The upcoming Night Teeth sees Megan Fox return to horror in a supporting role, but this could be the part to propel the ‘00s mainstay back into the spotlight. From director Adam Randall, Night Teeth is a forthcoming Netflix horror with a wicked premise. A cash-strapped student working as a chauffeur has the ride of his life when he picks up a pair of party girls who are soon revealed to be something far more sinister than their cheery exterior promised.
According to the movie’s trailer, viewers can expect Night Teeth to be a campy, bloody, and creepy mash-up of a Collateral-style noir thriller and a Fright Night-style horror-comedy. However, the movie may also be a major opportunity for supporting star Megan Fox. Fox appears as (spoilers) another member of the rich vampire elite that the girls belong to, alongside The Voyeurs’ Sydney Sweeney. It may be a smaller part, but Fox’s earlier work in horror has recently received significant reappraisal.
After a role in 2007’s Transformers that elevated her career from minor roles to leading lady parts, Megan Fox was essentially blacklisted after an incredibly candid interview wherein she criticized director Michael Bay. However, before this interview, Fox used her newfound fame to make the 2009 horror-comedy Jennifer's Body. Scripted by Juno’s Diablo Cody, Jennifer’s Body was a victim of misaimed advertising that implied the dark, thoughtful exploration of gender and sexuality was a goofy, over-the-top gorefest. Now seen by many retrospective reviews as an unheralded cult classic, Jennifer’s Body is beloved by horror fans and those who feel Fox’s acting talent went under-appreciated alike. With Fox now returning to quirky horror with Night Teeth, the actor could finish what her earlier horror movie started and put her back in the limelight.
The failure of Jennifer’s Body came down less to the movie’s story and performances (which were more than solid) and more to the studio’s insistence that it was a bloody, high-energy comedy-horror. In reality, director Karyn Kusama’s movie is a dark, slow effort whose comedy largely comes from pitch-black satire. However, Fox is revelatory in the titular role, turning what could easily have been an over-sexualized teen character into a believably over-confident, awkward, and eventually tragic figure. While Night Teeth’s promotional materials imply the movie will be a more light-hearted and high-energy, action-forward affair than Jennifer’s Body, Fox’s role as a vampiric temptress likely means she’ll be returning to a lot of the elements that anchored her most underrated role to date.
However, Night Teeth is not the first horror movie Fox has appeared in since Jennifer’s Body’s 2009 release. Last year saw the actor appear in Till Death, a blackly comic horror thriller that left her character handcuffed to a dead man for much of its runtime. A gruesome and wryly funny affair, the Coen Brothers-esque indie was never going to earn mainstream attention but still saw Fox’s performance singled out as a highlight of its tense, gripping runtime. Between that recent success and the enduring cult appeal of Jennifer’s Body, it seems that the timing is perfect for Fox to make a triumphant return to horror – and Night Teeth’s offbeat chills may be the perfect vehicle for her comeback.
