Back in 1992, the original Poison Ivy served to relaunch Drew Barrymore’s career after she had emerged from years of alcohol and drug addiction. That film was nominated for a coveted Grand Jury prize at Sundance and went on to earn a respectable cult following, but an ill-conceived pair of increasingly absurd sequels–Poison Ivy II: Lily starring Alyssa Milano in 1996 and Poison Ivy 3: Violet (1997), starring a then unknown Jamie Pressly rendered the series straight to DVD material. However, the series must be a winner for New Line Cinema because 2008 brought us Poison Ivy 4: The Secret Society. The film originally aired on Lifetime Television and comes to DVD and Blu-ray in its unrated glory.
The newest Poison Ivy adventure completely abandons any connections to the first three films. Here, we are introduced to Danielle “Daisy” Brooks (Degrassi: The Next Generation’s Miriam McDonald), a sweet orphan who leaves her small town ranch and her boyfriend Will (Brendan Penny) to earn her degree at Beckshire College. A transfer student with a 4.0 G.P.A, Daisy is initially excited with what the college has to offer–challenging classes and engaging professors. Along with that, the dean’s hunky son Blake (Ryan Kennedy) has taken an instant liking to her, she’s in the running for a coveted internship and gain admittance into a very exclusive Sisterhood.
However, Daisy soon realizes that belonging to the sisterhood comes with a steep price. Further, the group known as the ivies has a long history of committing murders to get what they want. There ambition knows no bounds and their sole reason for making Daisy an Ivy in the first place, was to prevent her from getting the internship that chief Ivy, Azalea (Shawna Waldron) felt was rightfully hers. It turned out Daisy wasn’t as naïve as her fellow “sisters” believed and when she was forced to choose between her personal beliefs and what the Ivies expect of her, she decides to bring the group down.
While the original Poison Ivy explored issues of obsession, mental instability and sexuality, this fourth outing doesn’t have a cohesive plot, let alone any real thematic elements. The movie has a dull script penned by Peter Sullivan (writer of many a Lifetime movie) and Liz Maverick and delivered by actors who seem almost like deer trapped in headlights at times. Almost everything about Poison Ivy 4: The Secret Society feels overblown and cheesy; the costumes (love those golden ceremonial robes), and an endless trail of laughable sets and locations leave nothing of merit to redeem the film.
I generally try to find something positive in most of the DVD’s and Blu-rays I review but Poison Ivy 4: The Secret Society has given me precious little to choose from. The plot is bad, the acting is bad. I’m not sure I can even recommend wasting your hard earned money to rent this one. Have a coupon for a free rental at Blockbuster? There’s got to be something better to use it on. Suffer from the overwhelming desire to punish yourself with one of the worst films available on Amazon? Well… maybe this one is for you.
The DVD is a flipper, with one side being the widescreen and the other the full screen version of the film. The video transfer is satisfactory. Colors are bright but not particularly vibrant. There are quite a few scenes filmed outside, which occasionally appear too dark.
The audio is presented in English Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. Since this is a dialogue driven film, this presentation sounds fine.
There are no extras.
