Tooth & Nail Review

The human race doesn’t see it coming. It isn’t a comet a war a virus nuclear bombs or terrorism that brings us down. It’s simply running out of gas on Aug. 12 2012. Suddenly the world becomes divided between the hunted and the hunters. In this case the young people are known as Foragers and they’ve holed themselves up in a large empty hospital while outside hang the Rovers ready to cook them up. The Rovers are run by brutal renegades with names like Jackal (Michael Madsen) Viper (Michael Kelly) and Mongrel (Vinnie Jones) and when the Foragers take in a newcomer Neon (Rachel Miner) a band of Rovers are hot on her tail. They stalk the young meat holed up in the hospital and shout “We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way but by sunrise we’ll be gnawing on your bones.” Comforting. When a frightened Miner as Neon talks about how the Rovers are going to “to cook one of us” every night she does it with a straight face. She’s the post-apocalyptic Gretel of the fairytale Hansel & Gretel and they have to figure out how to outsmart the witch–or in this case the posse of cannibals–outside their door. There’s lots of full-throttle screaming and the actors get to wear cool Viking outfits and suits of armor. Madsen is typically over-the-top in the vicious role but no one would dare tone him down not even Quentin Tarantino. Director/writer Mark Young makes a stand-out cannibal film. Cannibals wearing war paint and other battle accoutrements brandishing large knives and scythes while some of them walk around with half-eaten skulls it’s all quite effective. These characters are killing machines who can talk back which makes them even more frightening. Young balances the camp and horror perfectly so ultimately Tooth & Nail is a good scare.