The Dentist 2 (1998)

Sadly Over-hyped

Good concept, poorly executed.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Corbin Bernsen's psycho dentist escapes from the mental hospital and hides out in a small town where he soon picks back up where he left off, namely torturing and killing people. Gross sequel is not surprisingly a poor follow-up to the original, which wasn't exactly Nightmare on Elm Street to begin with. The biggest flaw with this one is that it's not much fun. It's also pretty dull and offered nothing new, just more gore and more gruesome deaths. I'm not naive enough to think that wasn't the target audience they were going for with this. Obviously people who watch for that stuff first and foremost will probably like it more than I did. I don't mind some gore, certainly not when done creatively and not like it came from the mind of a fifteen year-old boy. But when that's all a movie has or even tries to have...well, that bores me. See it if you really loved the first one. But if, like me, you only thought the first one was passable then don't bother with this mediocre sequel.

Even though Brian Yuzna's 1996 (almost) hit, The Dentist was a pretty good psychopath flick that excellently capitalised on the fact that dentistry is a much feared profession; what we really didn't need was a sequel. It's safe to say that this film is pretty pointless; but to its credit, it's not real bad. Perhaps not even as bad as you might think it will be. This sequel reunites original star Corbin Bernsen with director Brian Yuzna. Sequels are always better when the people involved in the original return; but unfortunately, people from the original aren't the only things making themselves at home in the sequel, as the first film's plot has been re-recruited as well. Just like the first time, we get to witness everyone's favourite dentist degenerate from slightly odd perfectionist to out and out nutcase. Like the first film; his psychosis is triggered off by infidelity, and the only real thing that's different is the dentist's surgery. The fact that he's just escaped from a mental hospital doesn't figure in the plot, as it's not long before Dr Feinstone is dishing out his own form of dental hygiene to the local population of a town called 'Paradise'.Corbin Bernsen was the main reason why Yuzna's original was any kind of success. His sinister performance fits the character perfectly, and it's hard to imagine anyone else playing this role. His performance here is just about as good as it was in the first film; although it loses plaudits due to the fact that it's basically just a re-run. The scenes of gore are disgusting in that they mostly take place in the mouth, but the way that the film sets up these scenes doesn't work as well as it did in the original, as it's clear that the plot is only moving along so that the doctor can mess someone's mouth up. Yuzna has implemented a sub-plot, which harks back to the original and sees the dentist's long suffering, tongue-less wife hire a private detective to find him. Even this feels like it's just been thrown in to remind the audience of the better original, and although I found this film somewhat fun to watch on the whole; the fact that it's too much like the original never fails to bring it down. I can't really find a good reason to recommend this flick, as even if you really liked the original, it still isn't really worth seeing.

The Dentist 2 starts in the Los Angeles mental institution that the crazy dentist Dr. Alan Feinstone (Corbin Bernsen, returning from The Dentist (1996) to reprise his role) is currently locked up inside. As he discusses his mental state with Dr. Cussler (Rende Rae Norman) he pulls a weapon out of a wound on his leg, holds it to her throat & makes his escape... Feinstone heads for a small rural town in Missouri called Paradise where he has stashed a load of cash under the name Dr. Lawrence Caine in one of the banks safety deposit boxes. He claims the money & is introduced by the bank manager Jeremy Wilkes (Jeff Doucette) to his attractive niece Jamie Devers (Jillian McWhirter) who offers him the opportunity to rent a small cottage she owns, Feinstone accepts. Shortly after one of Feinstone's caps in his teeth falls out & has to visit the local dentist Dr. Burns (Jim Antonio) who does a less than satisfactory job, in a fit of rage Feinstone kills Burns & makes it look like an accident. Feinstone is offered the opportunity of becoming Paradise's new dentist, he accepts. However he starts to lose his mind again in fits of jealousy over Jamie whom he has fallen in love with, one of the banks employees Bev (Susanne Wright) becomes suspicious & a private eye (Ralph Martin) hired by his tongueless vengeful wife Brooke (Linda Hoffman) discovers his whereabouts as his cosy new existence is threatened & begins to fall apart...Directed by Brian Yuzna The Dentist 2 plays a lot like the original. The script by Richard Dana Smith once again contains infidelity, moral decay, low dental hygiene standards & Feinstone taking his frustrations out on his unlucky patients as he slowly starts to lose his marbles, again. The main difference is that the film takes place in a rural setting rather than a big city, maybe The Dentist 2 is trying to say that decay eventually spreads everywhere? It moves along at a fair pace although the varying story threads do take a while to come together & it doesn't really kick into gear until about the hour mark. Again like the original anyone who is afraid of going to the dentist may want to give this film a miss as it features some cool, but maybe disturbing to some, dental torture scenes as Dr. Feinstone is a man who enjoys his job... The Dentist 2 is more of a character study of the mental breakdown of a man rather than a teenage slasher film that have proved so popular, it's as much a psycho thriller as a horror. The character's are well developed & fleshed out which is unusual in a low budget horror such as this & I have to give it credit for being different & making an effort.Director Yuzna again delights in forcing the viewer to witness all sorts of dental torture & it's pretty strong stuff, scenes of plaque removers sticking into people's gums, dentist's drills destroying teeth & gums, exposed nerves, cut off tongues, a dream sequence which features a mouth full of crawling cockroaches, teeth mercilessly being pulled out, a hammer in someone's head, a needle stuck in someone's ear & a nasty torture scene when Bev really gets it...With a budget of about $1,800,000 The Dentist 2 is a very well made film throughout. The special effects are good & the acting is too with Bernsen really getting into the spirit of things, the now silent Linda Hoffman returns & she's still a bit of a babe.The Dentist 2 is a worthy sequel & a good film although I couldn't help but think it was very similar to the original, which in itself isn't a particularly bad thing. Well worth watching especially if you have a phobia about the dentist, it'll leave mental scars...

I found this film plot-less and plain boring. There was no storyline whatsoever and the only good thing about this film is the humour, which wasn't very frequent. The film is meant to be a horror and Teletubbies would be more frightening than this!