As a symbol of female power and male castration anxiety, the vagina dentata motif shows up in sources ranging from ancient Greek, Native American, and Egyptian folklore to Neil Gaiman’s bestselling novel American Gods. However, the old myth has likely never before been presented as dramatically as in a new movie called Teeth.

While aggressive, self-assured women have sometimes been labeled ‘maneaters’, vagina dentata connotes something entirely more horrific: the phrase is Latin for “toothed vagina,” and means just that. Usually, the motif symbolically represents male fear of sex through the unconscious fear that a woman may eat or castrate her partner, but Teeth writer/director Mitchell Lichtenstein has interpreted the myth literally in his film’s protagonist, Dawn, who uses her supplemental dentition to become a sort of superheroic avenger, punishing male sexual predators in the most biting fashion.

As a uniquely feminist entry in the revenge-fantasy horror genre, the film has attracted its share of controversy, though accolades are already rolling in from sources as disparate as Feminist Review, Howard Stern, and the Village Voice. I plan to check Teeth out myself when I have a chance, but if things get too intense and I find the film arouses some primal, subconscious fear from deep within I can always comfort myself by reminding myself that vagina dentata are only imaginary. Still, I imagine theaters showing Teeth are likely to find at least a few male patrons covering their eyes and quietly muttering to themselves, “It’s only a movie…it’s only a movie…”