25th Anniversary!

(1991) dir Todd Haynes w/Haynes [85 min; tbd]
Inspired by the writings of Jean Genet, POISON deftly interweaves trio of transgressive tales – Hero, Horror and Homo – that build toward 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 ’50s B-movie melodrama, is a gothic tale of a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague; while Homo explores the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates. Todd Haynes’ thrillingly cinematic official first feature (it follows the suppressed Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story), POISON is unsettling, unforgettable and thoroughly entertaining.