The Toothache In Godzilla X Kong Was Inspired By Real Pain From A Horror Movie Set
This article contains mild spoilers for "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire."
Moviegoers have been madly in love with King Kong ever since Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack unleashed him onto the big screen in 1933, and he's only gotten more lovable over the years. Some might argue that's a problem. He is, after all, a monstrously large gorilla who isn't above squashing dozens upon dozens of human beings if need be. But in almost every case, it's the humans who go looking for trouble, straying into Kong's territory and arrogantly trying to cage him for their own greedy interests. Put yourself in the big guy's position, and you'd probably get smash-happy, too.
Kong might be the most relatable kaiju out there. He's eminently susceptible to heartbreak and bleeds red just like the rest of us. When he hurts, we hurt, even when... no, especially when he gets a toothache.
Yes, the dreaded malady that portends an unexpected visit to the dentist's office — provided your health plan includes the holy grail of the insurance world that is dental — comes a-callin' for our boy Kong at the outset of Adam Wingard's "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire." He is absolutely miserable, so he does what any of us would do in his situation if we were a 300-foot-tall badass. He bursts out of Hollow Earth, and, basically, demands dental care.
Outside of Hermey the dentist (the elven butcher who goes all Laurence Olivier on the Abominable Snowman's teeth in Rankin-Bass' "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"), filmmakers have never really considered the oral health of kaiju. It's a tiny masterstroke of character detail on Wingard's part, if a tad random. Why kick off his follow-up to "Godzilla vs. Kong" with this minor (to us, not Kong) complication?
The show must go on (and the tooth must eventually come out)
Following an early press screening of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire," Adam Wingard told the journalists in attendance (including /Film's Bill Bria) that he was drawing from the incredibly painful (if ultimately profitable) experience of directing his cult horror classic "You're Next." According to Wingard:
"I had a really bad toothache during the whole course of that movie, and it didn't go away. Even during post-production, it still was there. And I'd go to all these dentists, they couldn't figure it out. Eventually they figured out this surgery that they had to do to my gums or something to get the pain to stop. But I spent all this time with this tooth pain."
So, the next time you watch "You're Next," keep in mind that its director was in complete and total agony while making this nifty little home invasion flick. No wonder it's so nasty. But why apply this to "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire?" Per Wingard:
"[T]his movie was sort of a cathartic kind of thing. Because you're also trying to find cool [moments], what's something that we can all relate to? Going to the dentist — but put it on a big, absurd 300-foot-tall scale. So that was actually one of the first things that I knew I wanted to do with this film as well."
These are the inventive little flourishes that keep what could be run-of-the-mill blockbusters from becoming listless, paint-by-numbers hackwork. Assuming that this film will be as big of a hit as its predecessor, perhaps the next film should feature King Kong going full Napoleon and suffering through a vicious bout of hemorrhoids.
"Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" is now playing in theaters.