APRIL MOVIE THON 4: Poison Ivy II: Lily (1996)

April 2: Get Me Another- A sequel or a movie way too similar to another film.

Anne Goursaud may be known for editing Francis Ford Coppola’s films Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Outsiders and One from the Heart, but she also had a run of directing in the 90s, working with Alyssa Milano to make this and another erotic film, Embrace of the Vampire, before also directing Love In Paris, which was released in the U.S. as Another 9 and 1/2 Weeks and brought back Mickey Rourke as John Gray and giving him a new love interest played by Angie Everhart. As you can imagine, it did not do well.

She also made this a sequel to Poison Ivy by name only. Milano is Lily Leonetti, a girl from Kalamazoo who has come to California to learn to be an artist. She moves in with Tanya (Kathryne Dora Brown), Bridgette (Victoria Haas) and Robert (Walter Kim), three fellow students who each have their own unique artistic skills. She soon finds a diary and nude photos of a girl named Ivy, who she becomes obsessed over, wishing that she could be as fearless as her.

Those photos: Jaime Pressly confirmed in 2008 that they are her, saying “Drew plays Ivy in the first Poison Ivy film, and in Poison Ivy II, Alyssa Milano plays the art student who moves into Ivy’s old room in a house with other students. She finds a diary and pictures of Drew’s character in a closet. The pictures are supposed to be of Drew, but they’re of me, though you never see my face.”

Pressly is the lead in the next movie, another unconnected effort, Poison Ivy: The New Seduction.

As she takes classes from Donald Falk (Xander Berkeley, Christopher in Mommie Dearest), he tries to seduce her, all while she’s babysitting his daughter Daphna (Camilla Belle), becoming friends with his wife Angela (Belinda Bauer) and falling in love with fellow student, the complicated sculptor Gredin (Johnathon Schaech). By the end of the movie, she’s changed so much that he’s fallen out of love with her, the teacher tries to assault her during Thanksgiving dinner, and his daughter runs into traffic.

This may be the most 90s movie to ever exist, feeling like Delia’s catalogue becoming a sentient being through Hot Topic. There’s one song that sounds so much like Portishead that I was convinced it was a remix I had never heard before. Monks chant over nearly every song, and I’m shocked that nobody shops at Wet Seal in this. This movie goes to the mall, right?

Anyway, the married art teacher gets so enraged over Alyssa Milano that he tries to shove her out the window. Her boyfriend—who came back to her—saves her at the last minute. She stays in California, but how can they return to art school?

This would be Milano’s last movie with nudity, but perhaps two was enough for most teenage 90s boys. Maybe the internet got in more homes and they learned that. they didn’t need to go to the video store to see nude women. Alyssa Milano had bigger and better things to do. As for the series — well, the title — there would be two more that I will get to.