PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I first saw bits of the Greek film Dogtooth in a Most Disturbing Films video. Being the weirdo that I am, I really wanted to check this film out. In my honest opinion, Dogtooth (a.k.a Kynodontas) is truly an underrated gem.
https://youtu.be/QFtDzK64-pk
(Synopsis provided by IMDb.com): Three teenagers (Angeliki Papoulia, Hristos Passalis, Mary Tsoni) live completely isolated lives, never allowed to leave their house. Their over-protective parents (Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley) say they can only leave when their Dogtooth falls out.
Let me start off by saying this is the weirdest family in movie history. The parents change the definitions of words. The father interprets secret messages out of Frank Sinatra songs. The kids kill a cat simply because they don’t know what it was. This family is a truly an odd one. But I have nothing but praise for this film.
The best thing about this film is its originality. It brought something I’ve never seen before and it held my attention from the very beginning. There are definitely some disturbing and cringe-worthy moments in the film. Although, when you consider the situation these kids are in, everything that happens to them makes perfect sense. Director Yorgos Lanthimos doesn’t just throw in disturbing images to try to be artistic but to contribute to the story and the characters.
Yes, the language in Dogtooth is in Greek and it does need to be watched with subtitles, but hopefully that’s not a deal-breaker for those curious about watching it. The entire time I was watching Dogtooth, I was thinking, “What the hell made these parents want to raise their kids this way?” There’s no better word to describe Dogtooth than “weird.” But I believe Dogtooth deserves a chance to be watched by horror fans. There’s rumor of an American remake coming soon, and if it’s true, you better believe I’ll be the first in line to see it!
