Director: Jamie Langlands
Year: 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After a series of strange deaths, a small-town detective sets out to find the killer responsible for a strange series of murders on the local teenage population, involving each victim having a tooth removed from them, sending him on a race to uncover his identity and stop the rampage.
Review:
Overall, this was a decent and enjoyable enough indie slasher. Among the better factors to be had here is the strong central setup featuring a series of interactions and encounters with the killer and his strange backstory. The different factors involved here, focusing on the race to piece together the clues found at the crime scenes, involving why the killer is removing teeth from his victims and the peculiar fascination he has with using dental appliances and themes with his various kills, keep the film intriguing and generally solid with the way it brings about the different clues involved. That it manages to bring together some fun factors involving the look into his potential past and the whole way it offers up some touches on why he’s so fixated on people’s mouths with his own hang-ups that prevent him from being able to acclimate into society normally due to his issues is a great way of ensuring a way to make the film interesting.
When it comes to the interactions involving the actual stalking and slashing, this is a mixed bag that errs more on the positive side. The fact that the priority relies on more lengthy and involved setpieces where the fact that he likes to toy with his victims involving chattering teeth toys and other small indicators that he’s in the area, gives them a nice bit of suspense when they first appear, much like the extended wandering around in the dark that takes place with everything making for a tense time. The fixation on the mouth again makes everything feel far more chilling than normal as the idea of being near the mouth already is unnerving enough but to then focus on removing teeth from victims makes everything that much more likable, especially given the fine low-budget gore on display for the scenes which help to complete the idea of what the killer is actually performing on his victims.
However, it also highlights the main issue with the film in that there’s not as much of it in the film as it focuses on other factors instead. The few encounters and stalking scenes here are rather fun and effective, but after the first few minutes, they fall away so we can focus on the detective investigating the crimes and the teens at school trying to figure out how to live their lives while avoiding the killer. Even that gives way eventually to the full-scale investigation scenes involving trying to track down the killer’s family and background, which are immensely sluggish and detract from the actual stalking scenes that are more intriguing and enjoyable, so there’s the sense that it’s longer than it really is. It’s not overtly damaging, but it does hold it back overall.
Overview: ***/5
An effective if somewhat sluggish genre effort, this one comes off fun when it matters, while being let down somewhat by the series of flaws present here holding it down. Those with an interest in this style of genre fare or who are curious about it will want to give it a shot, while most others out there turned off by these issues should heed caution.
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