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Poison

  • 19911991
  • UnratedUnrated
  • 1h 25m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
4.7K
YOUR RATING
Poison (1991)
A boy shoots his father and flies out the window. A man falls in love with a fellow inmate in prison. A doctor accidentally ingests his experimental sex serum, wreaking havoc on the community.
Play trailer2:27
1 Video
70 Photos
DramaHorrorRomance
A boy shoots his father and flies out the window. A man falls in love with a fellow inmate in prison. A doctor accidentally ingests his experimental sex serum, wreaking havoc on the communit... Read allA boy shoots his father and flies out the window. A man falls in love with a fellow inmate in prison. A doctor accidentally ingests his experimental sex serum, wreaking havoc on the community.A boy shoots his father and flies out the window. A man falls in love with a fellow inmate in prison. A doctor accidentally ingests his experimental sex serum, wreaking havoc on the community.
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
4.7K
YOUR RATING
    • Todd Haynes
    • Jean Genet(inspired by the novels of Jean Genet with quotations from "Miracle of the Rose", "Our Lady of the Flowers" and "Thief's Journal")
    • Todd Haynes
  • Stars
    • Edith Meeks
    • Larry Maxwell
    • Susan Norman
    • Todd Haynes
    • Jean Genet(inspired by the novels of Jean Genet with quotations from "Miracle of the Rose", "Our Lady of the Flowers" and "Thief's Journal")
    • Todd Haynes
  • Stars
    • Edith Meeks
    • Larry Maxwell
    • Susan Norman
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 30User reviews
    • 41Critic reviews
    • 67Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:27
    Watch Trailer

    Photos70

    Tony Pemberton in Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)
    Poison (1991)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Edith Meeks
    • Felicia Beacon (segment "Hero")
    Larry Maxwell
    • Dr. Graves (segment "Horror")
    Susan Norman
    Susan Norman
    • Nancy Olsen (segment "Horror")
    • (as Susan Gayle Norman)
    Millie White
    • Millie Sklar (segment "Hero")
    Buck Smith
    • Gregory Lazar (segment "Hero")
    Anne Giotta
    • Evelyn McAlpert (segment "Hero")
    Lydia Lafleur
    • Sylvia Manning (segment "Hero")
    Ian Nemser
    • Sean White (segment "Hero")
    Rob LaBelle
    Rob LaBelle
    • Jay Wete (segment "Hero")
    Evan Dunsky
    Evan Dunsky
    • Dr. MacArthur (segment "Hero")
    Marina Lutz
    • Hazel Lamprecht (segment "Hero")
    Barry Cassidy
    • Officer Rilt (segment "Hero")
    Richard Anthony
    Richard Anthony
    • Edward Comacho (segment "Hero")
    Angela M. Schreiber
    • Florence Giddens (segment "Hero")
    Justin Silverstein
    • Jake (segment "Hero")
    Chris Singh
    • Chris (segment "Hero")
    Edward Allen
    • Fred Beacon (segment "Hero")
    Carlos Jimenez
    • Jose (segment "Hero")
      • Todd Haynes
      • Jean Genet(inspired by the novels of Jean Genet with quotations from "Miracle of the Rose", "Our Lady of the Flowers" and "Thief's Journal")
      • Todd Haynes
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The quote by Jean Genet at the end reads: "A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness."
    • Goofs
      A man runs past the bedroom window during the second interview with Gregory Lazar.
    • Quotes

      John Broom: [V.O] Prison was not new to me. I'd lived in them all my life. In submitting to prison life, embracing it... I could reject the world that had rejected me.

    • Alternate versions
      Edited, "R" rated version is available on video.
    • Connections
      Featured in The Celluloid Closet (1995)

    User reviews30

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    5/10
    Choose your Poison carefully
    This film is probably best viewed as part of a film class (and not necessarily one on Queer Cinema although Todd Haynes prefers gentlemen).

    I prefer "Safe" and also "Far From Heaven" from this clearly talented director. His suave incorporation of 50's style sci-fi and 80's TV docudrama and a stagey prison play is more engaging here than the three intercut stories themselves.

    The film starts with an actor going out a window, and ends with a similar scene. There is a moment in the sci-fi "Horror" substory where the lead mutters "And so it begins..." Temporally what would have followed is the scene that actually does start the film.

    Despite a low budget, Haynes does employ a lot of clever camera tricks and cinematic tacks. He squeezes out some efficient acting from his mostly unknown cast. (Okay, that was John Leguizamo in for two scenes...)

    If anything, I feel Haynes could have spent more money on lighting. The B&W sci-fi shots were often heavy on the B, and much of the prison footage was a darker shade of murky, at least on DVD at home.

    But then one of the displayed Jean Genet quotes speaks of the necessary darkness for the seed of dream. The stories here may be genetically Genet, I am more familiar with who he was in person than in print. Again for a student of Genet, I think this would be a more satisfying expenditure of time, thought and money than it was for myself.

    There's also a socio-political bent to the release and funding of this film. Rev. Donald Wildmon provided protest and thus inadvertent P.R. for "Poison." Meanwhile others cite an AIDS angle to the movie.

    For me, I walked a way with a sense of sex linked with shame. A child catches his mother in infidelity, prison passion is stolen in the shadows, lasciviousness makes lepers of a community. Also while not the focus, each episode had some sex entwined with violence. Sex was portrayed as anything but erotic throughout.

    Ultimately I could not make out whether Haynes was trying to decry society's reaction to sexual "deviancy" as more dangerous than said deviancy; or if he was just trying to revel in sordid shock? I doubt the latter, probably he wanted to take the challenge of presenting Genet to audiences today. Better than another modern take on Shakespeare surely.

    But while Genet's writings were surely scandalous in his day, what about Haynes' audience now? I realize that there are still throngs of folks who fear thongs...much less anything as pointed as a penis.

    Yes those folks are out there, I just don't know any of them...and I doubt I'll be wresting a copy of "Poison" from their hands at the local videodrome any time soon. We keep our distance, I recommend you keep your distance from this disk as well. I do think such distance and decorum can exist....along with same sex marriage.

    So unless you are assigned to watch it, to study it... choose another "Poison."

    5/10
    helpful•14
    15
    • ThurstonHunger
    • Feb 12, 2004

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 16, 1991 (Sweden)
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
      • New York City, New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • Bronze Eye Productions
      • Killer Films
      • Poison L.P.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 1 hour 25 minutes
      • Black and White
      • Color
      • Mono

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