The Dentist
Encyclopedia
The Dentist is an American horror film
released in 1996. It was directed by Brian Yuzna
and written by Dennis Paoli. Corbin Bernsen
stars as Dr. Alan Feinstone, Linda Hoffman as Brooke Feinstone and Ken Foree
as Detective Gibbs. It also features Mark Ruffalo
in one of his early roles.
The film was inspired by the story of real-life dentist/serial killer Nick Rex.
The Dentist was followed by The Dentist 2
in 1998, also starring Corbin Bernsen as the titular doctor.
; he spies his wife Brooke having sex with their filthy poolman, Matt. Feinstone waits for them to finish, retrieves his handgun
(a .380 Walther PPK) and then follows Matt in his car.
He is led to Paula Roberts's house, a friend of Brooke's. Hiding the gun behind his back, he quickly makes up a story about inviting Paula to a surprise party for Brooke. He then sneaks into her backyard in time to see Paula invite Matt inside. Paula's dog, a rottweiler, emerges from the yard and attacks Feinstone. He shoots the dog through the head in self defense and proceeds to drive to work.
At his dental practice, Feinstone's first patient of the day is young Jody Sanders, there for his very first dental appointment. Feinstone begins to clean Jody's teeth. Everything goes smoothly at first, until he imagines that Jody's teeth are brown and rotten. His dental pick slips, stabbing Jody in the gums. Jody's mother picks up her crying, bleeding child and leaves angrily.
As Feinstone sees his second patient, beauty queen April Reign, Detective Gibbs investigates the death of Paula's dog. He suspects the perpetrator was the burglar who has been robbing houses in the neighborhood, though that criminal has never used a gun before.
Alone with April, Feinstone sedates her with nitrous oxide
so that he can fill a cavity
in one of her molars
. As she drifts off into unconsciousness
, Feinstone imagines that she has transformed into his wife. He begins kissing and fondling his "wife" on the dental chair, then begins to choke her. April starts to cough and half-wakes up from the gas. Feinstone snaps out of his trance and quickly re-buttons April's blouse and finishes removing her pantyhose
. Hiding the pantyhose behind a counter, Feinstone helps the still-coughing April into the arms of her manager, Steve Landers (Mark Ruffalo
). He leads them out claiming April is dizzy from the nitrous oxide. Steve returns a few minutes later and furiously punches Feinstone hard in the mouth presumably after what April told Steve about her encounter with Feinstone. They leave angrily, threatening a lawsuit
for sexual and physical assault on their way out. Feinstone decides to end the day early and sends his staff and patients home. Especially disappointed is Sarah, a teenager
who desperately wants to get her braces
removed. Candy, Feinstone's friendly office manager, tells her that she'll have to wait until tomorrow.
Later that night, Brooke meets Feinstone at his practice. He reveals his new Italian
opera
-themed patient room. He encourages Brooke to try out the room's dental chair and clean her teeth. When she does, Feinstone binds her to the chair with a scarf and sedates her with nitrous oxide. With operatic blaring in the background, he begins to pull out Brooke's teeth and cuts out her tongue.
Investigating the burglaries, Detective Gibbs and his partner Detective Sunshine arrive at Feinstone's door the next morning to ask him some questions. As they speak, Brooke—still alive, but sedated—lies on a pool chair with a bikini on to distract Matt in the backyard while Matt cleans the pool with a scoop. Just as the policemen leave, Matt finds what seems to be a severed tongue in his net. He lifts Brooke's hat from her face to alert her of this discovery. She moans, reaches for him and displays her mutilated mouth; all her teeth are missing and her tongue is completely cut. Feinstone emerges from the house with a kitchen knife and stabs Matt to death.
Waiting for Feinstone when he arrives at his practice are Sarah and Paula. Feinstone sees Paula first, much to Sarah's disappointment. When Paula's conversation turns to how good a job Matt does for her, Feinstone asks for a dental drill and begins overly-aggressively drilling her tooth. As her tooth is destroyed, his assistant, Jessica, questions what he is doing. Feinstone snaps out of his trance and asks Jessica to finish up. Instead, Jessica whispers to Paula to leave. When Feinstone discovers that Paula has left, he fires Jessica on the spot. She pulls out April's pantyhose from the previous day and threatens to expose Feinstone. Grabbing the hose from her hands, Feinstone wraps them around Jessica's neck and strangles her to death.
