Poison Ivy

Name: Poison Ivy
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: May 8, 1992
Duration: 90 min
Rating: 51
Cast: Alan Stock, Cheryl Ladd, Drew Barrymore, E.J. Moore, J.B. Quon

1992

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Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews

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Poison Ivy

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Movie Details & Credits

New Line Cinema | Release Date: May 8, 1992 | R

Starring: Alan Stock, Cheryl Ladd, Drew Barrymore, E.J. Moore, J.B. Quon, Jeanne Sakata, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Goldner, Sara Gilbert, Tom Skerritt

Summary: A seductive teen befriends an introverted high school student and schemes her way into the lives of her wealthy family.

Director: Katt Shea

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller

Rating: R

Runtime: 90 min

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Critic Reviews

Bob Thomas

Poison Ivy was directed by Katt Shea and produced by Andy Ruben. They collaborated on a script that is tightly written, loaded with portentous events and a few surprises. Obviously, they operated on a tight budget, but they have overcome the limitations by wise casting. Drew Barrymore is a revelation. [07 May 1992]

Staff (Not Credited)

Its willingness to take risks, and its insights into the frailties and confusions of teenage friendships ('She might have been lonelier than I was', reflects Coop at the end), lift the film right out of the rut. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Hitchcock liked typecasting, he said, because if an actor was right for a role, that made less work for the director in getting the audience to accept the character. Here the casting is so wrong that nothing quite works. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

The acting is better than Ivy deserves. Barrymore is surprisingly good, bringing the right amount of sexuality and mischief to her performance without coming across as ridiculous. It's tough for someone known mostly as a child actor to break into more adult roles, but she pulls it off. [04 Jun 1992, p.F3]

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Directed by Katt Shea Ruben from a script she wrote with producer Andy Ruben, this starts off with some spark and drive, in part because of the writing and playing of Gilbert's character, but gradually sinks into cliche and contrivance as the familiar genre moves take over, dragging down the characters, plot, and style. Read full review

Doug Brod

Drew Barrymore is terrific as a jailbait fatale who manipulates the members of a dysfunctional well-to-do family in this gothic sexploitation item. But while Poison Ivy tries hard to work up a sweat, it ends up so over the top that it can’t help but go splat. Read full review

Gary Arnold

Its toxic recipe consists of prurient exploitation steeped in dankly pretentious imagery. [01 Jun 1992, p.D4]

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FilipeNeto

Sep 20, 2020

I'm not a big fan of movies with strongly erotic scenes but I decided to see this movie because it seemed to me that it had a good story and not just scenes of gratuitous sex/nudity. I don't think I was wrong: it's not a work of art, but it entertains quite well and gives us what itI'm not a big fan of movies with strongly erotic scenes but I decided to see this movie because it seemed to me that it had a good story and not just scenes of gratuitous sex/nudity. I don't think I was wrong: it's not a work of art, but it entertains quite well and gives us what it promises.

The story is quite simple, although it's credibility and verisimilitude depend a lot on our level of tolerance for deeply unbelievable stories. It all starts with the strange fascination - almost a lesbian passion - of young Sylvie for a girl she saw at her school: the safe and sexy blonde with no name, who clearly lets herself be treated by Ivy but of whom we never know her name. Sylvie is a depressed young girl with serious psychological and social problems, who wants to be like Ivy and feels that has always lived in the shadow of her own mother, the beautiful Georgie Cooper, who is now ill (although she looks more like a chronic hypochondriac than a truly sick person). Sylvie also seems to have a strained relationship with her father, Darryl Cooper, a TV pivot with a deeply conservative mentality. As the friendship between Sylvie and Ivy turns into a relationship of absolute dominance of the strongest personality over the most fragile, Ivy introduces herself to her rich friend's house and begins to live at her expense and have everything she ever wanted... which includes seducing Darryl and taking Georgie's place in everyone's life.

Unfortunately, the world is full of attractive women who use their look to get everything they want, especially if the target is an older and richer man. This film takes this further. The story, as I said, is deeply unbelievable but it works very well and sets the tone for several scenes where sensuality is the strong point, in a film full of style and very solid, despite the clearly reduced budget.

The cast is led by Drew Barrymore... the blonde girl of the Eighties has grown up and now has a shapely body that will show almost entirely in this film, in a series of scenes that easily leave the male audience breathless. But those who think she's just showing her curves are wrong. She gives us a solid performance and knew how to give her character a high level of perversity, with touches of madness and narcissistic delirium. Sarah Gilbert gave life to the lonesome Sylvie and was very happy in her work and in the way she narrated the story. I also liked Tom Skerritt and the way he seems to gradually fall for the young sexy blonde. The worst of all was the poor performance of Cheryl Ladd.

Technically, it's an average film and it doesn't stand out particularly. Sometimes, it even seems to be done for the TV, with its warm and lazy cinematography and mediocre or absent effects. The sets and costumes are more or less what we could expect. For me, the most notable technical aspect was the great original soundtrack by David Michael Frank, with a melody for saxophone and orchestra that alternates between sexy and sinister.… Expand

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