Poison Ivy II: Lily

Poison Ivy II: Lily
DVD cover
Directed by Anne Goursaud
Produced by
  • Paul Hertzberg
  • Catalaine Knell
Written by Chloe King
Starring
Music by Joseph Williams
Cinematography Suki Medencevic
Edited by Terilyn A. Shropshire
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
  • January 16, 1996 (1996-01-16)
Running time
 102 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English

Poison Ivy II: Lily is a 1996 American thriller drama film directed by Anne Goursaud, written by Chloe King and stars Alyssa Milano. It is a sequel to the 1992 film, Poison Ivy and the second installment of the Poison Ivy series.

Plot

Lily is a sheltered art student from Michigan attending college in California. She finds an apartment, and she soon notices her roommates, Tanya (a friendly lesbian artist who becomes a good friend to Lily), Bridgette (a cruel and taunting artist who initially takes an immediate dislike to her), and Robert (the silent but talented musician), all art students, aren't quite normal. For the first time out of her village, she is still used to her protected life in Michigan and frequently calls her parents.

One day she discovers a box of items belonging to Ivy, a girl she has never met before. In the box, she finds nude pictures of the girl and her diary. She is soon drawn to the content, also desiring for the girl's sexual confidence and fearlessness. In class, she has trouble expressing herself, unlike Gredin, an attractive co-student and sculptor she soon starts dating. Meanwhile, she has found a job, babysitting Daphna, the daughter of her art teacher Donald Falk, who betrayed his wife and had sex with other women secretly.

Slowly, one step at a time, Lily becomes obsessed with Ivy's letters and photos, attempting to take over her image. Soon enough, she cuts her hair and starts wearing more revealing clothes. Gredin grows even more attracted to her and it doesn't take long before they start having sex. He is unamused by the amount of private time she spends with Donald, though, but she explains it's because of the babysitting. She inspires Donald to perform art again, having noticed that he's long been afraid to express himself. She agrees to pose nude for him, and also finds her own way to express herself in the meantime as well. During this process, he secretly falls in love with her, which has a great deal of impact on his marriage to Angela. However through the movie, it can be shown that Donald's infatuation with her soon deepens to obsession.

One day, Lily catches Gredin and Bridgette together. Feeling upset, she pierces her belly button and she starts to rebel, thereby estranging herself from her friends. At a Halloween party, she enjoys the attention she is getting from men, and she amuses herself, until she sees Gredin intimately dancing with another girl. Trying to make him jealous, she kisses a masked guy, who turns out to be Robert.She eventually spends the night with Gredin, but he dumps her the next day after she rushes to make it to class and he finds poetry in her desk. He explains however that it was that she has changed too much.

Meanwhile, Angela has found Donald's drawing of Lily and thinks he is having an affair with her. Donald, already depressed since he saw Lily kissing Gredin, takes it out on Lily. He later claims he is in love with her and tries to kiss her. She is initially unamused by his attempts, but they eventually heavily make out with each other, until they are interrupted. She leaves and is soon reunited with Gredin.

Not much later, she is invited for dinner with the Falk family during Thanksgiving and brings Gredin with her, which upsets Donald. After being asked to put Daphna to bed, she ends up in the hall alone with Donald and he forces himself upon Lily. She tries to stop him, but has no success. They are eventually caught in the act by Daphna, who runs away, As Daphna runs out of the home, Gredin sees the dishelved Lily and goes outside as Daphna is hit by a car.

Lily, traumatized by what happened that night, returns home and destroys everything that has to do with Ivy. She then showers and afterwards, Gredin arrives at Lily's place to reveal that the little girl is alright but he begins to leave. A psychotic Donald knocks him out before he enters Lily's room and attacks her. Gredin tries to save her, but Donald beats him up and even tries to stab him with scissors. As Lily runs away, Robert approaches Donald and claimed that the police were on their way but is thrown down the stairs for his trouble. Donald then follows Lily to the roof and eventually falls off the roof to his death as Gredin stopped him from pulling Lily off as well.

In the aftermath of the events Lily at first contemplates dropping out of the school and moving back to Michigan. However, in the end, Lily and Gredin say they love each other, and they finally decide to be with each other, and Lily decides to stay in California.

Cast

Production and release

The film is known as one of lead actress Alyssa Milano's attempts to break her child star image. She appeared in several soft erotic films, including Poison Ivy II. When this sequel was in production, Milano was cast because of her 'recognition factor'.[2] Director Anne Goursaud worked previously with Milano on Embrace of the Vampire (1994), and they worried Poison Ivy II wouldn't be as daring as that film. They decided to go into another direction, not using Milano as the primary sex symbol in the film, but her co-star Johnathon Schaech.[3]

After the release, it was mostly promoted for the sex scenes featuring Milano. Goursaud admitted that the film mostly had a following with boys, but insisted that there were female fans as well.[4] Although not as successful as Embrace of the Vampire, the film still did very well in home video sales.[5] Critics, however, dismissed the film as softcore porn and it received mostly negative reviews.

Reception

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 17% of six critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 3.9 out of ten.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Poison Ivy II - Lily". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on September 7, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  2. ↑ February 24, 1996 - Billboard - p.57
  3. ↑ Williams, Linda Ruth - The erotic thriller in contemporary cinema - p.413-414
  4. ↑ Williams, Linda Ruth - The erotic thriller in contemporary cinema - p.414
  5. ↑ Williams, Linda Ruth - The erotic thriller in contemporary cinema - p.410
  6. ↑ "Poison Ivy II (1995)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on September 7, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.