Tooth and Nail (After Dark Horrorfest 2007 Review)

Plot
A small group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world live together in a empty hospital in what is left of Philadelphia.  Their lives are soon threatened, though, by another group of survivors whom are a brutal gang of cannibals.

Jason's Thoughts
In doing these marathons, I usually try to avoid watching a movie until its turn has come up during the marathon.  That didn't quite happen with Tooth and Nail as I watched it a while ago without even knowing it was part of the After Dark Horrorfest.  Thankfully I enjoyed the movie so it wasn't too hard to watch again.

There are tons of movies similar to Tooth and Nail that deal with a small group of survivors trying to live in a post-apocalyptic world.  A few recent examples that come to mind are 28 Days Later and I Am Legend, both of which pit one person or a small group of people against predators such as mutant vampires and rabid zombies.  Both of these movies had their problems begin with a plague or an virus outbreak; Tooth and Nail, though, takes a different approach.  

Instead of plagues or viruses, it was gasoline, or the lack thereof, at the source of the fall of mankind.  Without gasoline, the world came to a screeching halt and forced the survivors to fend for themselves.  A few banded together to try to salvage what they could, while others became cannibals once the food supply started to thin out.  Tooth and Nail focuses on these two groups and their fight for survival.

A good portion of the film is spent feeling out the group of survivors as they prepare to defend themselves against the pending attack from the cannibals, in which they pick off one person at a time so there is always some fresh meat around.  The suspense builds until you finally hear a trumpet blast, the signal that shows the hunt is on.  The gore, although done in small amounts, is effective and turned up during these attacks.

One thing that makes this movie stand out from the usual After Dark movies is the number of recognizable stars that are in it.  Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs) and Vinnie Jones (X-Men: The Last Stand) both make appearances as part of the cannibalistic group, while Robert Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds) continues to be typecast as a character nicknamed "The Professor."

A few other familiar faces join those celebrities in Tooth and Nail.  Rider Strong, whom I recently saw in the previous After Dark movie Borderland, is part of the group of survivors that are living inside the vacant hospital.  Another After Dark Horrorfest alumni, Rachael Miner, plays a refugee that is found by the survivors and is brought into their fold.  Miner was a part of the first After Dark Horrorfest and played the main character in the horrible Penny Dreadful film.

Although it is not original, Tooth and Nail is a solid entry of the post-apocalyptic survival genre.  It also looks almost like a class of its own when compared to some of the other After Dark movies.

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