With some exceptions, the modern vampire film has become less of an exploration of what makes these bloodsuckers remotely interesting from a modern-day perspective and more of a chance to highlight how many hot, recognizable people you can include in the cast. Night Teeth, a 2021 Netflix original from director Adam Randall (I See You and iBoy), isn’t a huge exception to the trend, but what it lacks in originality, it makes up for with enough flair and style to drag you along for a ride that’s far more enjoyable than it has any right to be. I mean, how else can you bring Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria) and Megan Fox (Jennifer’s Body) into a film for five minutes and get away with it?
Indeed, if you’re a fan of Sweeney, you’ll be disappointed if you go into Night Teeth expecting more than five to 10 minutes of screen time. While Sweeney and Fox play glamorous vampire mob bosses, their screen time is cut short by Alfie Allen’s character, Victor, a vampire who sets his sights on Los Angeles as a hotbed for vampire feeding, leading him to turn against his betters. However, if you don’t have full Sydney Sweeney brainrot, are intrigued by the idea of vampires as mobsters, and don’t mind a truly shocking amount of house and club music moonlighting as a soundtrack, then Night Teeth might be just the thing you’re looking for.
The main players in this modern vampire romp are Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as hapless chauffeur Benny; Debby Ryan as Blair, the good vampire to Lucy Fry’s bad vampire, Zoe; and Raul Castillo as vampire hunter Jay.
After Jay’s girlfriend is kidnapped and killed by Victor, the pact between the humans and vampires of Los Angeles is on shaky ground. Unsure whether he’ll survive the bloodbath he plans to bring to Victor’s door, Jay hesitantly gives his brother Benny (a broke student struggling to get by) the last job he planned to take: a chauffeur role carting rich people around the city. Only, as it turns out, his clients are Zoe and Blair, two vampires whose loyalty to Victor has them planning to hit every other vampire boss and business in the city and take them over for themselves. What follows is an intense, risky adventure that has Benny brushing shoulders with seedy underground bosses and the uber-wealthy.
As often as they are able to be slain by stakes and sunlight, the vampire has often been positioned as being not just ridiculously hot, but eye-wateringly rich — regardless of whether you’re looking at iconic vamps like Dracula, or the ones in Night Teeth. Much like the blood they suck from their victims’ necks, a wealthy vampire acts as a parasite — they believe they are untouchable because of not just their strength as a vampire, but the wealth they have at their command. The people who suffer the most are the ones beneath them.
Night Teeth takes this class divide a step further with Benny. His inability to feed his family or pay rent ultimately pulls him into the intoxicating world of vampirism in the first place. Even as he grows closer to both Blair and Zoe, lulled into a sense of security when they bring him into their inner circle — and the literal wealth that comes with being part of it, such as getting into nightclubs that were previously way out of his pay range — Randall is quick to remind audiences that some divergences are too big a chasm to cross.
On the surface, Randall’s take on vampires may not seem to do anything new. However, look more closely, and the director’s most interesting ideas — following a poor kid from a broken home and his desire to bring a better life to his family, even at the cost of his own life — add a fresh, modern twist to a well-trodden vampire formula.
Night Teeth is available to stream on Netflix.
