Poison Ivy (1992)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1992
	Director: Katt Shea (The Rage: Carrie 2, Stripped to Kill)
	Actors: Drew Barrymore (E.T., Charlie's Angels 1-2), Tom Skerritt (Alien, Contact), Sara Gilbert (The Big Bang Theory TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 31.05.2017, Cine Santander Cultural, FANTASPOA2017
Synopsis: Rebel teenager Coop (Gilbert) befriends Ivy (Barrymore) who is more of a confident sex-bomb. Ivy gets accepted by Coop's sick mother and authoritarian father (Skerritt).
Review: What a progression for the director Katt Shea in the five years since the other movie she came to introduce at the Fantaspoa Film Festival: Stripped to Kill. That other movie was her first and cheaply made, while this time she had more confidence, budget and could get a perfect cast, although she confirmed that Drew Barrymore (star child in E.T.) was not easy to work with. Poison Ivy revolves almost exclusively around that difficult phase in the life of the two teenage girls, as well as in the one of the two parents. Katt Shea revealed that the core story of a girl attaching herself to a new family is inspired by what truly happened to a friend of hers. I was amazed by both the simplicity of the dialogs and situations, and the natural with which the actors play them. Not to forget the direction which is perfect. The story slowly unfolds and the twists are not really twists, you see them coming and that's even more thrilling. As expected the serious father falls for the teenage Lolita, in a way that reminded me of American Beauty released seven years later except that Poison Ivy is not focused on the man. Something else I loved in this movie is how even the predictable accidents are shown in a natural yet thrilling way, in particular during the escalation of the last half-hour which does not fall in the trap of other movies of the same period: jump-scares, twists, investigation, revelations... Poison Ivy tells its story in a totally different way. Even though is really is a Drama, I found it very exciting and grasping, and I have yet to mention the scenes between Ivy and the father which are the most sensual I have seen in a very long time in Cinema. I have a feeling such scenes are hard to find in more recent movies. I loved the movie until the ending under the rain which remains both justified, poetic and lyric to this day. Katt Shea said that this ending was imposed by the Studio (according to the policy of those times, SPOILER the girl had to die for her sins) but in retrospect she agrees with that choice which also differentiates the movie.
Rating: 8 /10