Three intercut stories about outsiders, sex and violence. In "Hero," Richie, at age 7, kills his father and flies away. After the event, a documentary in cheesy lurid colors asks what Richie was like and what led up to the shooting. In the black and white "Horror," a scientist isolates the elixir of human sexuality, drinks it, and becomes a festering, contagious murderer; a female colleague who loves him tries to help, to her peril. In "Homo," a prisoner in Fontenal prison is drawn to an inmate whom he knew some years before, at Baton juvenile institute, and whose humiliations he witnessed. This story is told in dim light, except for the bright flashbacks.
Compelling and quirkily intelligent; Genet, one feels, would have been impressed.
– Geoff Andrew,
Time Out,
9 Feb 2006
fresh:
Boldly self conscious, Poison switches channels among its three stylistically varied but thematically linked tales with cumulative, claustrophobic power.
– David Ansen,
Newsweek,
31 Mar 2008
fresh:
Todd Haynes' Poison is a conceptually bold, stylistically audacious first feature, a compelling study of different forms of deviance.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
26 Mar 2009
fresh:
Arguably the strongest American debut feature of the '90s.
– Rob Nelson,
Village Voice,
9 Nov 2010
fresh:
I could have done without the designer prison, but most of the other stylistic conceits work.