The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
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Poison
Drama · Horror · Science Fiction · 1991
A trio of interweaved transgressive tales, telling a bizarre stories of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice, a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague, and the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.
Movie details
Poison
1991 Drama · Horror · Science Fiction 1h 25m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.3 / 10
5.2K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
80 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
67 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.0 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
A trio of interweaved transgressive tales, telling a bizarre stories of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice, a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague, and the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Poison?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
The Woman
Drama · 2011
A lawyer puts his family in jeopardy when he captures the last member of a violent clan and tries to forcibly tame her.
The Echo
Horror · 2008
An ex-prisoner moves to an old apartment, where one gets to see in the middle of a domestic problem between a police officer, his wife and his daughter. When he tries to intervene, he will be caught in a mysterious curse.
Castle Freak
Thriller · 1996
John Reilly discovers that his family's newly inherited castle in Italy is haunted by a relentless, bloodthirsty creature.
The Addiction
Drama · 1995
A vampiric doctoral student tries to follow the philosophy of a nocturnal comrade and control her thirst for blood.
Hounds of Love
Crime · 2016
When Vicki Maloney is randomly abducted from a suburban street by a disturbed couple, she soon observes the dynamic between her captors and quickly realises she must drive a wedge between them if she is to survive.
Monkey Shines
Horror · 1988
A quadriplegic man is given a trained monkey help him with every day activities, until the little monkey begins to develop feelings, and rage, against its new master and those who get too close to him.
Books of Blood
Horror · 2020
A journey into uncharted and forbidden territory through three tales tangled in space and time.
Caged
Thriller · 2021
An African American male is imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement after being found guilty of murdering his wife, as he's haunted by internal demons and his dead wife, and pushed to the breaking point by an abusive female guard.
Red White & Blue
Drama · 2010
A woman attracts the attention of a psychotic former Army interrogator and an emotionally fragile young man caring for his ailing mother.
Prison
Crime · 1987
After Charles Forsyth was sent to the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit, he forever haunts the prison where he was executed. Flash forward several years when the prison is reopened, under the control of its new warden Eaton Sharpe, a former security guard who framed Charlie. When prisoners are ordered to break down the wall to the execution room, they unknowingly release the angry spirit of Charles Forsyth, a powerful being distributing his murderous rage to all, leading up to the Warden himself.
Where it lives
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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Todd Haynes
Written by
Todd Haynes
Edith Meeks
Felicia Beacon ("Hero")
M
Millie White
Millie Sklar ("Hero")
B
Buck Smith
Gregory Lazar ("Hero")
A
Anne Giotta
Evelyn McAlpert ("Hero")
L
Lydia Lafleur
Sylvia Manning ("Hero")
I
Ian Nemser
Sean White ("Hero")
Rob LaBelle
Jay Wete ("Hero")
Court is in session
Put Poison on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.