A Masterpiece!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

...that's the basic plot of 1992's "Poison Ivy" starring Drew Barrymore in the titular role. The movie comes from a long tradition of films about a hot little babysitter (or nanny or friend) taking control of the family by winning the hearts of the kids and seducing the husband. "The Babysitter" (1980) and "Summer Girl" (1983) are two examples, both TV films (available on youtube). In "Poison Ivy" Drew, as Ivy, plays a friend of the awkward misfit Sylvie (Sara Gilbert). Tom Skerritt plays the slowly-seduced husband and Cheryl Ladd the withering (but still beautiful) mother."Poison Ivy" is more stylized than the aforementioned examples and technically better due to a much bigger budget. One of its best highlights is its score, which is equal parts haunting, romantic, melancholic and beautiful. Speaking of melancholic, there's an element of sadness to the story because the family is so wealthy -- living on a mansion on a hill in Los Angeles (shot on location) -- but they're so spiritually bereft. It just goes to show that all the financial success and material possessions in the world can't buy happiness and love.Drew was almost 17 during filming and plays the sultry little tamale well, which brings up why people tend to look down on the film -- it's nothing more than a lethal Lolita tale with a slick garnishment and they write it off as trash exploitation. Regardless, it works for what it is; and, after all, does every film have to be "Ghandi"? Besides, "Poison Ivy" and similar films are more than just "trash exploitation". They're commentaries on the power of a woman or, more specifically, the power of a young beautiful woman. In the story, Ivy comes from a troubled past but, as a blossoming woman, she realizes the power she wields and seems to bask in it.I was involved with a church for a number of years and the granddaughter of the pastor was aged 17-22 at the time. She wasn't in Drew's league, as far as beauty goes -- not even close -- yet she still had power. She would lie about people and spread rumors and, because she was the pastor's granddaughter, some morons would believe her. She started dating a naive relative of mine, who was 19 years her senior, and it was clear that she was just interested in his money. At some point she was able to get his credit card info and bought over $17,000 worth of merchandise without him knowing it until it was too late. She did everything in her power to move into his house, but his aging mother blocked the last attempt at the last minute. His mom said that she could just see the vixen pushing her down the stairs, or something something like this, to get her out of the picture. It was even discovered that the little tart tried to buy life insurance on the guy, which was very odd. You can draw your own conclusions.My point is that these lethal Lolitas exist -- young vixens who use their beauty to cause havoc, ruin lives and take control. Trash exploitation or not, it's good fodder for a movie, particularly if it's done stylishly, like "Poison Ivy".The film runs 88 minutes and the unrated version 93 minutes, both available on the DVD.GRADE: B+

A horrible script horribly acted makes for a horrible movie. That sums up Poison Ivy. The story, in addition to being quite stupid, is incredibly boring. There's no drama, no excitement. Everything is sadly predictable. And sadly terrible. There's also no passion in this supposed erotic thriller. Sparks don't fly, the whole thing is rather tame. After setting up its rather absurd premise the movie fizzles out very, very quickly. It's a movie which never comes alive.So what's the story? Well, there's this teenage girl Sylvie. She's a bit of a weirdo, a total loner, no friends to be seen anywhere. Then we meet another girl. She's the trashy Lolita type. And she's a real mystery, doesn't even have a name. Sylvie calls her Ivy, that name sticks and before you know it Ivy has moved in with Sylvie's family. Never mind that they know absolutely nothing about this girl. Also don't mind the fact that spending a few minutes with this girl is enough to see that she quite clearly pings the crazy meter. No, they just let her move in and assume everyone will live happily ever after. But Ivy is a bad, bad girl. So she spins her web of deceit and Sylvie and her parents fall right into the trap. Unfortunately nothing about this proves to be at all entertaining and the movie goes from bad to worse to much, much worse.Along with the lousy story we get rather lousy acting. Drew Barrymore plays Ivy and never convinces as the teenage seductress. She comes across as a child trying real hard to be an adult and failing quite miserably at it. Sara Gilbert also shows a lack of maturity in the role of Sylvie. I suppose it's Sylvie we're supposed to sympathize with after Ivy starts screwing things up but the way Gilbert plays the part it's real hard to feel anything for the character. She comes across as a petulant, and rather clueless, brat. The adults in the movie fare no better. Playing Sylvie's not so dear old Dad is Tom Skerritt who never for a moment seems comfortable. He delivers his lines in such a forced, unnatural way it's rather jarring. Meanwhile Cheryl Ladd spends the movie in a drug-induced haze playing Sylvie's very ill mother. Well at least she has something of an excuse for being so lifeless. The movie as a whole has no life, no spark or sizzle. It's a painful slog, thoroughly undramatic, most of the time quite laughable. The story is dumb, the dialogue is atrocious, the performances are wretched. This movie is poisonous indeed.

