The Dentist 2 (also known as The Dentist 2: Brace Yourself) is a 1998 American horror film, and sequel to the 1996 film The Dentist. It was directed by Brian Yuzna (Society; Return of the Living Dead III; Rottweiler). The film stars Corbin Bernsen (Raptor; Raging Sharks), Jillian McWhirter, Jeff Doucette, and Susanne Wright.
Plot teaser:
Dr. Alan Feinstone is in the maximum security mental hospital he was sentenced to at the end of the first film. While talking to the facility’s psychiatrist, he remembers the murders he committed, while convincing the doctor that it was another man who did those things. His remorseful story distracts her from seeing him pull a sharpened tool that he stitched into his own leg, and he uses her as a hostage to escape the hospital. Alan’s ex-wife Brooke is alive despite her missing tongue and inability to speak (She has since had new dental implants put in to replace all the teeth that Alan pulled out in the first film); she hires an investigator to find out where Alan has escaped to, believing that he had been putting away money before he went crazy. Brooke has in her possession some postcards that Alan had left behind, and she believes he is in one of those places.
Alan winds up in the small town of Paradise, Missouri, pretending that he had grown upset at life in the big city. He uses a previously established false identity of Dr. Lawrence “Larry” Caine, and has a bank account where he had been sending the money he skimmed off from his practice to hide from the IRS. The bank officer Mr. Wilkes introduces Alan to his niece Jamie, hoping that she can rent out her small cottage for “Larry” to live in so she could collect money from it.
Jamie, who physically resembles Brooke, becomes a target of Alan’s affections. When he has problems with a cap on one of his teeth, Alan visits the inept town dentist, Dr. Burns, whom he takes an instant disliking to. Alan threatens Dr. Burns with a golf club, causing him to accidentally fall down the stairs to his death. Mr. Wilkes convinces Alan that he should take over as the new dentist for Paradise; Alan soon resumes his murderous ways with a passing tourist (Clint Howard, also in Evilspeak and Ice Cream Man) who recognises him from Los Angeles…
Reviews:
” … alas, the sequel is practically a remake at times, hitting a lot of the same beats while offering even LESS carnage. Plus now the novelty factor has worn off, so there’s really not much here to offer anyone who didn’t love the original. It IS more streamlined, with only 1-2 major “hallucination” type scenes, but it’s still overlong and lacking any sort of suspense or even much in terms of black humor, which you’d think would be a given. Say what you will about Dr. Giggles, but at least that movie’s screenwriters had the good sense to keep the body count high (something like 17, as opposed to this movie’s 4, two of which occur in the final 10 minutes), not to mention give its “hero” some sense of warped purpose.” Horror Movie a Day
“Thankfully, the second half is more entertaining than the first half with a few more nasty moments reminiscent of the stuff that made you pale while watching the first movie. Unfortunately, the best bits here all feel far too similar to the best bits in that first film (there aren’t many different ways to film something appearing to be taking place in someone’s mouth) and that lessens the impact while just adding to the feeling of laziness. It’s still enjoyable enough, intermittently, but it definitely suffers from many of the same flaws that many other, inferior sequels have.” Kevin Matthews, flickfeast
” … tries to play it straight and somewhat legitimize itself beyond its B movie trappings, but as a result it takes too long to dig into the juicy stuff that a viewer is just waiting to see. There are some flashing scenes when he hallucinates that attempt to lend a hand to atmosphere. Though for a good chunk of the picture it seems somewhat reserved and the tone feels more a drama. By the time he goes full throttle with the carnage, the level of anticipation is through the roof, which makes everything detrimental to having to sit through him find his place in the town.” From Black to Red
