NIGHT TEETH: DO WE NEED ANOTHER VAMPIRE MOVIE?

    
*Warning spoilers ahead for Night Teeth now available to stream on Netflix*

The new Netflix original film Night Teeth features main characters Blair (Debby Ryan) and Zoe (Lucy Fry) who have one night to complete their ultimate take-over mission throughout the city of Angels. A mission led by leader Victor (Alfie Allen) to end a century-old truce and overthrow the human and vampire leaders alike. Tired of not living up to his full supernatural potential and feeling like he is answering to humans, Victor kidnaps the girlfriend of Jay (Raúl Castillo) the human leader of Boyle Heights, LA. A territory the vampires cannot enter and the humans turn an eye to the vampire’s antics, one rule being they cannot kill humans but only feed on the willing. Inciting a war between the humans and Victor. 

Enter Benny (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) the shy loner who works himself to the bone while attending college classes who lives with his grandma, has a crush on the seemingly picture-perfect girl who has a stereotypical grade A douchebag of a boyfriend, and is heavily into music, but won’t let anyone hear it until it is ready. Benny is also the cousin of Jay who has no idea about his cousin’s double life, but when Jay needs a driver for the night Benny is eager to volunteer to get out of the house for once. Following a night where is driving these two weird yet interesting people around, forming this connection with Blair along the way and oh yeah finding out they are ancient vampires trying to overthrow the city by going on a killing spree. Essentially, being forced to keep driving them around and being used as leverage, but in the midst of all of this getting closer and closer with Blair. Blair turns more and more against her best friend and her own kind realizing there is no need for all this blood and carnage and she is just tired of following her around. Wanting to discover something, a new connection for herself even if that is with a human, Benny. Throughout the movie, you see the complex relationship of Blair and Zoe where right away you see that Zoe calls the shots and Blair follows happily or so you think. Her entire life has always been about Zoe and never been about her. 

The neon colors, music, and camera shots of the city give you the sense that there are many more aspects of the nightlife than we think. Alluding that there may be a deeper layer than we see ourselves. Night Teeth tries to give that edgy modern style of vampire where the trailer features stars like Megan Fox who are in the movie for only five minutes then dies all to get more publicity. At the same time also trying too hard to steer away from the cheesiness, made it that much more cheesy. 

Vampire movies today have no comparison to the blueprint of vampire movies like Interview with the Vampire (1994), Queen of the Damned (2002), Underworld series (2003-2016), and even Lost Boys (1987) give the audience not only the vampire aspect but what makes each of them unique. Giving the audience a new power, origin story, or daring fight scenes. That is not solely focused on the love trope, but focusing on major character development and understanding these supernatural characters beyond what makes them supernatural. Which is something Night Teeth lacked in that aspect, but check it out and see what you think for yourself!