At the police station
, Detective Sunshine discovers that the bullet pulled from Paula's dog's murder scene only matches one gun in the area: the Walther PPK owned by Feinstone. He and Detective Gibbs drive to the Feinstone house to question him further. Near the pool, they discover Matt's body. They quickly break into the house and find the mutilated Brooke, tied to the bed but still alive.
Meanwhile, IRS agent Marvin Goldblum, using Feinstone's tax problems as leverage, extorts a free dental exam and tries to extort a payoff from the doctor. This does not go over well with Feinstone. He inserts a retractor
into Marvin's mouth and cracks his jaw wide open. He then uses a dental drill to slice into Marvin's tongue. Later, Feinstone's other assistant, Karen, finds Marvin still in the dental chair. The doctor grabs her and inserts a needle full of air into her jugular
. The air bubble travels into her brain and kills her.
As the flirtatious Candy leaves for lunch with dental equipment salesman Matthew Zeigler, Sarah finally gets called back to have her braces removed. Feinstone removes them and shows Sarah her smile in the mirror. As with Jody, he imagines her teeth brown and rotting. He pulls out his gun and aims it at her forehead. Sarah slams the exam light into Feinstone's head and escapes. She hides in one of the dental rooms, where Sarah finds the blood-soaked Marvin, who attacks Feinstone, but Feinstone recaptures her. Hysterical, Sarah promises to brush her teeth three times a day and to never eat candy. This satisfies the doctor and he leaves. The two detectives arrive, but they are a little too late.
They follow him to a university where the doctor teaches dentistry classes. There, Feinstone at gunpoint manically instructs all of his students to pull all of the teeth out of all their patients. His vision warps again and he sees all of the people he has mostly killed or mutilated over the past few days, including Matt. He shoots Matt, who turns out to be a dental student. The detectives burst into the room, but Feinstone uses a hostage to escape. Eventually, he wanders into an auditorium
where an opera singer is practicing. Enchanted, he watches her from behind. When he reaches out to touch her, she transforms into Brooke, who laughs at Feinstone. Defeated, he gets on his knees and is arrested by the detectives.
In the final scene, we see Feinstone in a psychiatric hospital
. He is carted off to his regular dental appointment, when his toothless wife Brooke begins to work violently on his mouth.
Fantafestival
for his work on The Dentist. The film also won the "Jury Grand Prize" at the 1992 Sweden Fantastic Film Festival. It was nominated but did not win "Best Film" at the 1992 Fantasporto
. The film and the sequel did not receive a U.S. theatrical release.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
released in 1996. It was directed by Brian Yuzna
Brian Yuzna
Brian Yuzna is a director, writer and producer of films.- Life :Yuzna grew up in Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Panama before moving to the United States in the 1960s.- Career :...
and written by Dennis Paoli. Corbin Bernsen
Corbin Bernsen
Corbin Dean Bernsen is an American actor and director, known for his work on television. He is best known for his roles as divorce attorney Arnold Becker on the NBC drama series L.A. Law, and as retired police detective Henry Spencer on the USA Network comedy-drama series Psych...
stars as Dr. Alan Feinstone, Linda Hoffman as Brooke Feinstone and Ken Foree
Ken Foree
Kentotis Alvin "Ken" Foree is an American actor probably most famous as the hero Peter in Dawn of the Dead and Kenan & Kel as Roger, Kenan's dad.- Early life and career :Foree was born in Indianapolis, Indiana...
as Detective Gibbs. It also features Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
in one of his early roles.
The film was inspired by the story of real-life dentist/serial killer Nick Rex.
The Dentist was followed by The Dentist 2
The Dentist 2
The Dentist 2 is a 1998 American horror film, and sequel to the 1996 film The Dentist. It was directed by Brian Yuzna, with Corbin Bernsen reprising his role as Dr. Alan Feinstone, Jillian McWhirter as Jamie Devers, Jeff Doucette as Jeremy Wilkes and Susanne Wright as Bev Trotter.-Plot:The...
in 1998, also starring Corbin Bernsen as the titular doctor.
