the dentist start on the morning of dr. alan feinstone ( corbin bernsen ) and his wife brooke ( linda hoffman ) wedding anniversary . on the surface mr. and mrs. feinstone seem to have a nice life and a beautiful home in los angeles and he have a successful career with responsibility but beneath thing be very wrong . alan discover that brooke be have an affair with matt ( michael stadvec ) the swim pool cleaner and to add to his humiliation alan then discover that matt be also have sex with paula robert ( lise simms ) one of his next door neighbour and to top it all off he owe the irs and who be breathe down his neck and a shed load of money . alan start to lose his mind and he convince himself that everything be decay and rotten and just like his patient teeth and and it up to him to fix it . that morning at work he begin to take his frustration and anger out on his patient and first he injure a young boy name jody ( brian mclaughlin ) and he sexual assault a patient name april reign ( christa saul ) after he hallucinate that she be his wife and deliberately perform an unnecessary and painful procedure on another . alan also begin to take drug a he completely lose it and go homicidal start with his adulterous wife and pool cleaner . direct by brian yuzna i think the dentist be a good film and try something a bit different . the script by dennis paoli and stuart gordon and charles finch be more of a psycho thriller than straight slasher which come a a surprise to me a i be expect the latter and it would have be easy to make a teenage slasher film like friday the 13th ( 1980 ) with a high body count and a wise crack dentist villain but what the dentist actually turn out to be be very different . the dentist be at heart a character study of one man descent into madness and it do a fine job although have say that i be not sure what he go through be enough justification for his subsequent murderous action . it move along at a nice pace and have a nice narrative in which i like the constant connection alan make between the decay he see in his patient and the decay he see in the world around him and be an entertaining way to pass 90 odd minute . it go without say that anyone with a phobia about the dentist probably should give this one a miss or you will never go again . i like the end too where the table be turn and i will say no more . director yuzna do his usual fine job here and in fact i do not think i have see a yuzna film that i do not enjoy to some extent and he obviously and predictably take the opportunity to play on our fear of the dentist with some nice dental torture set piece include pull people teeth out and sexually molest them and perform operation on drug and torture people with the dreaded dentist drill . there be some other gore scene a well and a dead dog and someone gorily slash with a knife and cut out tongue . yuzna give the film a certain style on what be probably a low budget and he like to tilt his camera which make for some nice angle and i like the shot where the camera be above someone be knife and huge spray of blood splatter on the floor in a nice wide overhead angle . technically the dentist be fine and decent cinematography and music and production value although some of the special make up effect look a little unconvincing . the acting be pretty strong from everyone involve with corbin put in a good crackpot performance . the ever cool and genre favourite ken foree turn up a detective gibbs one of los angeles fine . the dentist do not turn out like i have expect and all the good for it and if your a horror fan and perhaps want something a bit different then this be well worth check out . i like it and think it definitely worth a watch .