Henry Saw: Dogtooth

Well...that was a hell of a thing


I'm going to try to keep this review short, this is really a film that is best appreciated if you know as little about it as possible, and I don't want to influence your view of the movie too much. Dogtooth, a Greek film by director Giorgos Lanthimos, is one of the more challenging films I have ever experienced. Not only does Dogtooth contain scenes that match the most disturbing and uncomfortable I can remember watching, rivaling movies like Salò (still the harshest film I've ever watched), Irreversible, or Antichrist, but its plot and themes haunted me for days after I saw the film. This is what is amazing about Dogtooth: it is not a piece of shock cinema like The Human Centipede or Cannibal Holocaust. There is a lot going on in Dogtooth, there is a a great deal of thought behind the script, and it can be interpreted numerous different ways. It is quite simply the most provocative, in the very best sense of the word, movie I've seen in a long time. I've already compared this film to many others, but if I could just reference one more, I believe Dogtooth is the closest thing to art I've seen in film since I watched The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).

So what is Dogtooth about? Well, again, I don't want to give too much away so I'll will edit IMDB's plot description: Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence 'the sea' refers to a large armchair and 'zombies' are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the uber-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission. The father is the only family member who can leave the manicured lawns of their self-inflicted exile, earning their keep by managing a nearby factory, while the only outsider allowed on the premises is his colleague Christina, who is paid to relieve the son of his male urges...



Dogtooth is captivating from the very first moment until the agonizing last shot. Your brain first struggles to understand the world these three children are living in, and once it finally catches up, it immediately starts thinking about their lives. It's can be a frustrating viewing experience, characters do things you do not want them to and the movie seems to revel in making you uncomfortable, but that's not the point of the Dogtooth. Every character beat makes sense, every scene is tightly related to the film's themes, and each plot development and revelation builds on the last. It's is a perfectly constructed film, running at a tight 94 minute run time, and does not waste a single scene.

The acting is, as it had to be, brilliant...but I don't really want to talk about the acting. I don't want to know the actors' names, how they prepared for their roles, or anything else about the production. Dogtooth is such a precise film, and in an odd way, such a precious film, that it almost feels cheap to talk about the acting or cinematography. The script, which was written by Efthymis Filippou and Giorgos Lanthimos, is worth mentioning, and praising, as it is a truly original and fascinating work.



I went to Dogtooth on my own, which I now regret, as it is a movie that demands discussion. I know one other person who has seen this movie, she's one my sister Lily's best friends, and we recently traded emails about how the movie impacted us. To end this review I will share snippets of these emails to try to get across just how massive this movie's assault on your mind is.

Me: I can watch anything. Earlier this year I watched a horror film called The Human Centipede....it's grotesque...and obviously designed to make you avert your eyes. I watched it at 10 in the morning and had a great time. This movie I struggled with. I knew what I was in for, I had read plenty of reviews, but still squirmed through the whole film. So I was both put-off, and incredibly impressed, by Dogtooth.

I'm very interested in what you thoughts are about the movie artistically and metaphorically...It's clearly about the influence our parents have on our views of the world, I walked out questioning everything my parents have ever told me, but do you think the scope is bigger than that? Is it about any organized doctrine? Can it be applied to the Church, Politics, etc.?

Her: I saw it with my parents and my mum actually walked out which has never happened before. I almost had the same reaction, but felt compelled to stay. It is the most disturbing film I think I've ever seen, but also an amazing film in what it explores. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days, or even weeks. Certain images stayed with me, and still disturb me when I think of them now.

...I think that it explores not only the influence of the family unit but can also be applied to the influence of constructs in society. Everything that we believe, or take as truth is because we have been taught that by our life experience, is largely dictated by the culture in which we live. I suppose this could mean that there is no truth, but only what we have been taught to believe. I think it calls into question everything that we believe and understand. ... But that misses the darkness of the film. I think it is also about how a powerful individual can create hideousness and destroy lives...it's really hard to put into words, but the father called to mind people like Hitler, and Josef Fritzl (did you read about him in the states?).



So there you go...I can at least prove that it left one other viewer, one much smarter and more aware of art when she sees it than I, absolutely reeling. This is what Dogtooth will do to you. You will invoke the Church, Hitler, Mr. Basement Wife (Fritzl), your own parents, your friends...it's shockingly all encompassing. It's a brilliant, brilliant film. I cannot recommend it to everyone, it is very hard to watch, but if you think you can take it than you must see it. It's not necessarily the best film of the year, there is more to making movies than creating true "art", but it is the most impressive film of the year by a wide margin.

Grade: A

Best Scene: The barking...good lord the barking...