not that many film have truly exploit the fear of go to the dentist that many people have . those in the profession have some genuinely intimidate look instrument . give writer dennis paoli and stuart gordon and and charles finch for derive maximum make you squirm in your seat shock value from their premise . corbin bernsen and in a nicely nuanced performance and be alan feinstone and dedicated dentist whose train jump off the track early on . an unbalanced obsessive compulsive and he start dwell on thought of decay and even imagine it where there isn not any and and also equate decay with corruption of society in general . have witness his unfaithful wife brooke ( linda hoffman ) get it on with their pool boy and he determine to punish her . at the same time and he under pressure from a smarmy i. r. s. agent ( earl boen and best know a dr. silberman from the terminator franchise ) to do a favor in exchange for the agent keep his mouth shut about feinstone financial affair . feinstone start to perceive everybody around him a decay in one way or another and and he go on a murder spree a police detective gibbs ( the always welcome ken foree ) pick up his trail . director brian yuzna clearly have great fun with the script . it allow for some genuinely nasty and remarkably entertain gore scene that do just as well a create sympathy for the victim a thrill the audience . the script give the feinstone character some fine line of dialog and be overall quite sly and amuse and with large dos of pitch black humor ( such a feinstone order a victim to get their tongue out of the way . ) . brooke and the i. r. s. agent figure in particularly effective torture scene . the makeup effect be for the most part quite good . and the film do a fine job of maintain it forward momentum and a feinstone and with his relentless drive for perfection and switch from respect professional to unhinged killer in record time . foree and always cool and fun to watch and be rather waste in a standard issue detective role and but there some enjoyment in watch boen play his slimeball part to the hilt . hoffman and christa saul provide very appeal eye candy . and a pre fame mark ruffalo can be see in a small supporting role . but this be all very much bernsen show a he sink his teeth ( pardon me for use that expression ) into his plum lead part with total conviction . the dentist rank a one of the more original and interesting horror film to come out of the 1990 . positive .