In 1985, Ivan and Catherine Greer live with their 9-year-old daughter Joy, their housekeeper Rebecca (whom Ivan is having an affair with), and her two daughters Ivy (9) and Violet (8). The three young girls live as sisters, but Ivy has gotten bored by their childish games. She hears someone pull up to the house and see’s that Ivan has unexpectedly returned home early. Aware of her mother’s new affair with the pool boy, Ivy excitedly states, "There's going to be fireworks". Ivan catches Rebecca in bed with the pool boy and the two men briefly scuffle. Afterwards, as Ivan tends to his wounds, he and Rebecca begin a loud argument that is overheard by Catherine. Upon learning of their affair, she immediately evicts Rebecca and her children.
In 1996, Catherine has since passed away and Violet, who is now a beautiful young woman, returns to the Greer home and reunites with Joy. Violet states that she is looking for a summertime residence while working as a waitress and is planning to attend a local junior college. Joy suggests that Violet reside with them and stay in the late Catherine's room. Joy is an amateur tennis star and engaged to her boyfriend Michael, who attends Yale University and will be working as an intern for Ivan’s bank. During a late night party, Violet feels isolated and ridiculed by Joy's ivy league friends. So she excuses herself for a late shift at work. Afterwards, Michael takes Joy to her room and initiates foreplay, only to be rejected. As Michael is on his way out, he runs into Violet, who has just returned from work and is dressed up in a leather outfit. Michael briefly questions Violet’s job as a waitress, but she brushes it off and states the two have gotten off on the wrong foot. Taking advantage of his sexual frustration, Violet quickly seduces Michael and performs oral sex on him.
Violet's obsession with Joy motivates her to destroy all of her other relationships. When her tennis partner Jaimie comes over to the house for practice, Violet spikes their drinks. Joy and Jaimie drunkenly attempt to play tennis but eventually pass out. Violet then places Jaimie in her bed, undresses and handcuffs her, then cuddles up to her. Jaimie wakes up and, convinced her and Violet had just engaged in sex, flees the house horrified. Michael is Violet's next target. After once again getting rejected by Joy, Violet finds him sulking by the pool. She convinces him that the real reason Joy rejects his sexual advances is because she’s unfaithful. Violet then gives him a small bottle of cocaine, to reignite his former addiction, and the two of them have sex. Ivan is the next to be seduced, with Violet skinny dipping while he’s watching and dressing up in his late wife's clothing. The Greers' new housekeeper, Mrs. B, quickly becomes suspicious of Violet and makes enemies with her while attempting to thwart her schemes. She is later killed by Violet after she threatened to expose her. Michael seeks out Violet and angrily confronts her after losing his internship at the bank due to the drugs she gave him. He also did some research on her, finding out she never enrolled in a local college. As well as the dark history of both her mother and her older sister Ivy.
Michael suggests that she pack up her things and leave before he confesses everything to Joy when they meet up at the house later that day. Violet tricks him into coming over earlier than planned, telling him Joy actually planned stand him up and meet with another boy thirty minutes before he’s supposed to show up. When Michael arrives at the Greers' house, Violet knocks him unconscious and injects him with a large dose of drugs, killing him. Joy returns from a failed tennis match and is also upset that Michael never met up with her. She gets a call that informs her of Michael's death, and when she goes to tell her father, she walk in him and Violet engaging in BDSM activities. After Joy flees the house, Ivan tells Violet she must leave. She accuses him of repeating the abandonment of her mother, then hides the drugs for Ivan's heart condition and disables the phones. As he tries to drive away, Ivan discovers he’s trapped in the garage. Once he passes out, Violet turns on the car so the room will fill up with carbon monoxide.
Angry, Joy decides to return to the house only to see that the power is out. She searches around until she discovers Mrs. B’s body. She then runs into Violet, who demands that Joy dress up with her and play like they did when they were children. Violet plans for them to commit suicide by drinking poison. Joy resists and they begin fighting. Joy briefly gets away and races out of the room to the stairway, shouting for help. Violet resumes her attack, but is spun around by Joy and begins to lose her balance at the top of the stairs. Joy grasps Violet's pearl necklace to keep her from falling and pleads with her to reach out and take her hand. Instead, Violet closes her eyes and stretches her arms above her head. The necklace shatters and Violet falls down the stairs to her death. Joy is initially stunned, but she calmly exits the mansion with a newfound confidence and a brief smile.
The film's closing theme "Now" was performed by Canadian actress Saffron Henderson.[1]
Release
Home media
After its initial 1997 VHS release, the film would be re-released onto DVD by New Line Home Entertainment during the late 1990s and 2000s. In 2019, it was released on Blu-ray for the first time, as part of Shout! Factory's The Poison Ivy Collection (1992-2008).[2]
Reception
Critical response
In a June 1997 review for Entertainment Weekly, J.R. Taylor gave the film a D+ rating, and described it as "a dim-bulb remake of the flashy Drew Barrymore original".[3] The book Video Movie Guide 1998, by Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, called it a "pointless sequel", adding that it "covers pretty much the same territory as the previous two entries in this sagging franchise."[4] It was included in the 2007 book Mr. Skin's Skintastic Video Guide: The 501 Greatest Movies for Sex & Nudity on DVD.[5] The film was also included in John Kenneth Muir's 2011 book Horror Films of the 1990s. Muir wrote that, "The New Seduction is the sleaziest and raunchiest of the Poison Ivy films, and on those terms, [is] a lot of wicked fun." He also noted that, "after the navel-gazing Poison Ivy: Lilly (1996), the franchise returns to its horror roots here."[6]
