Title: Tooth and Nail (2007)
Director: Mark Young
Cast: Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, Rider Strong, Michael
Kelly
Review:
I’ve noticed that filmmakers behind post apocalyptic films
always try to add their own twist to them. For example Stake Land
On Tooth and Nail we are presented with the idea that the
world has gone to hell because one day we ran out of gas. In this movie having no
gas for cars or electricity equals total world destruction. Now if that’s believable
or not doesn’t really matter, what matters is the point that the film is trying
to make. How obsessed our society is with oil; how much of our society depends
on it and what will happen if we ever run out of it. These are all interesting ideas
the film presents us with; no doubt. I’m all for using cleaner and safer forms
of energy; oil will have to go at some point. So after that’s been established
we meet a group of survivors who call themselves ‘The Foragers’. Basically, they
are a small group of people who’ve gathered in an abandoned hospital. Together
they are trying to regain normality. They even have a leader, a scholar type by
the name of ‘Darwin’ who wants’ to attempt to rebuild the human race. He’s got
a job for everyone to do; one picks the wood, the other one gathers water and
so forth. Unfortunately, Darwin
Tooth and Nail was part of the ‘8 Film to Die For’ that the
folks at After Dark Films started back in 2006. These After Dark films are hit
and miss bunch; you might catch a fairly good one, or a really crappy one. They
tell you that these films were ‘too scary’ to be released in theaters, when in
reality they were simply not deemed worthy enough for theatrical release. But
this doesn’t make them any less fun to watch. I’ve enjoyed some of the films they’ve
released like for example The Gravedancers (2005) a film from Mike Mendez the
director behind the demonic ultra cheap-o good time The Convent (2000). Tooth
and Nail was part of the second batch of ‘8 Films to Die For’ that came out in
2007, and it’s neither good, nor bad. It simply is what it is, a post
apocalyptic slasher with a couple of ultra gory deaths.
The problem with some
ultra low budget post apocalyptic films is that because of their budgetary
limitations, it is often times difficult for them to convey the end of the
world. It takes a truly gifted and imaginative filmmaker to pull this of on a
small budget; but it’s not impossible, it can be done. Just look at Six String
Samurai (1998). Often times directors will choose to shoot their post
apocalyptic films in the dessert because it’s easier, you don’t have worry
about showing decaying buildings or anything, just the dessert. Kind of like
the same way that many slasher films take place in the woods, because filming
in the woods is cheap and it cuts down costs.
Unfortunately Tooth & Nail takes place in a city, and
the buildings don’t look post-apocalyptic enough. Tooth & Nail does good by
starting the film with real life news reel footage of chaos in the world, which
is a good trick used by a post apocalyptic films to convey chaos and disorder
in the world; for example Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (2004) does this. We
even get some cool shots of burnt decaying corpses inside of smashed up cars. The
problem for me with Tooth and Nail is that the characters in the film simply
look too squeaky clean to inhabit a post apocalyptic world. This is the same
problem I had with another post apocalyptic film I saw recently called Carriers
(2009). Characters just look too clean! In Tooth & Nail even the interior
of the building that the foragers stay in looks too new, too clean, too
organized, not enough rot and decay. A post apocalyptic world needs to be
rotting, old, decomposed, not squeaky clean. Guys need to have long beards,
girls should have their hairs all messed up and not wear any make up. Everyone
should be smelly and dirty. But not on Tooth and Nail where the characters seem
to have time to even shave.
Too pretty for the apocalypse
Slasher films aren’t by definition an intelligent bunch of
films, quite the contrary, these are films that simply exist to scare you with
the killer hiding behind the shadows and shock you with their grizzly, gory
deaths, nothing more. In this sense, Tooth and Nail succeeded because the
deaths are pretty gory. This film actually reminded me of a slasher film from
the eighties, you know, the kind that doesn’t cut away when the time comes to
show some gruesomeness. It seems to me that those days are bygone; American horror
films of today are no longer truly gory, at least not the theatrically released
ones. They may try and be, but they always cut away at the exact moment when we’re
supposed to be seeing some gore. Best example of this was that ultra shitty
Friday the 13th remake (2009). I hated that one because every time
Jason’s machete was about to inflict some damage, the film would cut away to
something else. Tooth and Nail doesn’t do that, the gore is there and it’s
plentiful. Unfortunately, when that’s the only thing that’s good about your
movie, then you’ve got a pretty shallow movie. I’m not saying Tooth and Nail
has nothing to say, it’s just that it says very little. As a bonus we get
Vinnie Jones and Michael Madsen playing two bloodthirsty cannibals, but their
performances in this movie are closer to cameos, since they only appear
sporadically through out the film. Madsen and Vinnie don’t really contribute
anything to the film. The main gripe I had with this movie was that its
villains though vicious, had no personality whatsoever. Personality wise, the
good guys themselves where just as bland as their villains.
The real idea, the real theme that Tooth and Nail is rooted
in is the quintessential ‘survival of the fittest’. In this film what we really
meet is a bunch of weak individuals; even the guys in this group aren’t the
strong type save for one, the one called ‘Viper’, the hot headed one. What these characaters don’t realize is that
civilization is long gone and that the world they are living in has changed. They actually recognize that they are the weak link, that athe bad guys are stronger,
more numerous. Hell, even knowing the have weapons, they still dont have faith in themselves, they live afraid to fight, afraid of change, which is something we should never be afraid to do. Fight for whats right, for our survival. I also liked that at one point, all
males disappear and it’s up to the women to fend for themselves in this big bad
world. The femaels in the film discuss how much they'd prefer the stronger men of the group to protect them, but at one point, the protection of men dissapears, and then it's up to the ladies to show they have what it takes to survive in this world on their own. They stop depending on the men for protection when they realize that no
one is going to save them, but themselves. It's now a dog eat dog world and if you don’t adapt, you die. And this is really the one idea that I did like about the film.
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5