Plot
Dr. Alan Feinstone has everything. A beautiful wife, a nice house, a job as a dentist, a popular reputation and is obsessed with order and cleanliness. However, everything changes, on the day of his wedding anniversaryWedding anniversary
-Official recognition:In the Commonwealth realms, one can receive a message from the monarch for 60th, 65th, and 70th wedding anniversaries, and any wedding anniversary after that...
; he spies his wife Brooke having sex with their filthy poolman, Matt. Feinstone waits for them to finish, retrieves his handgun
Pistol
When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The pistol...
(a .380 Walther PPK) and then follows Matt in his car.
He is led to Paula Roberts's house, a friend of Brooke's. Hiding the gun behind his back, he quickly makes up a story about inviting Paula to a surprise party for Brooke. He then sneaks into her backyard in time to see Paula invite Matt inside. Paula's dog, a rottweiler, emerges from the yard and attacks Feinstone. He shoots the dog through the head in self defense and proceeds to drive to work.
At his dental practice, Feinstone's first patient of the day is young Jody Sanders, there for his very first dental appointment. Feinstone begins to clean Jody's teeth. Everything goes smoothly at first, until he imagines that Jody's teeth are brown and rotten. His dental pick slips, stabbing Jody in the gums. Jody's mother picks up her crying, bleeding child and leaves angrily.
As Feinstone sees his second patient, beauty queen April Reign, Detective Gibbs investigates the death of Paula's dog. He suspects the perpetrator was the burglar who has been robbing houses in the neighborhood, though that criminal has never used a gun before.
Alone with April, Feinstone sedates her with nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air, is a chemical compound with the formula . It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic...
so that he can fill a cavity
Dental caries
Dental caries, also known as tooth decay or a cavity, is an irreversible infection usually bacterial in origin that causes demineralization of the hard tissues and destruction of the organic matter of the tooth, usually by production of acid by hydrolysis of the food debris accumulated on the...
in one of her molars
Molar (tooth)
Molars are the rearmost and most complicated kind of tooth in most mammals. In many mammals they grind food; hence the Latin name mola, "millstone"....
. As she drifts off into unconsciousness
Unconsciousness
Unconsciousness is the condition of being not conscious—in a mental state that involves complete or near-complete lack of responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli. Being in a comatose state or coma is a type of unconsciousness. Fainting due to a drop in blood pressure and a...
, Feinstone imagines that she has transformed into his wife. He begins kissing and fondling his "wife" on the dental chair, then begins to choke her. April starts to cough and half-wakes up from the gas. Feinstone snaps out of his trance and quickly re-buttons April's blouse and finishes removing her pantyhose
Pantyhose
Pantyhose are sheer, close-fitting legwear, covering the wearer's body from the waist to the feet. Mostly considered to be a woman's and girl's garment, pantyhose appeared in the 1960s, and they provided a convenient alternative to stockings...
. Hiding the pantyhose behind a counter, Feinstone helps the still-coughing April into the arms of her manager, Steve Landers (Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
). He leads them out claiming April is dizzy from the nitrous oxide. Steve returns a few minutes later and furiously punches Feinstone hard in the mouth presumably after what April told Steve about her encounter with Feinstone. They leave angrily, threatening a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
for sexual and physical assault on their way out. Feinstone decides to end the day early and sends his staff and patients home. Especially disappointed is Sarah, a teenager
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
who desperately wants to get her braces
Dental brace
Dental braces are devices used in the orthodontic industry that help align and straighten teeth and help to position them with regard to a person’s bite, while also working to improve dental health...
removed. Candy, Feinstone's friendly office manager, tells her that she'll have to wait until tomorrow.
Later that night, Brooke meets Feinstone at his practice. He reveals his new Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
-themed patient room. He encourages Brooke to try out the room's dental chair and clean her teeth. When she does, Feinstone binds her to the chair with a scarf and sedates her with nitrous oxide. With operatic blaring in the background, he begins to pull out Brooke's teeth and cuts out her tongue.
