Graham (Hugh O'Conner), who comes across as an offspring of Madame Curie and Charles Manson, was trying to concoct a final solution from his chemistry set as well as "The Final Solution" to his social woes. Though the subject matter seems horrifyingly serious, it is sugarcoated with a bland British sense of humor that lends itself to kitsch. Our protagonist covers very similar ground to Alex, the murderous anti-hero in A Clockwork Orange. Both are victims and predators of their environment. Both invite our sympathy by narrating their own stories. Both end up in hospitals and are "cured" by well-meaning psychiatrists. But Graham takes one further step into insanity, perhaps, and invites us to become intimate with the macabre.

We meet Graham at the nubile age of 14 as he begins to torture his grossly working class family members who sit around the television oblivious to the horror that is emerging above them. He begins the first of his experiments by leisurely poisoning his stepmother. He keeps a tidy record of her weary decline. At the same time, he coldly toys with her as if to see how much punishment a little, white lab rat can take. This sequence is the most deranged in the film as well as some of the most disturbing images I've ever seen on celluloid. When it's finally over, it makes the rest of Graham's fiendish behavior easier to stomach.

Perhaps what makes Graham's character so disturbing is his sheer moral oblivion. Graham cares more about his substances and periodic charts than he does about people. He looks on his helpless victims with a wide-eyed curiosity, seemingly concerned with their health when in reality he is after cold, hard scientific data. He gingerly offers them help as if he has nothing to do with their demise.

The film taunts and torments the audience. We'd like to look away from the gruesome events but simply can't. The filmmakers have created an acceptable and relatively safe atmosphere from which to view the madness. Everything and everyone that Graham encounters is disgustingly normal and banal. We begin to see why Graham is so disgusted with the mediocrity of it all. Do we dare laugh? And if we do, should we feel remorse? Perhaps we become frightened by our own intellectual investment. Meanwhile, we are comforted by upbeat music and familiar everyday occurrences. The Young Poisoner's Handbook is definitely one of those films that will reach cult status. It's an admirable blend of comedy and tragedy if you can wade through the horror of it all.