capital largely from the art world his father is painter Roy Lichtenstein so hes he's hesco co connected The most awkward thing was probably before I made it explaining to people what it was I wanted to do the director said Usually with older relatives lets let's say Id I'd find a way to say it without saying what the whole thing w was s about Its a dark horror comedy of coming story about a i girl He trails off I wouldn't say there were teeth or anything Didn't anyone ask why it was vas called Teeth Luckily no one was that interested For the films film's leading lady ady who said she views Teeth as a superhero movie things can l get gt l awkward too People haven't really asked me awkward things they've made awkward jokes said whose performance won a Sundance prize But I dont don't think I would have done this film if I didn't find it funny and thought it had something to say And found it totally ridiculous I mean its it's totally ridiculous So I was prepared for low- low class humor 26 grew up with her father who now lives in Florida Hes actually been awesome about it she said He came to Sundance with me saw it thought it was hilarious and kind of had a few parental moments Oh OK heres here's my daughter and she's having sex on on- screen But he really loved the movie And he was so proud of me |