A simple toothache sends a man into a nightmarish spiral in filmmaker M. Dara Alavi’s short film, Bad Tooth. Equally impressive in craft and effects, this fever dream of a film will get under your skin and maybe, just maybe, convince you to floss.

A Night of Misery and Torture

An overworked gig worker faces the unimaginable when a persistent toothache drives him to the brink of insanity. Alone in his apartment surfing through TV channels, Alex (Joshua Burge) becomes increasingly uncomfortable by the nagging pain in his tooth. Insurance premiums on a gig worker’s salary are out of reach, and so Alex’s decision to opt-out of health insurance is starting to feel like a monster of a mistake. Alex soon realizes he needs to take matters into his own hands to relieve the pain. What follows is a self-inflicted night of torture that is not for the squeamish.

Alex’s actions start small but grow more outlandish as he becomes more desperate. At one point, he brushes his teeth so hard that his mouth pools with blood. He grabs a fork and grinds his teeth on the metal, a sound effect that will no doubt send chills down your spine. As his behavior becomes more erratic, the monstrous infection begins to grow and overpower Alex’s fragile state of mind. Eventually, he cracks under the pressure and the pain.

Rooted in Truth

The origin story of Bad Tooth is rooted–pun intended–in personal experience for writer/director M. Dara Alavi. Alavi was experiencing a vicious toothache that he couldn’t afford to fix, and without dental insurance to help, found himself stuck to his own devices. This is a story that is so specific that only a survivor could describe the experience so vividly. Bringing the script to life is Joshua Burge, whose phenomenal physicality lands as more performance art and less “acting”. Another highlight of the film is the sound design which intentionally pokes at phobias and will be a nightmare for anyone with sound sensitivity.

Director’s Statement

“Bad Tooth was born one night amid industry layoffs, when I had a vicious toothache I couldn’t afford to fix and no insurance to cover. That gave me time to think about how absurd American healthcare is, and how much of that absurdity we learn to live with.But I didn’t want to make a film about healthcare. I wanted a film about a person, letting the absurdity of the systems around him, and inside him, reveal itself through his body.

It also became a chance to bring together the creative network I’d built over a decade in SFX/VFX, and to lay groundwork for a feature I’ve been developing since this project began, one that goes deeper into the same world and wound, with room for the fuller story the short can only gesture toward. Because you can only numb the pain until it con sumes everything.” – M. Dara Alavi

Takeaway

Gory and gritty in all the right places, Bad Tooth is psychological body horror done right. The film had its World Premiere at the 30th LA Shorts International Film Festival and will next screen in the Official Fantàstic Competition at the 59th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia.