The Dentist (1996)

(In French, On Cable TV, September 2022) The problem with trying to comment The Dentist is that there just isn’t much to say about it. Corbin Bernsen, far removed from his L. A. Law glory days, stars as a dentist who snaps and turns psychotic after being confronted with his wife’s infidelity. The legendary Brian Yuzna directs a script co-written by his frequent collaborator Stuart Gordon, but The Dentist isn’t much above the level of most 1990s slasher movies. Yes, I understand that the film is specifically made for people who clearly fear dentists more than I do. (I once almost fell asleep during a tooth filling, to give you an idea of my stress levels on the long chair.)  Much of The Dentist is about being defenceless in a chair while someone up to no good has you sedated with medical knowledge and power tools at his disposal. But even with that frisson of odontophobia built into the narrative, The Dentist struggles to deliver anything more than the usual psycho slasher (well, driller). Yuzna’s formerly impeccable filmography was fast declining during the 1990s, and The Dentist, save for some over-the-top flights of fancy of no great consequence, could have very well been directed by many other directors. It is, I’ll grant, a bit better than most other slashers: but not by much, and not enough to matter.