Starring: Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, Kristy Swanson, Jeb Stuart Adams, Ben Ryan Ganger Directed By: Jeffrey Bloom Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Starz / Anchor Bay Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: April 24, 2001 Running Time: 92 minutes Theatrical Release Date: November 20, 1987
Product Description: Dreams of an inheritance turn into a nightmare for four innocent children who are locked in the deserted north wing of the family mansion, beaten by a vicious grandmother and tormented by a menacing caretaker. Genre: Feature Film-Drama Rating: PG13 Release Date: 5-OCT-2004 Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com: The classic teen novel of adolescent torment and forbidden love gets brought to the screen. When the father of four beautiful blond children is suddenly killed, their mother (Victoria Tennant, L.A. Story) takes them to the family home she fled 17 years earlier. Their fierce and frightening grandmother (Louise Fletcher, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) locks them in an upstairs room, from which the only escape is into the cluttered and cobwebbed attic. The children's isolation gets more and more extreme as their mother abandons them, finally even slowly poisoning them to gain her father's inheritance. Sadly, the movie shies away from what made Flowers in the Attic such a hugely popular book--namely, the incestuous sex that began between the two older children, Cathy (Kristy Swanson, the movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Chris (Jeb Stuart Adams). Instead, the movie insinuates incestuous longing in all directions: Cathy's father brings her special presents before he dies, Chris scrubs Cathy's back in the tub, Chris has a noticeably stronger attachment to their mother than Cathy does--not to mention that the grandmother whips the half-naked mother in front of the grandfather. Fletcher brings a bit of bite to her role, and the movie occasionally rises to absurdly lurid zest. --Bret Fetzer
Not Louise Fletcher's best The book was fabulous...the movie was not! However, I still like the movie because I love Louise Fletcher. Unfortunately she was ONE of the reasons I didn't like it. I just expected so much more from her. The rest of the acting was borderline camp. With all of that said...I still bought the film and I'm sure I'll watch it again.
WE GET IT... NOW GIVE IT A REST!!! Ok, now I understand that alot of the people who read the book first and then watched the movie were dissapointed; as the movie was not like the book at all. That being said, the movie is what made me want to read the book. I'll be the first to say that the book and its series are excellent, but I love the movie too. This movie came out when I was seven years old and it terrified me and made me cry (poor Cory). At the age of seven, I was so enraged at their mother's behavior I wanted to break the television set. Even today in my late 20s, I still find myself wanting to inflict damage on my TV. Both the book and the movie stirred up sadness, anger, and bewilderment at how people who you trust and who are supposed to love you can behave in such a callous and hateful way. In my opinion, I think both the book and the movie succeeded in bringing out these emotions. So for those who are bias and in favor of the book, sit down and watch the movie again and see how it makes you feel. Maybe you'll find you kinda like it.
WOW I gave this movie a high rating only because it brings back memories of my childhood. I saw the movie before I read the book, which made the movie like a watered down made-for-tv thing. I don't know if people were ready for the REAL Flowers in the Attic back when the movie was made. However,I used to love this movie!
Flowers in the Attic DVD Good movie however if you can watch the DVD first and then read the book. The movie was different than the book especially the ending.
Aryan incestoids escape torture and neglect and discover that keeping it in the family really is the best policy. The scariest thing about Flowers in the Attic, is that the novel by V. C. Andrews has sold billions of copies. For anyone who somehow missed the book, this is a story of four very blond children - a couple of strapping teens named Cathy (Kristy Swanson) and Chris (Jeb Adams), who like to sleep in the same bed and keep the bathroom door open. And then there's the little twinsies, Carrie (Lindsay Parker) and Cory (Ben Ganger). Their mother's name is Corinne (Victoria Tennant). If they have a cat, it is most likely named `Cat'.
This cute clan is disrupted by the death of father, whereupon Tennant takes them back to the family manse, from whence she was kicked out 17 years ago, after marrying her own uncle! She plans to regain the love of her dying father and inherit his fortune. (Apparently applying for a job and joining the workforce just never entered into the equation).
The kids are locked in a spacious bedroom and treated with extreme cruelty by their grandmother Louise Fletcher, who must have studied Piper Laurie's every move in Brian DePalma's "Carrie". (It's a shame she didn't notice the subtleties in that performance as well. Her acting is so over-the-top, if she had a black moustache, she would twirl it.) She calls them ''devil's spawn'' and goes so far as to trim Cathy's blonde locks. (oh no!)
The children spend most of their time in the attic - which they get to through a secret door in their room. It is here that their eyes grow cavernous - apparently from too much makeup. But what really gets to the kids is the realization that mother Tennant has been sprinkling arsenic on their cookies. (This makes Tennant a hero in our opinion as these children are so annoying and stupid, poisoning falls into the category of mercy killing.) But enough of this, lest, as little Cory, who eats more cookies than is good for him, puts it, ''We'll have to thwow up.''
Incestuous desires run rampant in the original novel, but the movie,written and directed for minimum impact by Jeffrey Bloom, only offers soft-focus innuendo. Stripped of its metaphorical trimmings, the sublimely ridiculous plot reduces the viewer to laughter more than tears.
On second thought, the scariest thing about this movie is that the original novel was followed by more horticultural horror sequels, ''Petals on the Wind,'' ''If There Be Thorns'' ''Seeds of Yesterday'' and ''Garden of Shadows.'' to name but a few.
Could there still be bitter fruit to come? . . .Now that's the REAL horror!
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