Still a stranger to her own body, a high school student discovers she has a physical advantage. Whether it's the sexually confused innocent early in the film, to the totally mind-f****d soul who realizes an old myth called Vagina Dentata may be why she has this via nuclear radiation, and then onward as someone who can use that tunnel of love for all its worth. With Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman. One more note: this is truly a "breakout" performance as Weixler plays Dawn for all its worth as a character who truly has an "arc", if you could call it that. To say it's a guilty pleasure doesn't do it justice, be it the most obvious jabs or the visual gags and symbolism (the cave opening, the phallic rocks, etc). Somehow this guy in his 50s- his first feature no less after years of acting gigs- has crafted some of the funniest penis jokes that could never be fathomed by, um, most people. What I liked, and at times even loved, as the pure abandon, like a talented filmmaker tackling the sexploitation genre with some juicy under-cutting to the society that this springs out of.
There's also a touch of familial drama that feels a little forced (though, again, as part of disbelief that must be upheld throughout). While the brother character (effectively played as scum by John Hensley) is needed to move the plot along at a crucial point, there's never much explanation to how he's such a sex-psycho with a big dog. To be sure, some of the satirical jabs and slight plot twists aren't totally effective. The first attack is the most savage, and perhaps though the most anticipated, and with a sweet twist: it's a shock to each of them, as she has no idea what is "down there" (all the sex-ed textbooks have the vaginal area censored, this despite the penis right in diagram, a possible reference to how it turns out in visual-style in the picture as men may grab their crotches in unified pain). But they do for "purity" sake, despite each others' curiosity about each other's bodies. And there's mythology to boot! If anything, the burgeoning relationship between Dawn (Jess Weixler) and Tobey (Hale Appleman) shouldn't be something they should ever have to avoid. There can never be enough room to make fun of these 'abstinence-only' folk who wear the "Promise Rings" and are amid a self-made desensitized cult that, in essence, dissuades those who do have romantic connections from giving in to their desires. How much could be done with something like this? As I found out, a lot more than I expected, but especially surrounding it as a nifty satire on the world of abstinence pledgers in high schools. I was a little worried about this going in, even as I loved the joke that was the premise: a vagina with razor sharp fangs inside the walls.
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