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Flowers in the Attic
USA, 1987
[Jeffrey Bloom]
Victoria Tennant, Jeb Stuart Adams, Kristy Swanson, Louise Fletcher
Romance
23rd December 2006
For those who haven�t read Flowers in the Attic by Virginia C. Andrews, I�ll outline the basic plot. The Dollangangers (no, seriously - Ed) lives are turned upside down when Mr. Dollanganger dies in a tragic car accident. Newly widowed Corrine Dollanganger (Tennant) takes her four kids, Cathy (Swanson), Chris (Adams) and the two infant siblings, Cory (Ben Ryan Ganger) and Carrie (Lindsay Parker) to live with their grandparents in a giant, ramshackle manor.

The kids are kept locked up in one room of the house since their grandmother (Fletcher) considers them Satan�s spawn as they were the product of an incestuous marriage (Mr Dollanganger was Corrine's Uncle). Corrine agrees with her cold, heartless mother since she is desperate to win her dying father�s love in order to profit from any inheritance.

The kids begin to adjust to the isolation of the room and are allowed to survey the attic which they can access through their closet. Corrine visits her kids less and less and they come to realize that she no longer cares about them but only for her soon-to-be-dead father�s money. They even begin to suspect their own mom is a murderer after discovering cookies laces with arsenic.

I remember the book being a real page turner but the movie was really awful. In fact, it�s the worst movie I�ve seen all year. Because so much of the book�s content is left out the remaining plot is very thinly stretched over the 92 minute run time. And though it�s classed as a horror/thriller but the only thing scary about this movie was the acting.

The biggest problem was that I didn�t really understand what was keeping the kids in the attic. Perhaps it was that their escape attempts were really lame. On more than one occasion I felt like throwing my shoe at the TV because I was so frustrated with Chris and Cathy. The coast was clear at least twice and they didn�t jump on their chance to sod off. Their excuse was that they didn�t want to ruin their mother�s plan (to, um, kill them?) and it became very tiresome after awhile. If they were going to be that dumb about escaping then it served them right to be trapped in there.

Most of their scenes were the kids wondering if they would ever get out of the house and if their mom would come and visit. Chris, the eldest, kept forgiving the mom even though she was completely turning her back on them which was another annoying factor. Jeb Stuart Adams and Kristy Swanson seemed good choices to play Chris and Cathy but their acting skills were appalling. At least Swanson had the chance to make up for it in the cult classic
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Adams hasn't been heard from since. Louise fletcher as the evil grandmother overacted terribly, especially in scenes where she would slap the children or push them.

So, disappointment and a half all round. Since I�m in a holiday mood though I�ll give it a generous one star.
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