What's Your Poison?

As you may have guessed from earlier posts, I've had "Telephone" by Lady Gaga stuck in my head for over a week and though I don't like the video short film as much as her last -- I think it's trying a tiny smidgeon too hard whereas "Bad Romance" is just so controlled and escalating in its impact -- I do find it amusing how much Gaga loves to poison people, for laughs (and provocation) in her music videos. What is it about poison exactly that is so cinematic?

Cary Grant in Suspicion

It's as if its malevolence is both scarier, sicker and sexier than regular kinds of violence. [If violence could ever be called sexy that is ... and given the ample evidence, most filmmakers find it a major turn on.] Perhaps the terror / eroticism of poison comes from it being something that happens internally, something that's connected to inescapable human needs (eating, drinking) and something that capitalizes on our fear of the unknown. You can see a fist or an arrow or a rampaging beast hurtling towards you, but you can never see poison coming.

Michelle Pfeiffer in White Oleander

What's your favorite poisonous scene in the movies? My mind lept immediately to Ingrid Magnussen's complete toxicity (literal and figurative) in the underrated White Oleander and to Elle Driver's educational lecture on the Black Mamba in Kill Bill, Vol. 2 and to that classic pair Romeo + Juliet who guzzle faux poison but are poisoned instead by their rash youth and noxious environment. Where did your mind go?