Night Teeth has a clever and simple premise: Collateral, but with vampires. The premise alone is intriguing, and while the movie has some fun with it, it gets too bogged down with worldbuilding and a perfunctory romance subplot.
Benny (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), an aspiring musician and college student, fills in for his brother as a limo driver. He finds himself in trouble when he is tasked with driving two women, Zoe (Lucy Fry) and Blaire (Debby Ryan) to various places across Los Angeles. He soon finds that these two are vampires who are killing their competition as their boss, Victor (Alfie Allen) makes a power grab. Also in trouble is Benny’s brother, Jay (Raúl Castillo), who’s part of the human resistance and is trying to find his girlfriend, who has been abducted.
There’s a good story somewhere in Night Teeth, but it’s hard to find. The cinematography has lavish, noir sensibilities, but it’s akin to a brightly coated candy wrapper hiding chocolate well past its expiry date. The new wave and trip-hop soundtrack is also a nice addition. The main three characters have a good dynamic, between Blaire being beholden to Zoe and Blaire growing a soft spot for Benny, who Zoe ridicules. The romance between Blaire and Benny does feel a little shoehorned in, but the actors manage to make it work.
The action scenes, while not as enthralling as the ones in Collateral, are still fun to watch. There are moments where we see the carnage unfold from Benny’s eyes, as he stands by while Blaire and Zoe wreak havoc. Lucy Fry’s smug, energetic performance elevates the material noticeably, but no one else matches her energy.
Unfortunately, Night Teeth feels like a lesser version of its main influences.
It’s not as tight or thrilling as Collateral. Unlike Underworld, which uses its lore to make things more exciting and ups the tension, Night Teeth’s lore is unwieldy. The film also features notable cameos, including Megan Fox, Sydney Sweeney and Alexander Ludwig, however they are mostly wasted. Also, Jay’s subplot isn’t worth its screen time, as he ends up being captured by the vampires anyway.
Overall, Night Teeth bites off more than it can chew. It’s good enough for a one time watch if you have nothing else to do, but even if you put it on in the background while you worked on something else, you wouldn’t be missing much. This isn’t a groundbreaking film, but it wasn’t trying to be. You might even end up enjoying it, if you take it at face value.