Investigating the burglaries, Detective Gibbs and his partner Detective Sunshine arrive at Feinstone's door the next morning to ask him some questions. As they speak, Brooke—still alive, but sedated—lies on a pool chair with a bikini on to distract Matt in the backyard while Matt cleans the pool with a scoop. Just as the policemen leave, Matt finds what seems to be a severed tongue in his net. He lifts Brooke's hat from her face to alert her of this discovery. She moans, reaches for him and displays her mutilated mouth; all her teeth are missing and her tongue is completely cut. Feinstone emerges from the house with a kitchen knife and stabs Matt to death.
Waiting for Feinstone when he arrives at his practice are Sarah and Paula. Feinstone sees Paula first, much to Sarah's disappointment. When Paula's conversation turns to how good a job Matt does for her, Feinstone asks for a dental drill and begins overly-aggressively drilling her tooth. As her tooth is destroyed, his assistant, Jessica, questions what he is doing. Feinstone snaps out of his trance and asks Jessica to finish up. Instead, Jessica whispers to Paula to leave. When Feinstone discovers that Paula has left, he fires Jessica on the spot. She pulls out April's pantyhose from the previous day and threatens to expose Feinstone. Grabbing the hose from her hands, Feinstone wraps them around Jessica's neck and strangles her to death.
At the police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
, Detective Sunshine discovers that the bullet pulled from Paula's dog's murder scene only matches one gun in the area: the Walther PPK owned by Feinstone. He and Detective Gibbs drive to the Feinstone house to question him further. Near the pool, they discover Matt's body. They quickly break into the house and find the mutilated Brooke, tied to the bed but still alive.
Meanwhile, IRS agent Marvin Goldblum, using Feinstone's tax problems as leverage, extorts a free dental exam and tries to extort a payoff from the doctor. This does not go over well with Feinstone. He inserts a retractor
Retractor (medical)
A retractor is a surgical instrument by which a surgeon can either actively separate the edges of a surgical incision or wound, or can hold back underlying organs and tissues, so that body parts under the incision may be accessed. The two are each available in many shapes, sizes, and styles...
into Marvin's mouth and cracks his jaw wide open. He then uses a dental drill to slice into Marvin's tongue. Later, Feinstone's other assistant, Karen, finds Marvin still in the dental chair. The doctor grabs her and inserts a needle full of air into her jugular
Jugular vein
The jugular veins are veins that bring deoxygenated blood from the head back to the heart via the superior vena cava.-Internal and external:There are two sets of jugular veins: external and internal....
. The air bubble travels into her brain and kills her.
As the flirtatious Candy leaves for lunch with dental equipment salesman Matthew Zeigler, Sarah finally gets called back to have her braces removed. Feinstone removes them and shows Sarah her smile in the mirror. As with Jody, he imagines her teeth brown and rotting. He pulls out his gun and aims it at her forehead. Sarah slams the exam light into Feinstone's head and escapes. She hides in one of the dental rooms, where Sarah finds the blood-soaked Marvin, who attacks Feinstone, but Feinstone recaptures her. Hysterical, Sarah promises to brush her teeth three times a day and to never eat candy. This satisfies the doctor and he leaves. The two detectives arrive, but they are a little too late.
They follow him to a university where the doctor teaches dentistry classes. There, Feinstone at gunpoint manically instructs all of his students to pull all of the teeth out of all their patients. His vision warps again and he sees all of the people he has mostly killed or mutilated over the past few days, including Matt. He shoots Matt, who turns out to be a dental student. The detectives burst into the room, but Feinstone uses a hostage to escape. Eventually, he wanders into an auditorium
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
where an opera singer is practicing. Enchanted, he watches her from behind. When he reaches out to touch her, she transforms into Brooke, who laughs at Feinstone. Defeated, he gets on his knees and is arrested by the detectives.
In the final scene, we see Feinstone in a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
. He is carted off to his regular dental appointment, when his toothless wife Brooke begins to work violently on his mouth.
