Poison | |
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Directed by | Todd Haynes |
Screenplay by | Todd Haynes |
Based on | Three novels by Jean Genet
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Produced by | |
Starring |
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Narrated by | Richard Hansen |
Cinematography | Maryse Alberti |
Edited by |
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Music by | James Bennett |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Zeitgeist Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 85 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $250,000 [2] |
Box office | $787,280 [3] |
Poison is a 1991 American science fiction drama horror film written and directed by Todd Haynes, starring Edith Meeks, Larry Maxwell, Susan Gayle Norman, Scott Renderer, and James Lyons.
Composed of three intercut narratives inspired by the novels of Jean Genet, the gay themes in Poison marked an emerging "queer new wave" in cinema. The film received generally positive reviews.
Three stories intertwine throughout the film, named in the closing credits: [4]
Segment: Hero
Segment: Horror
Segment: Homo
After a world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 11, 1991, [5] Zeitgeist Films acquired distribution rights, [6] giving Poison a limited release starting April 5, 1991. [7]
U.S. culture war conservatives such as Senator Jesse Helms and Rev. Donald Wildmon of American Family Association denounced the "explicit porno scenes of homosexuals involved in anal sex". [8] [9]
The film received generally positive reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 80% of 25 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10.The website's consensus reads: "Claustrophobic and quirky horror, this is a decently dirty debut for director Todd Haynes" [10] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [11]
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