Directed by Todd Haynes • 1991 • United States
Starring Edith Meeks, Larry Maxwell, Susan Norman
Inspired by the writings of Jean Genet, Todd Haynes’s debut feature deftly interweaves a trio of transgressive tales—“Hero,” “Horror,” and “Homo”—that build towards a devastating climax. “Hero,” shot in mock-TV-documentary style, tells a bizarre story of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice; “Horror,” filmed like a delirious 1950s B-movie melodrama, is a gothic tale of a mad sex experiment that unleashes a disfiguring plague; and “Homo” explores the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival, POISON went on to become one of the most controversial and celebrated films of the decade, attacked by right-wing demagogues and heralded as a landmark of the emerging New Queer Cinema movement.
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