Night Teeth Focused On The Wrong Story

Night Teeth is all about Benny (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) and his frightful induction into the vampire underground of LA, but what if the movie focused on the wrong story? The Netflix film is director Adam Randall’s fourth film, following I See You, iBoy, and Level Up; all crime thrillers with different genres mixed in like sci-fi, drama, and horror. Night Teeth follows suit, the movie blends action and thrills in the secret world of the vampires as a small sect attempt to take over LA by force. The film has similar themes to other popular vampire franchises, such as Blade and even parts of True Blood.

The overarching plot has to do with antagonist Victor (Alfie Allen) as he breaks the vampire truce by kidnapping human council member Jay’s (Raúl Castillo) girlfriend in Boyle Heights, a place vampires are forbidden from going. Victor plans on destroying the truce and hunting freely in LA by killing all of the vampire bosses with the help of his girlfriend Zoe (Lucy Fry) and Blaire (Debby Ryan). However, the main plot of the story has to do with musician Benny, Jay’s younger brother, who takes one of Jay’s shifts as a chauffeur for some extra cash. Benny picks up Blaire and Zoe and he inadvertently gets thrown into the world in which his brother has always secretly played a part.

The problem with Benny’s plot is that there are far more interesting stories going on in the background of the film. Take for instance Megan Fox’s role as Grace along with Sydney Sweeney as Eva. The pair only got a few minutes of screentime but it left viewers wondering who they are and what they have to do with the inner workings of the vampire clans in LA. The film provided a bit of expositional information about the vampire clans in the first scene, but there was plenty more that could and should have been explored in-depth. The same goes for Victor and his own subplot. It would have made the story much more compelling if audiences were let in on Victor’s past and what led the antagonist to become so power-hungry, rather than just starting off the character at the height of evil and leaving no room for explanation or an arc in general.

Outside of bringing Megan Fox back into the spotlight, the film did a disservice to the characters of the story by focusing on one of the lesser interesting moving pieces. Jay’s personal story could have been a fascinating dive as well. Many viewers would have been intrigued by Jay’s past and how he became a part of the human council in charge of keeping the peace between vampires and humans in Boyle Heights. As well, Benny’s story did face some problems. Benny’s character arc left much to be desired as the aspiring musician didn’t face much growth outside of the situations Benny was thrown into. The subplot of his hopes and dreams was sort of thrown to the wayside and ultimately never fully resolved.

Fortunately for fans of the movie, the ending sets up a possible sequel. Ultimately Night Teeth proposes exciting possibilities in the world of the story like vampire lore, the truce between humans and vampires, the human council, and the centuries-old operational vampiric society. Though briefly touched on, audiences are hungry for more than what was provided in the short expositional opening. However, the movie chose to focus on a less interesting plot than what could have been explored.

About The Author