Poison Ivy

A good performance from Barrymore, the admirable Gilbert (who talks as her character on Roseanne would if she was covered by an 18 certificate) and director Katt Shea Ruben, a Roger Gorman associate hitherto best known for sleaze thrillers set in strip clubs. Read full review

Problem is, the movie shifts gears abruptly in mid-story and what had previously been merely melodramatic extremism turns into hyperbolic horror. Read full review

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

Overtones are about all there is to Poison Ivy. The movie isn’t smart, but it never achieves true sleaziness either. Read full review

Poison Ivy doesn't exactly keep one at the edge of one's seat throughout, but it certainly holds the interest. Read full review

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

A rash and prurient tale, full of the sort of stylish venom that could almost elevate it to artful kitsch. Almost. [29 May 1992, p.C]

There's only one direction for the movie to follow, and it heads there on a beeline. We could use some more information about Ivy, if we are going to take her seriously as a human. Instead, she's demonic and without history. That makes the enterprise resemble a comic book: a tale from the crypt, perhaps. [09 May 1992, p.C10]

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]

For the most part the actors' work seems incomplete because their characters are cut off before they can fully blossom. It's as if Shea didn't trust her own strengths enough to allow them to carry the movie. In giving in to the cheap thrills of the psycho genre, she's trashed the very qualities that initially made her work so impressive. Read full review

Poison Ivy suffers from a basic dramatic hitch. We in the audience are so far ahead of the people on the screen that there are no surprises, just the inevitable sound of the inevitable shoe dropping. Read full review

Suicide, hints of lesbianism, murder, staged accidents and every other applicable melodramatic contrivance is dragged in. Unfortunate thesps take it all very seriously, while technical aspects are emptily polished. Read full review