Secret societies, bloodied white fangs, and forbidden vampire-human relationships are the must-have pillars to any vampire movie in the post “Twilight” era. “Night Teeth,” a Netflix original movie released Oct. 20, attempts to expand beyond these tropes.

In this rendition, humans and vampires form a truce where vampires can live among humans in Los Angeles as long as they keep their existence a secret from the public, only feed (never kill) on consenting humans, and stay within the boundaries set in the treaty. In order to maintain this, gangs are formed between vampires and humans. 

There are vampire “Bosses” that run certain territories, and human gangs that hunt vampires to keep them within their boundaries. While never explained, the vampires are considered to be a part of the elite society with social influence while human hunters are depicted as vigilante roughians. 

Victor (Alfie Allen), an ambitious vampire desperate to climb ranks, no longer wants to limit himself to the rules placed upon him by humans. Since no Boss is willing to end such a legendary treaty, Victor forms a plan with his girlfriend Zoe (Lucy Fry) and her best friend Blair (Debby Ryan). Believing himself to be superior, Victor goes on a rampage to kill all of the bosses and take over their territories in one night. 

Despite all of the dense information, with some world-building and context, there is truly no harm done. Except, nothing in the summary above is ever explicitly stated. Instead, the viewer is forced to string bits of information together through the eyes of our clueless main character. 

Whether this is genius storytelling or lazy writing, the lack of world-building forces the viewer to constantly feel out of the loop. Many details are never elaborated on, leaving loose ends throughout the course of the movie.

Benny (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) is a socially awkward college student living with his abuela and struggling to make ends meet. He is used to picking up odd jobs, like offering to cover his older brother Jay’s shift as a luxury driver.

Unfortunately for Benny, he has no idea that Jay is the head of a vampire-hunting gang and that his passengers, Zoe and Blair, are planning to use Jay to do their dirty work and kill him by the end of the night. 

Soon enough the girls figure out Benny is not who he says he is, but decide to keep him around anyways as leverage against Jay. Suddenly thrust into a world of the occult and murder, Benny has no choice but to help Zoe and Blair in hopes of surviving the night. 

While the concept is intriguing enough, the execution ruins the whole experience. “Night Teeth” had so much going for it with household names like Megan Fox and Ryan, and rising actors Castillo, and Lendeborg. Despite all of these actors having a background in children’s movies, they each stepped up in their own way.

For all of the promotion Netflix did with Fox, she only had about 5 minutes of screen time with a small role that could have been played by a glorified extra. Truly a disgrace to both Fox and fans looking forward to seeing her performance. However, many are relieved to know that Ryan did not do the “Debby Ryan” hair-tuck at all in the film.

Despite all of these opportunities to be great, producers let “Night Teeth” fall through the cracks. While not a terrible watch, I still recommend basking in the nostalgia of “Twilight” or “My Babysitter’s a Vampire” instead. Nothing beats the familiarity of an angsty teen vampire.