Cast
- Corbin BernsenCorbin BernsenCorbin Dean Bernsen is an American actor and director, known for his work on television. He is best known for his roles as divorce attorney Arnold Becker on the NBC drama series L.A. Law, and as retired police detective Henry Spencer on the USA Network comedy-drama series Psych...
as Dr. Alan Feinstone - Linda Hoffman as Brooke Feinstone
- Michael Stadvec as Matt
- Ken ForeeKen ForeeKentotis Alvin "Ken" Foree is an American actor probably most famous as the hero Peter in Dawn of the Dead and Kenan & Kel as Roger, Kenan's dad.- Early life and career :Foree was born in Indianapolis, Indiana...
as Detective Gibbs - Tony Noakes as Detective Sunshine
- Molly HaganMolly Hagan-Youth:Hagan was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth and John Robert Hagan. She was raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana.-Career:She featured in the series Herman's Head which ran on Fox from 1991 to 1994...
as Jessica - Patty Toy as Karen
- Jan HoagJan HoagJanet A. Hoag is an American film and television actress.Since the beginning of the 1990s, Hoag has appeared in several television series, including Murder, She Wrote, Step by Step, Married.....
as Candy - Virginya Keehne as Sarah
- Earl BoenEarl BoenEarl Boen is an American actor and voice actor. He is perhaps best known as criminal psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman in the Terminator series...
as Marvin Goldblum - Christa SaulsChrista SaulsChrista Sauls is an American model and actress.Sauls started her television career in the mid-90s with roles in Step by Step and Baywatch Nights. In 1997 she appeared in the Conan series and had a lead role in the second season of Acapulco H.E.A.T.. In the late 90s, she had appearances in L.A...
as April Reign - Mark RuffaloMark RuffaloMark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
as Steve Landers - Lise SimmsLise SimmsElisabeth Caroline Simms, credited as Lise Simms, is an American actress, singer, designer and dancer.-Personal life:As of 2006, Lise lives in the 1941 Hollywood colonial home she renovated. She is married to actor Terry Rhoads....
as Paula Roberts - Joanne BaronJoanne BaronJoanne Baron is an actress and Meisner Method acting coach. She was raised in Providence, Rhode Island and attended Classical and Pawtucket High Schools. She received early acceptance to the University of Connecticut, then pursued Broadway opportunities and sang in Reno Sweeny’s with Cissy Houston,...
as Mrs. Saunders - Brian McLaughlin as Jody
- Aixa Maldonado as Maria (deleted scenes)
- Christopher Kriesa as Mr. Schaeffer
- Sal ViscusoSal ViscusoSal Viscuso is an American actor.His most notable role was as the uncredited, unseen P.A. system announcer in the long-running TV series M*A*S*H. He also made several one-shot appearances as other characters throughout the series, usually as a patient at the 4077th...
as Matthew Zeigler - Betsy Monroe as Young Female
- Brian YuznaBrian YuznaBrian Yuzna is a director, writer and producer of films.- Life :Yuzna grew up in Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Panama before moving to the United States in the 1960s.- Career :...
as Attendant - Brendan FehrBrendan FehrBrendan Jacob Joel Fehr is a Canadian actor. He portrayed Michael Guerin on the WB television series Roswell and Laboratory Tech Dan Cooper in CSI: Miami.-Early life:...
as Student #1 - Shanna Igoe as Student #2
- Michael E. RodgersMichael E. RodgersMichael E. Rodgers is a Scottish film, television and theater actor.He began his film career with a role in Gia with Angelina Jolie. Shortly thereafter, he went to work with Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Minnie Driver in feature film Uncorked and renowned director Allison Anders in Sugar Town...
as Nervous Patient - Diana Tash as Opera Singer
Reception
Anthony C. Ferrante won "Best Special Effects" at the 19921992 in film
The year 1992 in film involved many significant films. -Top grossing films:-Awards:Academy AwardsGolden Globe AwardsNational Film Awards...
Fantafestival
Fantafestival
Fantafestival is a film festival devoted to fantasy film that is held annually in Italy from 1981....
for his work on The Dentist. The film also won the "Jury Grand Prize" at the 1992 Sweden Fantastic Film Festival. It was nominated but did not win "Best Film" at the 1992 Fantasporto
Fantasporto
Fantasporto, also known as Fantas, is an international film festival, annually organized since 1981 in Porto, Portugal. Giving screen space to commercial feature films, auteur films and experimental projects from all over the world, Fantasporto has created enthusiastic audiences, ranging from...
. The film and the sequel did not receive a U.S. theatrical release.