Poison Ivy: The Secret Society

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jason Hreno directs. Kamal Derkaoui behind the camera. Gregory Tripi scores. Asim Nuraney cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Canada, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Released 18 years ago.
• 3International production across 2 countries: Canada, United States of America.
• 4Part of the "Poison Ivy Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 5Directed by Jason Hreno, shot by Kamal Derkaoui. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by Gregory Tripi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Asim Nuraney shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Shawna Waldron and Miriam McDonald and Ryan Kennedy carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "The seduction continues".
• 10IMDB entry: tt1131749 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 11Only 74 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

Kamal Derkaoui

Original score

Gregory Tripi

Editing

Asim Nuraney

Production design

Renée Reâd

Makeup / hair

Tara Colledge

VFX supervisor

Richard Mintak

Sound

Randy Kiss

Stunt coordinator

Brett Armstrong

Runtime

95 min · 1h 35m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$1,999,000

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

NR

IMDB

Poison Ivy: The Secret Society (2008) ↗

Part of

Poison Ivy Collection

Poison Ivy is a 1992 American thriller drama film directed by Katt Shea. It stars Drew Barrymore, Sara Gilbert, Tom Skerritt, and Cheryl Ladd. It is the first installment in a film series, which includes three direct-to-video sequels. In 1996, New Line Cinema released the direct-to-video sequel Poison Ivy II: Lily, starring Alyssa Milano. In 1997, the second direct-to-video release, Poison Ivy: The New Seduction, starring Jaime Pressly, was released. In 2008, the fourth film in the franchise, Poison Ivy: The Secret Society, premiered on the Lifetime Movie Network.

• 
  Poison Ivy

  1992
• 
  Poison Ivy 2: Lily

  1996
• 
  Poison Ivy: The New Seduction

  1997
• 
  Poison Ivy: The Secret Society

  2008 · this one

Also by

Jason Hreno

• 
  False Pretenses

  2004 · ★ 6.5
• 
  Wicked Minds

  2003 · ★ 6.4
• 
  The Hunger

  1997 · ★ 6.1
• 
  Deadly Betrayal

  2003 · ★ 4.4

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Poison Ivy 4: The Secret Society - Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• tmdb280390232022-09-14
  ★ 1/10

  Poison Ivy: The Secret Society is the “sexy girl version of The Skulls” (Wikipedia), but I think it’s more like the 'dumb blonde version.' I'm not saying that the protagonist's intellectual ineptitude is directly related to her gender or hair color; her golden mane and femininity are just an unfortunate coincidence. Danielle Brooks (Miriam McDonald) is a farm girl — completing the trifecta of stereotypes — who transfers to Berkshire College, an elite New England private school. Danielle sold the property she inherited from her late parents to pay for school, and yet the best she can afford is a work-study program. Oh, and her nickname is Daisy. How do I know all this? It’s all in the "Berkshire Transfer Students Official List," (BTSOL, if you’re into the whole brevity thing) of which we even see a copy. I swear, they could show a character literally reading directly off the script, and it wouldn’t be as dumb as this. Daisy, by the way, is the name of a flower, as is Azalea (Shawna Waldron), who is the president of the Ivys, a "secret" society that everyone on campus knows about; on the other hand, it must be impossible to keep a secret in a college so small that, as far as we can see, only offers one single, solitary course, attended by all the main characters, and taught by Professor Andrew Graves (Greg Evigan), who is not only married to the dean (Catherine Hicks), but is also the father of Daisy's romantic interest, Blake (Ryan Kennedy). Azalea learns that Daisy is a shoo-in to get a coveted internship; the former’s plan to prevent this from happening is to get Daisy to join the so-called secret society. “Turning the farm girl into an Ivy won't stop her from getting the internship,” Blake warns her; Azalea's response is "yeah, we'll see about that". Spoiler alert: we never see about that. What we do see is the Ivy’s vast influence (one can't help but wonder why Azalea doesn't just use this leverage to nab the internship for herself). Once Daisy is accepted, she doesn't have to worry about money anymore; “Who do you think made your financial aid problems go away? Who do you think gave you your scholarship?” Azalea asks rhetorically. To my chagrin, though, she doesn't ask who makes Steve Guttenberg a star. Do the writers (unbelievably, it took three people to write this movie) really expect us to believe that, on top of selling the family ranch or whatever, Daisy still needs not only a student loan but also a scholarship, or do they just not understand the difference between the two? I lean towards option B, especially after seeing the way Azalea blackmails Daisy, which involves Will (Brendan Penny), Daisy’s rancher boyfriend whom she left behind (“how do you know about Will,” Daisy asks; my guess is she must have read it on BTSOL). Azalea claims to "have this piece of paper and at the top it says "title deed", at the bottom, a name and it's "William Miller"." Daisy never even demands to see this document, so she may just be dumb enough to believe that "Will's land" really "is at stake," as Azalea later assures her; moreover, recording Azalea's confession and immediately playing the tape back to her is likewise not the action of a person of at least adequate intelligence.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Insight Film Studios

  CA

• 

  New Line Home Entertainment

  US

• CI

  CineTel Films

  US

Key crew

• Local CastingFern Champion
• Local CastingPaul Ruddy
• CastingCandice Elzinga
• Associate ProducerOliver De Caigny
• Co-ProducerKim Arnott
• Costume DesignerFarnaz Khaki-Sadigh
• EditorAsim Nuraney
• Production DesignRenée Reâd
• Executive ProducerKevin Kasha
• Executive ProducerLisa M. Hansen
• Executive ProducerKirk Shaw
• ProducerLindsay MacAdam
• Production ManagerJohn Prince
• First Assistant DirectorRobert Randall
• Second Assistant DirectorJennifer Kidd
• Associate ProducerStacey Shaw
• "A" Camera OperatorRene Smith
• First Assistant "A" CameraMark 'Rocky' Evans
• Second Assistant "A" CameraShannon Abbott
• Steadicam OperatorDan Mannix
• Underwater CameraPauline Heaton
• "B" Camera OperatorJames P. Lewis
• First Assistant "B" CameraChris Hansen
• Second Assistant "B" CameraDan Pressler

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• high school
• campus
• sequel
• femme fatale
• mind game

Release history · US

When it landed

• Physical2008-07-27NR

Also known as

International titles

• Poison Ivy 4: The Secret SocietyUS
• Fleur de Poison 4FR
• Poison Ivy IV: The Secret SocietyDE
• Poison Ivy 4: The Secret SocietyDE