TOOTH
by Karen Pecota

USA | 2022 Director: Jilian Corsie Written by: Katie Gault

The Slamdance Film Festival has an excellent showcase of short films chosen for their festival each year. The short films will generally be "the pre-show" to a feature narrative or documentary unless they are scheduled in a special grouping of shorts, under a particular heading, such as: Narrative Shorts 1, or Documentary Shorts, or Unstoppable Shorts 2, etc.

The short film that screened before the Breakout Feature film THE ART OF SILENCE (see review on page.....) was called TOOTH. To attract the attention of film goers and encourage them to screen their short film at the festival; those representing the film, dressed up as individual white teeth. I have to admit, it was weird, but I was curious.

Filmmakers Jilian Corsie and Katie Gault give the film audience a thriller of a storyline in TOOTH. Gault had cavities as a child and did not like going to the dentist, but she recalls that her baby teeth were always kept in a jar. She recalls questioning, was this for safe keeping? Or was it to be a creepy reminder that if she didn't take better care of her teeth, she could lose them?

This scenario can be scary for a child, and what about adults? Do they have the same fears of losing their teeth prematurely? Thus the birth of the storyline for TOOTH came about and it presents itself as horror-light film as one watches a middle age female have nightmares of losing teeth and then waking to realize it's not a dream!