Poison Ivy is set in Los Angeles where Sylvie Cooper (Sara Gilbert) has been summoned to the principal's office at school for phoning in a bomb threat to her father's television station, there she meets & talks to the mysterious & alluring Ivy (Drew Barrymore). Almost complete opposites the mild mannered & unadventurous Sylvie & the overt & sexually active Ivy strike up a firm relationship & quickly become best friends, Ivy practically moves into Sylvie's giant mansion where her suicidal mother Georgie (Cheryl Ladd) is very ill with emphysema. Ivy starts to take control of the Cooper's lives, Ivy starts to seduce Sylvie's rich father Daryl (Tom Skerritt) & begins to rip the Cooper family apart...Co-written & directed by Katt Shea I have to say that I thought Poison Ivy was a really limp thriller that offered no surprises or genuine tension, why exactly has it spawned three sequels & counting? I suppose the biggest problem with Poison Ivy is the lethargic & uninvolving script that has wafer thin character's you don't care about sleepwalk through the film. There's no passion here, no excitement, nothing to get the pulse racing, there are no big twists or turns & the entire thing is very predictable. It's never clear why Ivy targets the Cooper's, why she befriends Sylvie (before she finds out her dad's mega rich), nothing about Ivy's background is ever mentioned other than she lived with an Aunt & quite why Ivy wanted to ruin a good thing by wrecking the career of Daryl, killing Georgie & betraying Sylie is a complete mystery to me, I mean she had been all but adopted by the Cooper's as part of the family so why ruin it with no obvious benefit other than breaking a family up & making everyone hate her. With no background on Ivy & no apparent source of motivation it's hard to care to be quite honest. The sacking of Daryl from his job gets one short scene that feels like an afterthought & didn't seem to affect the story that much at all. Then there's the slow pace, things only start to pick up towards the end & it's not until past the hour mark when things turn really nasty & by then the films almost over. There's some poor attempts at psychology as Sylvie has to deal with her ill mother complete with ghostly hallucinations, there's the issue of peer pressure, betrayal, the idea that family is the most important thing in life & teenage rebellion but it's all just padding with little thought or effort going into it. I mean if the most extreme thing Ivy does to Sylvie for the first hour is pamper her dog too much then you know your in trouble.I must admit that I found Poison Ivy really tiresome to watch on a visual level as well, the opening scene of Ivy swinging through the air where she flicks her hair away from her face looks like it belongs in a cheap shampoo commercial. None of it is erotic or sexy & simply dressing Drew Barrymore up in a few tight outfits doesn't cut it, the sex scenes are tame & I am pretty sure Barrymore got a body double. There's one breast shot & one naked male butt & that's your lot. Personally I didn't find Barrymore attractive in this at all, her shallow pointless character & wooden acting combined to send me to sleep rather than send shivers down my spine. There's no violence to speak of & even the 'Unrated' version doing the rounds on DVD is very tame by todays standards as teen flicks such as American Pie (1999) & The Hangover (2009) are far more explicit.With a supposed budget of about $3,000,000 this flopped at the box-office & you can see why, there's nothing here other than for Drew Barrymore fans & considering this was one of her first films she probably didn't have many at the time. The acting is pretty poor, I thought Barrymore was very wooden with no menace or sexuality about her performance at all while Tom Skerritt looks bored.Poison Ivy is a terrible erotic thriller that is neither erotic or thrilling in any way as far as I am concerned, a real damp squib of a limp wristed film that delivers nothing. Followed by Poison Ivy II (1996), Poison Ivy: The New Seduction (1997) & Poison Ivy: The Secret Society (2008).

DVD synopsis:One look and you can tell she's trouble. The bleached blonde hair, the pouting lips, the skirt just short enough to show off the tattoo on her thigh. But Cooper (Sara Gilbert), herself an outsider, like the newcomer's style. She befriends her and before long the loner she nicknames Ivy (Drew Barrymore) becomes part of Cooper's family. But for Ivy a handful of home comforts is not nearly enough. She becomes obsessed by desire for Cooper's father and vows that no-one, least of all Cooper's mother, is going to stop her from having him. And so the household is drawn into a web of deadly attractions where sex, lies, even murder are the weapons in a terrifying fight for survival.Well, the back of the DVD tells you enough, but let me tell you why i give this film 10/10.Drew Barrymore plays one hell of sinister character here. The title of the film portrays what this film is all about, so perfectly that I have fallen in love with this film. It will always be one of the best of its kind, for all time. Drew Barrymore is like poison here, infecting and taken over everything in her path. But to every Antagonist, there must be a Protagonist. All in all, this film has a certain passion to it and however deadly the "new friend" is, it is a beautifully told story that has a perfect beginning, middle and end. So much that I wish I had been the man to write this story for the film. 10/10 - absolutely!