Overall Rating Awesome: 30.56% Worth A Look: 11.11% Average: 8.33% Pretty Bad: 25% Total Crap: 25% 1 review, 30 user ratings

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Dentist, The

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by Scott Weinberg

"A sick, twisted movie for sick, twisted people."

This is not one you want to show people who are afraid of the dentist. It's a nasty little horror movie that delivers exactly what the title suggests: A psychotic dentist who does just awful things to people and their teeth. I can't believe some of the filth that goes on in this one.

Picture a close-up of a dentist's drill. It's whining and screeching and spinning and it start to get real close to an open mouth full of teeth. Then imagine the drill just completely mangling and destryong said teeth. There's dust and enamel and some really upsetting sound effects. Sound like fun?

If you said yes, The Dentist is for you. If you said no, congratulations. You're sane. Corbin Bernsen takes another giant leap away from anything resembling respectability by starring as a crazy dentist who goes more than a little loony when he finds out his wife is screwing the pool guy. He mangles her face up pretty bad, and also dispatches the horny pool guy in rather graphic fashion. Then things turn real ugly.

The poor schlub, it turns out, is also being questioned by the IRS. Add that to the fact that his patients never floss AND there will probably never be a Major League 4, and what you get is one unhappy Corbin. His performance here is pretty damn funny, except that I don't think it was meant to be.

The Dentist (and its sequel, the cleverly-titled The Dentist 2) are produced by our old buddies Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon, who have previously entertained with stuff like Re-Animator, Castle Freak, From Beyond, and Fortress. Unfortunately, this one is too much. There's a fundamental difference between watching a person get eating by a horny monster from another dimension and watching a dentist's drill gnaw out someone's teeth. I'm not exactly sure what that difference is, but hell, I KNOW dentists, and those guys are creepy enough already!

Look away when you hear the drill, and you may find something to like in this ocassionally intermittently amusing movie. Chock full of terrible dialogue, wooden performances, unknown actors, and a lot of those pathetic "murder one-liners" that seem to be so prevalent in slasher movies these days. I'd like to meet a dentist who liked this movie, so I could run away from him.

link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=3395&reviewer=128
originally posted: 11/24/99 09:17:50

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User Comments

3/03/07 freeetz Yeah, whoever gave this movie 5 stars are sick people. 1 stars

11/03/06 Charles Tatum Neither funny nor scary, just a bore 1 stars

4/01/06 JM Synth REALLY Sick, but definately memorable. A good horror 4 stars

2/21/06 Raymond Don't stop now Corbin, we're wating for #3. You cut Bev too much slack. 5 stars

9/25/05 Total Crap Ladies, don't ever blow off the pool boy, if your husband's a dentist. Awesome Movie! 5 stars

5/05/05 Indrid Cold The dental torture is hair-raising, too bad the other 98% of the movie is sleep-inducing. 3 stars

12/12/04 angela This movie was so dam funny loved it! When is the 3rd one coming out? 5 stars

5/29/04 Vickie Boyd these other people evidentally don't know a good horror flick when they see one. 5 stars

3/30/04 American Slasher Goddess Bernsen perf is pretty unspectacular,not fun to watch. 2 stars

12/18/03 claudia i couldn't sleep for a hole week when i saw it. 2 stars

9/18/03 Samuel Justus what if this stuff really happens... 4 stars

7/07/03 Chainsaw Slasher How can you not expect a movie like this to be made. Im glad they had 5 stars

7/03/03 Clown Feast A lot better than I expected 3 stars

9/21/02 Adam THIS MOVIE SUCKED ASS!! IT WAS THE MOST DISGUSTING MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN!!! 1 stars

7/08/02 Adam Ridggay what a great film, beats most other horrors and made me shit scared of going to the dentist 5 stars

5/23/02 Marilyn Manson This is an ultracool horrormovie I've watched for 9 times now! 5 stars

3/14/02 A Dentist Man Its All Part Of The Job (Next Please) heheheh I Am Not Going Man heheheh 5 stars

2/25/02 Øivind Plain and simple shite! 1 stars

9/11/01 Someone who didn't mind going to the Dentist that much Someone who will NEVER look at a Dentist the same way again 1 stars

6/13/01 blap Just plain gross. 1 stars

6/08/01 *~Danielle*Ophelia~* (formerly KyLe*BrOfLoVsKi) If you liked this, kids, be sure to check out my new flick, "The Gynecologist!" 1 stars

4/11/01 John (absolutcrete84@aol.com) In the tradition of such medical B-Movies like 'Re-Animator' and 'The Surgeon'! 5 stars

3/10/01 bionic booger Like to see a tooth get torn to dust (literally)? Or a dentist trying to kill a little kid? 4 stars

3/09/01 Shuntia Jackson The Dentist is so funny! I laugh until my side hurt when the pool guy found Brooks tongue 5 stars

12/29/00 driller what a great movie 5 stars

10/24/00 Jen ::shakes head solemnly:: 2 stars

10/14/00 Stuntman What a crock of trash... Why would a dentist wanta hurt people? This movie freakin' sucks! 1 stars

9/28/00 Ground Zero very bad movie. Avoid at all costs 1 stars

5/30/00 Tiffany Travers I didnt think the movie was bad at all, maybe a little cheesey, but I'd watch it again 4 stars

4/01/00 Thom wasn't this straight to video? 3 stars

IF YOU'VE SEEN THIS FILM, RATE IT!
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will be deleted at our discretion. So don't bother posting 'em. Thanks!

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USA 18-Oct-1996 (R) UK N/A Australia N/A

Directed by Brian Yuzna Written by Stuart Gordon Charles Finch Dennis Paoli Cast Corbin Bernsen Linda Hoffman Michael Stadvec Ken Foree Tony Noakes Molly Hagan

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