
Ivy ('Drew Barrymore'), a sexy teen who lives with her aunt, moves in with a reclusive teen (Gilbert) and slowly works her way into the lives of her adopted family. The mother (Ladd) is sickly and can't sexually satisfy her husband (Skerritt) any more, and to the daughter's horror, Ivy begins seducing her father.... (Full plot summary below)
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Ivy ('Drew Barrymore'), a sexy teen who lives with her aunt, moves in with a reclusive teen (Gilbert) and slowly works her way into the lives of her adopted family. The mother (Ladd) is sickly and can't sexually satisfy her husband (Skerritt) any more, and to the daughter's horror, Ivy begins seducing her father.
Leave your thoughts about Poison Ivy.
| St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe PollackIts 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. |
| The Associated PressBob ThomasWorking from a script she wrote with producer Andy Ruben, director Katt Shea gets some sexy vibes going, and the atmospherically lit production has an unexpected visual distinction. |
| The New York TimesJanet MaslinA B movie with a vengeance, one that offers a wickedly feminine (though hardly feminist) view of nominally happy family life and its failings. |
| Tampa Bay TimesDavid KronkeHitchcock 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. |
| Rolling StonePeter TraversThough Poison Ivy is more than whoopee, audiences may find the movie easier to get off on than to get into. But why settle for the usual walk around the exploitation block when Shea offers a wild ride with the top down into uncharted territory? |
| San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannA 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. |
| Entertainment WeeklyDoug BrodDrew 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. |
| Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanOvertones are about all there is to Poison Ivy. The movie isn’t smart, but it never achieves true sleaziness either. |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumDirected 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. |
| Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenProblem is, the movie shifts gears abruptly in mid-story and what had previously been merely melodramatic extremism turns into hyperbolic horror. |