by Phil Wheat
Stars: Andrew Rolfe, Annie Knox, Jo Barker, Evangelina Burton, Rob Drake, Ricardo Freitas, Lee Hanco*ck, Lewis Hudson, Anthony Howes, Lucinda Nicole | Written by Tom Jolliffe | Directed by Louisa Warren
Ah the laws of diminishing returns… Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction is the second sequel the less-than-stellar original film, which was pretty bad – even for low-budget British film. IN fact that first film was a blight on the record of Champ Dog Films who had – until then – been making inroads into the UK genre scene for some time, often overcoming shortcomings, be they budget, production values or performances, to create genre fare worthy of carry the tag of “ a great British Horror film.” Luckily for Champ Dog they managed to strike a deal with US distributors, finding success on the shelves of Walmart’s across the States… which, one would assume, is how we’ve got to a THIRD film in a series that didn’t start off that well. So how does this film fare?
Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction kicks off with two teenagers (you know the ones, the kind of “teens” that proliferated genre fare in the 80s – who always looked about 30!) having a sleepover and one goads the other into reciting a passage that supposed to summon the tooth fairy. And it does. Three cheesy slaughters and a ridiculously large-head tooth fairy later and we’re into the story proper. You see Corey’s back again. Yes, the survivor of not one but TWO tooth fairy massacre is in for another dose of urban legend terror as he chaperones his daughter, Sally, on a summer holiday near Corey’s grandmothers house… and we all know what happened there. Along for the ride are friends Diane, Christy, Toby and Benny; plenty of characters ready for the slaughter!
Last time round it was Corey that was haunted by the titular tooth fairy, this time round however it’s his daughter Sally who’s seemingly the target of the hideous hag. Mainly because, in a MASSIVE coincidence, the book from which the two girls read in the epilogue is found by a local hobo and he sells it to Sally… as he recognised it as the ancient book of the tooth fairy! Talk about stretching plausibility, even for a horror film.
What Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction has going for it over the previous films is the rather clever pre-cursor to the tooth fairy’s arrival – things going wrong with people’s mouths. Be it a toothache, a spot of blood, there’s always something to signify worse is on the way. It’s very much like the strange occurrences of the Nightmare on Elm Street series; and given the more supernatural bent of this franchise that’s not a surprise. And much like the Elm Street franchise Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction blurs the line between reality and dreaming, especially when it comes to Corey, who seems to – despite it being years later AND having been sectioned for his wild “beliefs” in between this film and the previous – struggling with his grip on reality. I will say one thing for this franchise though… it’s bloody brutal on it’s “hero” Corey. The guy can’t catch a break EVER. Though good on Louisa Warren and writer Tom Joliffe for bringing his story to a conclusion in this third, but seemingly not final, film in the series.
Luckily for the audience, Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction also has one more thing going for it: Annie Knox, as Corey’s daughter Sally. She is easily the best actor in this film and follows in the trend of Champ Dog Films casting strong female leads – as they did with Katie McKenna in the previous film. It’s just a shame that the filmmakers couldn’t have found a way to bring McKenna back for this film too. Instead we’re left with Anna Liddell playing a mentally disturbed Jess, seemingly traumatised by the events of the second film and now sans teeth, having pulled hers out to stop the tooth fairy collecting them and living in the same stables in which the tooth fairy was killed in the original film!
In terms of the rest of the cast, as someone who’s sat through all three Tooth Fairy films now I can safely say that this version of Corey is second-only to the kid original in terms of acting ability – falling far short of Corey #2’s (Jake Watkins) performance. And as for one the films “love interests” Toby, well he’s one of the most obnoxious and terrible characters to proliferate this franchise; and that’s saying something given how bad the cast of the first film were! Thankfully Toby is perfect tooth fairy fodder – and you can’t help but cheer as he bites (pardon the pun) the big one! Also, YouTuber Shawn C. Phillips makes another appearance in a Brit horror in yet another cameo, starring as what looks to be the same internet “expert” he’s appeared as in other genre fare, here giving credence to the tooth fairy myth…
As usual with the Tooth Fairy series, there are plenty of death by sweets scenes – faces stuffed with candy and cake, people stabbed to death with candy canes… Hold on, are we watching a Tooth Fairy movie or The Candy Witch? The lines here are truly blurred. What’s next a Tooth Fairy/Candy Witch crossover film? After all, both films share the same producer, Scott Jeffrey. I jest of course, but I even I was surprised to see THAT denouement, an epilogue that revealed more about the book that brought the tooth fairy back to life. Can you say “Champ Dog Films DTV universe”..?
As for that law of diminishing returns? It seems it doesn’t apply to the Tooth Fairy franchise!
Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction was made available on the YouTube channel of its distributor ITN on May 16th before being removed a day later. The film is now scheduled for a September 2nd 2021 release.
