Flowers in the Attic (film)
| Flowers in the Attic | |
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Theatrical release poster by Tom Jung
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| Directed by | Jeffrey Bloom |
| Produced by | Sy Levin Thomas Fries |
| Screenplay by | Jeffrey Bloom |
| Based on |
Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Clare Peck |
| Music by | Christopher Young |
| Cinematography | Gil Hubbs |
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Production
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| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $15,151,736 (USA) |
Flowers in the Attic is a 1987 psychological horror film starring Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, Kristy Swanson, and Jeb Stuart Adams. It is based on the 1979 novel of the same name by V. C. Andrews. Despite the success of the book on which it is based, the movie was poorly received by both critics and fans.
At one point Wes Craven was scheduled to direct the film, and he even completed a screenplay draft. Producers were disturbed by his approach to the incest-laden story, however, and Jeffrey Bloom ended up with writing and directing duties.
After the sudden death of their father, four children — teenagers Chris and Cathy and 5-year-old twins Cory and Carrie — find themselves penniless and forced to travel with their mother Corrine to live with her wealthy parents (whom the children had neither met nor been told about before). Corrine informs her children that there has been tension between herself and her parents for many years, but does not elaborate and simply says they had cut her out of their lives for something she had done of which they disapproved. The children trust her, though Cathy is skeptical as she wonders what happened that caused the rift between her mother and her parents.
Corrine's mother, Olivia, a religious fanatic, takes her daughter and her children into her home, though with the harsh condition that the children must be sequestered away in a locked room so that her husband Malcolm (who is dying) will never know of their existence. To that end, the children are shut inside one bedroom of the mansion, only with access to the mansion's attic via a secret stairway. It is on their first day there that their grandmother reveals the shocking truth of what caused Corrine to be disowned and stricken from her father's will years ago: Corrine's husband was really her uncle, her father's brother, making their love incestuous and their children the product of incest. When Corrine finally returns to the children that night, she is forced to show the children that she had been savagely bullwhipped by her mother as punishment for her marrying her uncle and having children from the union. Corrine confesses to the children that she and their father were niece and uncle, and her parents were livid as they believed Corrine disgraced the family; the children do not say anything but seem to accept it. Corrine tells the children that her parents made it clear that if she had any children by her uncle she would be disinherited, but because her father doesn't know about them she still has a chance to get the money when he passes away. She says that their confinement will only be for a short time: her father is deathly ill, and once she is able to convince him to secure her inheritance, they will be free and they will leave.
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