Main Cast: Hugh O'Conor, Antony Sher, Ruth Sheen, Roger Lloyd Pack, Charlotte Coleman
Release Year: 1995
Country: UK/DE
Run Time: 106 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Based on the true story of Graham Young, a young British psychopath of the 1970s, this is the offbeat feature film debut of writer-director Benjamin Ross. Hugh O'Conor plays Young, who narrates the story in a sullen voice-over. He is an isolated, studious young adolescent who is increasingly absorbed in his chemical research projects and estranged from his annoying family. After his greatest experiment blows up, he seeks revenge on his stepmother, who has falsely accused him of hiding pornographic magazines. The boy poisons her chocolates and then his sister's eye drops, partially blinding her. He next poisons his stepmother's stomach medicine. Graham lets her discover the notebook in which he has documented his work, but she can no longer speak, and she dies unable to communicate the truth. Young then starts to poison his father -- but lets himself be discovered and is sent to an insane asylum. There, he is befriended by a psychologist, Dr. Ziegler (Anthony Sher), an optimist who hopes for a recovery by exploring Young's dreams. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Review
A deeply disturbing, wildly funny ode to the filmmaking style of Stanley Kubrick with a splash of the gothic gallows humor of cartoonist Edward Gorey tossed in for good measure, this debut film from writer/director Benjamin Ross transforms a true-life incident into a revamped version of A Clockwork Orange (1971). It's a slick, clever effort to mimic a master that might possibly offend Kubrick's passionately devoted fans. It should be noted, however, that Ross is really creating an homage so exquisitely detailed in its worship of the great filmmaker that it insists upon being forgiven and ultimately accepted as a deft work of astonishing craftsmanship. Darkly hilarious and piercingly satirical in much the same way as Clockwork, the film even reaches beyond Kubrick occasionally to fashion a more psychologically clear portrait of its twisted protagonist while zeroing in on its targets in a less obvious fashion. The narration provided for lead Hugh O'Conor is deft, setting the simultaneously mournful and cheerily optimistic tone, working beautifully at odds with the events unfolding onscreen. The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995) is an audacious start for a gifted filmmaker who understands that if you're going to rip somebody off artistically, rip off the best. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Paul Stacey - Dennis; John Abbott - Chairman; Dorothea Alexander - Mrs Goez; Arthur Cox - Ray; Charlie Creed-Miles - Berridge; Tim Potter - Simon; John Thomson; Frank Coda - Billy; Robert Demeger - Mr Dexter; Cate Fowler - Social Services Lady; Peter Pacey - Dickie Boone; Hazel Douglas - Edna; Samantha Edmonds - Sue; Frank Mills - Uncle Jack
Credit
Matthias Kammermeier - Art Director, Mark Stevenson - Art Director, David Redman - Associate Producer, Michelle Guish - Casting, Rainer Kolmel - Co-producer, Carole Scotta - Co-producer, Stewart Meacham - Costume Designer, Max Keene - First Assistant Director, Matthew Baker - First Assistant Director, Benjamin Ross - Director, Anne Sopel - Editor, Caroline Hewitt - Executive Producer, Cameron Mccracken - Executive Producer, Eric Stonestrom - Executive Producer, Robert Lane - Composer (Music Score), Frank Strobel - Composer (Music Score), Eckhard Kuchenbecker - Musical Direction/Supervision, Maria Djurkovic - Production Designer, Hubert Taczanowski - Cinematographer, Peter Mcaleese - Producer, Sam Taylor - Producer, Jeff Rawle - Screenwriter, Benjamin Ross - Screenwriter
The film is also known as Das Handbuch des jungen Giftmischers in German.
Plot
The film's portrayal of Graham Young is not wholly true to life, and thus, the film is not truly biographical. Nonetheless, the main truths about him are conveyed. He was a poisoner, a murderer, a genius and a thoroughly amoral man.
Early scenes show Young as a child preoccupied with the macabre. In his teen years, he actually poisons a schoolmate — sickening him rather than killing him — in order to date a girl his schoolmate was seeing. His conversation with his date involved vivid, graphic descriptions of deadly car accidents.
He also reads a comic book account of an event in which the Dutch Resistance killed a whole German army camp in the occupied Netherlands during the Second World War by poisoning their water supply with thallium.
Graham Young is arrested at the age of 14 outside his home in Neasden after having killed his stepmother and having tried to do the same to his father by lacing their food or medicine with thallium. During the struggle with police Young abuses the policemen because he drops his "Exit Dose" of thallium which he intended to use to commit suicide should he be caught. He is imprisoned for nine years in an institution for the criminally insane, during which time a psychiatrist works with him in the hopes of rehabilitating him.
Graham's dishonesty becomes evident to the doctor, who can see that Graham is trying to deceive him. Graham apparently has no dreams to share with the psychiatrist so he "borrows" a fellow prisoner's dreams. This source is shut off to him, however, once the fellow prisoner commits suicide. Despite the initial evidence of deceptiveness on Graham's part, the doctor eventually gets him released.
Graham then goes to work in a camera factory and is shown the secret ingredient used in the company's shutter system — thallium. It is not long before Graham has reverted to his old behaviour and is poisoning people. He kills two of his workmates by poisoning their tea with thallium stolen from the laboratory, and he sickens many others. For months, the source of the "bug" afflicting the workers at the factory remains a mystery until one unforeseen event leads to Graham's being found out. As a hygiene measure, all the personalized teacups are replaced with uniform ones, leaving Graham unable to poison people selectively. His efforts to memorize which cup is going to which person give him away, and his workmates finally realize what is going on.
Graham is arrested soon afterwards, and he is later sentenced to a lengthy prison term, this time in an ordinary prison. He commits suicide by poisoning there, unlike the real Graham Young, who died of a heart attack. The film insinuates that Graham's ambition in life was to create a diamond using his poisons and chemistry knowledge; in reality his ambition was to become an infamous poisoner, which he achieved.
