The Dentist (1996)

• Directed by Brian Yuzna
• Written by Dannis Paoli, Stuart Gordon, Charles Finch
• Stars Corbin Bernsen, Linda Hoffman, Michael Stadvec
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkDykd9ZmXM

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is a movie about a guy who has it all. Then he starts having a really bad week that gets worse and worse. And he starts getting more unhinged as things go along. We start out with him in an asylum, so we know how things are going to end up. It’s entertaining watching things get there.

Spoilery Synopsis

As the credits roll, we watch Dr. Alan Feinstone telling his story. He had a wife, home, and a perfect life. He got a call from the IRS, Alan’s business manager has made some serious mistakes. He yells at his wife about his shirts not being done perfectly. He’s obsessive, as he talks about decay leading to rot, filth, and corruption. 

He returns home early and catches his wife with the pool man and snaps. He pulls out his gun and does what dentists do– fantasizes about killing him. At the office, everyone is annoyed that the doctor is late, and they all make excuses for him. Alan follows the pool man to the house of a friend of his wife, where the guy has sex with that woman too. He ends up shooting the woman’s dog in self defense, and it rattles him badly. 

Alan goes back to the office and starts working on patients. He gets a little boy who’s never been to the dentist. It’s a whole “tropical-themed” room. Alan says he’s just going to look in the boy’s mouth. He starts babbling about kicking his wife out and imagines the boy having really rotten teeth. He jabs the boy pretty badly, and his mother carries him out bleeding. 

The police investigate the dead dog and Detective Gibbs works out what he thinks happened. There’s been robberies in the neighborhood, and this might be related. 

The nurses see that Alan is having an “off” day, and they all start keeping the patients away from him. He forces his way in to see April Reign, the beauty queen, who wants gas rather than an injection. 

Out in the waiting room, Steve Landers, a talent scout, hits on Sarah, another patient. He brought in April and is wondering why it’s all taking so long. Alan, in the meantime, is imagining his wife in the chair, and he starts kissing her and tearing her clothes off. “Oh yeah, just like Matt,” she says. She wakes up, half undressed, and storms out to Steve. “They’re dropping like flies,” says Nurse Jessica to Nurse Karen. 

Mr. Goldblum from the IRS arrives, and he wants free dental work. Steve comes back inside and punches Alan in the nose in front of everyone. Alan tells the nurses to send everyone home, but Sarah doesn’t have a ride home, and she really really wants those braces off. 

Wife Brooke comes to the office before dinner, and he’s done a room up as an opera house. “Just how many pills did you take?” she asks. He gets her into the chair and then strangles her a little before turning the gas on. He then proceeds to pull out all her teeth. The next morning, the detectives come to Alan’s door to ask about the local robberies, but they soon go away. Matt the pool guy finds Brooke’s tongue on the ground, and then he finds Brooke, who doesn’t look too good anymore. Alan cuts his throat. 

The wife’s friend comes in to get her filling fixed, and she’s still trying to figure out what happened to her dog. She rants about how good Matt, the new pool guy is, which sets off Alan once again. Alan finds that his problems from yesterday are all coming back to haunt him, starting with the IRS man. Nurse Jessica confronts Alan about his issues and threatens to shut him down. He strangles her. 

The police, who found the bullet which killed the dog, trace it back to Alan, from the kind of gun registered to Alan. The IRS guy wants a large bribe to leave Alan alone. He’s a real sleaze, and Alan calls for full sedation. “The decay is out of control; it’s gone right to your soul. Open wide…”

The police go to Alan’s house and find blood and Matt’s body in the backyard. Nurse Karen realizes that Alan didn’t simply fire Jessica. She also finds what’s left of the IRS man, but Alan kills her. The detective finds Brooke, still alive. 

Sarah finally gets called to a room for her appointment to have her braces removed. The police are on the way to arrest him. Alan removes Sarah’s braces, and her teeth look great. Alan, on the other hand, only sees decay. “The rest of your life can only spoil what we made.” He pulls his gun, but Sarah bites him and runs out of the office. The main door is locked, so she can’t get out. 

Alan corners Sarah in the opera room and pulls his gun again. She promises to brush three times a day and to never eat candy. The police come in and find Sarah crying, but Alan has vanished. 

At dental school, Alan arrives to teach his students. He instructs all of his students to extract all of their patents’ teeth. Then he pulls a gun to make them do it. The police storm in, and after a brief chase, they catch Alan. 

We cut to Alan telling his story. He’s in a padded cell at the mental hospital. They force him to have a dental checkup, and he doesn’t like it. 

Commentary

Alan starts off pretty high-strung, but he’s no murderer to start with. He just had a really bad day. He’s not a typical stalker; he’s clean, careful, and completely insane by the end of the movie. It’s not a comedy, but there are a lot of laughs along the way, because dentists are just funny.