Fantasia International Film Festival 2023 – There’s something about French horror movies. They just seem to push the envelope about as far as it can go, especially features like Inside, Irreversible, Martyrs, or, more recently, Revenge, Raw, and Titane. Director Joséphine Darcy Hopkins‘ short Sweet Tooth, aka Les Dents du bonheur, follows the recent wave of French horror films and the New French Extremity Movement of the 2000s in terms of the sheer body horror and discomfort. It’s an unnerving 25 minutes that gradually ramps up the tension and squirm-worthy moments.

The film stars the very adorable Lou Deleuze as Madeleine. She accompanies her mom to a mansion, filled with a few rich woman who put her mom to work giving manicures and pedicures.  Mom and Madeleine’s class status is evident the moment they pause before the mansion and Madeleine questions if anyone actually lives there. She’s awed by its massive size. As her mom works, she drifts downstairs and finds a group of girls playing a board game that resembles Life. Realizing Madeleine doesn’t have much as money as them, they continually take advantage of her, even thieving coin she earned from the Tooth Fairy. She has to pay if she wants to play.

Here’s where the short gets really twisted. To stay in the game, the girls, especially their ringleader, pluck one tooth after another from Madeleine’s mouth as payment. Yes, it’s discomforting and gruesome to watch, especially a scene where Madeleine removes one of her teeth on her own. Ouch!

The short balances the uncomfortable moments with an exploration of class. Madeleine wants to stay in the game so badly because she wants to best the girls who see themselves as better than her.  She continually eyes the castle on the board and wants so desperately for her pawn to land there. It doesn’t matter if blood runs down her mouth. She wants to win, and here, Deleuze turns in quite the performance. It’s disturbing, and yet somehow, warrants sympathy from the viewer. In her striped shirt and worn overalls, she’s an underdog, as is her mom. The costume design even emphasizes this, as the rest of the girls are dressed in newish looking clothes with pink and white tones.

I don’t know what to call the latest crop of French horror, often directed by female filmmakers. It has similar elements to the New French Extremity Movement in its body horror and exploration of political and social issues. No matter the title, there’s a wave of films coming out of France that deserve continued attention. Sweet Tooth uses a single board game as a springboard to examine class with plenty of gory moments. Keep an eye on Hopkins. These female French directors are doing something right. This is one bold and fierce short.

8 Out of 10