The Tooth Fairy (September 21/06)
The Tooth Fairy marks prolific producer Stephen J. Cannell's fourth straight-to-video horror flick in less than a year, and while it's certainly no worse than previous efforts like Demon Hunter and It Waits, the movie does suffer from as needless a vibe as its predecessors. It's too bad, really, since the production values are high and the acting is surprisingly competent - but that simply doesn't change the fact that there's virtually nothing here to hold the viewer's interest.
The film's admittedly ludicrous premise contributes heavily to its downfall, as Cannell - who cowrote the screenplay with Corey Strode and Cookie Rae Brown - piles on one thoroughly illogical plot development after another. As we learn in a mercifully brief prologue, there was a witch in the 1940s who made it her business to murder children after stealing their teeth. Cut to the present day and struggling writer Peter Campbell (Lochlyn Munro) has moved into the house that was formerly occupied by the aforementioned witch. With his estranged girlfriend (Chandra West) and her daughter (Nicole Munoz) coming in from the city for a visit, Peter's desire to make a fresh start is trumped by the sudden return of the murderous hag (who's now jonesing for said little girl's last baby tooth).
The Tooth Fairy, much like Cannell's previous jaunts into the horror genre, moves at an unreasonably slow pace - with long, drawn-out expository moments punctuated by appropriately brutal kill sequences (the guy who's forced feet-first into an oversized wood chipper is clearly a highlight). Though the movie is initially kind of entertaining (albeit in an entirely predictable, cliched sort of way), one can't help but lament the inclusion of several overtly superfluous elements (ie two utterly useless, extremely obnoxious inbred hicks who contribute absolutely nothing to the film's storyline). The Tooth Fairy's last half hour - revolving around the witch's ghostly victims and their efforts to finally rest in peace - is flat-out silly and awfully anti-climactic; there's little in this portion of the movie that doesn't come off as desperate and gratuitous.
