The Story:

Written in part by Stuart Gordon and directed by Brian Yuzna, A highly regarded dentist uses the tools of the trade to rid the world of decay-causing filth. In his eyes the filth takes human form when, after a stressful meeting involving blackmail over his finances, he arrives home only to walk in on his wife with her mouth full of pool boy.

The Characters:

Corbin Bernsen plays the title role as Dr. Allen Feinstone, whose world is crumbling around him. We get to see his mind spiral into madness, which in every turn escalates his violent behavior to a more extreme level than the last. The rest of the cast are just there to add to his misery and eventually we hope to see most of them die. The assistants on staff see the change in him almost immediately but fail to do much about it until it’s too late and their suspicions have become obvious to him. The secretary of the office keeps the appointments coming, regardless of the panic, and the waiting room is ignorant to what’s going on even though everyone that leaves is either hurt, bleeding or threatening to sue. If your going to be that stupid the world is probably better off without you anyway.

Effects/Gore:

The dentist puts all his tools to work as he digs at the decay of society. Some tools he uses look very modern while others look straight barbaric. While the gore effects weren’t overly realistic some of the time, it was more the idea and symphony of sounds that sold the effects. I can honestly say nothing has made me cringe like a particular drill scene in the movie after which I felt as if I had to literally peel myself out of my chair.

Lasting Appeal:

What happens when you cross Stuart Gordon with Brian Yuzna? You get pure gold everytime that’s what! As always the deranged duo delivered in spades and I highly recommend the movie to any Gordon/Yuzna completists like myself.

Final Headcount:

Genre fans are extremely judgemental of the 90’s horror scene. The truth is, the more I watch horror movies from every decade the more I see the industry has never failed to bring us quality experiences and the dentist is one of them. Quality movies from the era seem to fall between the cracks because the characters lack the iconic leads that were, and still are, popular from the 80’s. In the end the movie, both in story and visuals, feels as though it was taken straight from the pages of E.C. comics and should more than satisfy most fans of the genre.