If you’re a fan of American indies, dark comedy, or movies destined for cult status, the premise for comedy/horror film Teeth might sound like a recipe for the Greatest Movie in the History of All Time:

“High school student Dawn works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the local chastity group's most active participant. Her task is made even more difficult by her bad boy stepbrother Brad's increasingly provocative behavior at home. A stranger to her own body, innocent Dawn discovers she has a toothed vagina when she becomes the object of violence. As she struggles to comprehend her anatomical uniqueness, Dawn experiences both the pitfalls and the power of being a living example of the vagina dentata myth.”

Yes, you heard that right: “toothed vagina. ”

Granted, on the surface a movie about a girl with a killer vajayjay might not seem to have much to offer to gay male viewers, many of whom don’t exactly have a warm-and-fuzzy relationship with female genitalia in the first place. But much like Dawn’s (Jess Weixler) ill-fated gyno visit, a peek beneath the folds of this clever and surprisingly amusing little horror comedy holds a few surprises for curious gay viewers.

First and foremost, this giggly meditation on budding sexuality and female empowerment is the brainchild of out writer/director/producer Mitchell Lichtenstein. It’s Lichtenstein’s first feature, but he’s no stranger to the film world, having played the gay love interest Simon in Ang Lee’s charming 1993 romantic comedy The Wedding Banquet, as well as gay soldier Richie in the 1983 drama Streamers.

It also merits mention that as the son of renowned pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, the director is likely no stranger to the world of provocative pop art, and picking the vagina dentata myth for his first film certainly seems like a deliberate attempt to provoke, but he manages to make the movie more than the sum of its prickly parts.

The plot is very simple, paralleling the “origin story” format common in comics, superhero myths and fairy tales. Dawn, a young woman unfamiliar with her own body, falls prey to her natural budding sexual desires, unaware that her body can be used as a means of robbing men of their sexual power. As we see Dawn grow in familiarity with her body and in comfort with her ownership of her sexual power, she blossoms like the “rose” of the film’s tagline … thorns and all.

Of course, for a woman with a toothed vagina to come to terms with her power, a few men are going to have to suffer. Luckily, the men of Dawn’s world are all too deserving and willing to put themselves in harm’s way, from a sleazy gynecologist to her pig of a step-brother, Brad (played by Nip/Tuck’s wayward son, John Hensley, in a mercilessly slimy performance). Hey – this is a horror movie, after all, and blood must be shed. And for a change, the blood isn’t being dumped on our newly empowered heroine or running down her leg.

So back to the big question: what could a gay man possibly have to say about vaginal power, and what could a gay writer/director bring to such a visceral, squirm-inducing exploration of a fundamentally non-gay topic?