The Young Poisoner's Handbook

Why has 'The Young Poisoner's Handbook' not developed a cult following? I have some theories, but this is certainly a film that should have found a larger audience at some point.

This is pitch black British comedy near its best, reminiscent of both Hitchcock and 'A Clockwork Orange' -- its three-part structure is similar to that of 'A Clockwork Orange,' given that the protagonist is free, then confined, then free again to illustrate the vanity of "rehabilitation" where it concerns psychopaths, and we even hear excerpts from Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary, which Wendy Carlos incorporated into her electronic score for 'Clockwork.' Whether 'The Young Poisoner's Handbook' is paying homage or borrowing, the movie itself is a highly individual work that should please anyone with a fondness for Orwell or Ealing.

Hugh O'Conor, with his wide-eyed gift for simulating innocence, is an ideal selection for the role of Graham Young, the real-life poisoner of the British village of Bovingdon, who slowly poisoned his stepmother to death with antimony sulfide, finishing the job with thallium. Cursed with a banal home life and a sociopathic mind, his self-described "gift for chemistry" is put to obviously nefarious uses, occasionally using friends as guinea pigs before the main attraction.

The director, Benjamin Ross, makes a tremendously impressive debut here. His selection of music together with his fluid editing and camera-work often produce stirring and exciting results, the 1960s small British town setting keenly observed, with a very black wit. Graham's wicked stepmother, played by the singular Ruth Sheen (seen in many Mike Leigh films), joyfully accepts her first dose of poison after finding a box of Velvet Victories chocolates on her bedroom pillow, with a note reading "To my darling mother, xxxx." There's a vivid sense of the dustiness of the Young household, the darkness of Graham's bedroom punctured by the eerie glow of his flasks, the frustration of an overcrowded working class household where the telly's always running with the silliness of popular variety programs. The film also adroitly contrasts the self-important grandeur of Young's genocidal ambitions with the unglamorous pettiness of the actual crimes and the prosaic Bovingdon environment to which his perpetration of them was fortunately limited (the real Graham Young had wanted to be known as "The World's Poisoner," but was instead given the considerably less flattering moniker "The Teacup Poisoner"). Absurdity and grimness are very skillfully balanced. A marvelous, overlooked film.

As a boy, Graham was always keen on chemistry. When he is introduced to a deadly chemical he begins to conduct experiments on his cruel family – namely by slowly poisoning his mother. Shortly after her death Graham is caught for her murder and sentenced to a mental institution. With help and treatment from a physiatrist, Graham is rehabilitated and released into the community. But can his love of poison be controlled?

I first saw this in the cinema many years ago and held off writing a review because I wanted to be sure that I could give it a fair review – memory not that great you know. So I watched it on channel 4 last week and was quite taken aback – I didn't remember it being quite that dark and disturbed. The plot is quite like Kind Hearts & Coronets in the set up and delivery (more in the delivery) but is a lot darker and more cruel than that classic. The comedy is of the very dark type and mostly comes from Graham's narration. His narration plays his acceptance of very shocking events as run-of-the-mill things that happen in the background, this juxtaposition works well and makes it funny.

The actual poisonings are not always easy to laugh through, while some of his mother's ordeal is played for laughs, most of it is quite cruel and upsetting. I think it worked well for playing the audience on the fact that we didn't quite know what this was – it was based on a true story yet was played for laughs as well as serious at times. However this same ploy is to it's weakness as it is difficult to settle into for this same reason. The director seems very assured and handles this better, mixing inappropriate music with the action as well as directing it very flat and clinically.

O'Conor is the perfect choice for the role. Onscreen he is cold and cruel but it is his narration is where he excels – delivering perfectly deadpan lines. The support cast are all OK but mostly play exaggerated characters on the whole – British stereotypes and such. The film wisely leaves them as undeveloped this because if we cared too much for them or related to them then it would have been impossible to feel anything but revulsion for Graham. As cardboard cutouts they seem less than Graham in terms of the film (wonder how the real victims' families felt about this view).

Overall this is a strange film but one that has enough going for it to be worht watching. However it should be noted that it is quite cruel and upsetting – we are not allowed to feel anything for Graham's victims. The humour is rarely laugh out loud funny and this will probably only be for those who like their comedy very dark.

I truly love this film. The look on young Graham's face when he got his first chemistry set was probably like the one on my own when I got mine. Because I loved my family, I chose other areas of research and never experimented on them. That said, I found the humor in this black comedy right on target and I actually felt sorry for the young poisoner. If he had worked for Q branch he most likely would have received a knighthood rather than a prison sentence. I have no idea how close to the truth this movie is but it is on my top 20 films of all time.

One problem with this movie was that I wasn't sure whether I was allowed to laugh or not. It's a sick, black comedy, and quite disturbing given that it's based on truth. And yet it's strangely humourous. Hugh O'Conor is absolutely PERFECT in the role of Graham Young. As a longtime Hugh O'Conor fan, I will admit I may have been biased towards this film -- after all, I will enjoy his work in any movie -- but this movie was also well-acted by the entire cast. If you can stomach it, watch the film.

I really enjoyed The Young Poisoner's Handbook. Some people made the comparison with A Clockwork Orange from Stanley Kubrick and I can get where they come from if they mean the same tune they play a couple of times and also the fact that when Graham Young is getting institutionalized one doctor tries to cure him from his demons but other then that those two movies are completely different. While A Clockwork Orange was about a young man against society using ultra violence this one is about a young smart apathetic guy poisoning everybody he dislikes. Plus the fact that this movie is based on a true story while Kubrick's masterpiece was just fictional makes it totally useless to compare both movies. Nevertheless I thought Tobias Arnold as Graham Young gave a good performance as well as the other actors. Certainly worth a watch.