THE DENTIST (1996)
Starring Corbin Bernsen and Linda Hoffman
Brian Yuzna's best movie is a fun exploitation of that dreaded fear we all have of our dentists. "You don't know what it's like, the discipline, the long hours, the lack of respect in a world that goes on ignoring dental hygiene!" complains Dr. Feinstone (Bernsen) after he starts losing his mind. The already anal-retentive Feinstone goes nuts when his wife cheats on him with the pool man. He rips her teeth out and stabs the pool man to death, then begins projecting his wife on some of his patients and doing cruel things to them.
Most of the cruelty involves massacring or pulling out their teeth, a pretty painful thing to watch and a gimmick obviously inspired by the bad-ass Dustin Hoffman flick "Marathon Man," where nerdy Hoffman is tortured by a Nazi dentist. But "The Dentist" is a surprisingly involving, suspenseful psycho pic—even better me thinks than the very similar "The Stepfather."
Yuzna has blown it with so many movies—most notably the disappointing "Bride of Re-Animator"—he was lucky they give him this one to direct. But he did a magnificent job, throwing in plenty of Hitchcockian elements and sick humor to make this the best medical psycho film of all time, superior even to "Dr. Giggles."
The great Stuart Gordon co-wrote the story. An excellent sequel resulted.