| View Larger Image | Flowers in the Attic | DVDStarring: Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, Kristy Swanson, Jeb Stuart Adams, Ben Ryan Ganger
Directed By: Jeffrey Bloom
Also With: Frank Byers (Cinematographer), Jeffrey Bloom (Writer), Charles W. Fries (Producer), Mike Rosenfeld (Producer), Sy Levin (Producer), Thomas Fries (Producer), Virginia C. Andrews (Writer)
| List Price: | $9.98 | | Price: | $7.99 | | You Save: | $1.99 (20%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | DVD | | Rating: |  | | Run Time: | 93 minutes | | Format: | Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC | | Studio: | Starz / Anchor Bay | | Number of Discs: | 1 | | Aspect Ratio: | 1.85:1 | | Release Date: | April 24, 2001 | | Sales Rank: | 8,307th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
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.Item Type: DVD MovieItem Rating: NRStreet Date: 04/24/01Wide Screen: yesDirector Cut: noSpecial Edition: noLanguage: ENGLISHForeign Film: noSubtitles: noDubbed: noFull Frame: noRe-Release: noPackaging: Sleeve |
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 |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 156 reviews)
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Wow to all the fans who miss the incest! by Lodeenie (Roanoke, VA USA)  4 Stars
November 30, 2009
I am an adult who first watched this movie as a child and became an instant fan. It was the movie that led me to the book and all books by VC Andrews (and her ghostwriters) and I have been hooked ever since. I find the movie as interesting and captivating now as I did then. No, the movie does not show a brother raping his sister as it happened in the book and no the ending is not the same. However, because the movie was clearly written as 1 film instead of a series, the ending of the movie was exciting and quite enjoyable to watch considering what Corrine put her children through. In fact, the only signficant difference from the book is the ending and the lack of incest. All of the fear, sickness, death, anger and attitudes of the characters were spot on. I get the same reactions now that I did when I first saw the movie: compassion for the children (especially Cory and Carrie), pity and then rage towards Corrine, complete disgust for the Grandmother and a feeling of vindication for the remaining children at the end.
While I am a tremendous fan and have read almost all the books, I find the incest parts a little awkward whenever I read them and I have always hated that Cathy and Chris couldn't get past their feelings so it did my heart good to not see any of that splashed across the screen. I find it ironic, and a little strange, that people are so angry that we don't get to see them getting it on like in the book.
It's not Oscar caliber but it's not trash either.
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Oh, so verrry, very bad. by J. Arena (Williamsburg, VA)  1 Stars
November 24, 2009
I should first confess that I am not the greatest fan of the novel from which this film was (allegedly) made.
All I can really ask is, "What is this about?" It sure doesn't seem to have drawn much from V.C. Andrews writing. The acting is like community theater gone very, very wrong.
If you loved the novel, this book is an injustice! If you didn't like the novel, this film is just adding insult to injury. If you are a fan of bad movies so bad that they're hilarious, you'll find no laughs here.
Blech.
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good movie by Sandra Weaver 4 Stars
November 07, 2009
The book is much better but the movie was fairly good. I was somewhat disappointed with the movie, maybe if I had watched the movie first then read the book...or the series of books, which are really good.
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I have not read the book by C Wahlman (Merrillville, IN)  3 Stars
September 23, 2009
It seems to make a great deal of difference if you read the book AND see the film. I have not read any of the books, so keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that although the book may be in a completely different class than the book, it is interesting to see a different interpretation (like two sketches of the same form: one a Monet, the other a child's drawing).
The Dollanganger family is extremely happy. Mom, Dad, and four precious children (all with names starting with "C") are the picture of perfection, until on dad's birthday he does not come home. Dad has died, and now the family is in shambles. After selling everything they own, mom decides to take the kids to her parent's mansion. Relatives they have never met and a creepy isolated mansion with even creepier help, make for a very uncomfortable homecoming. The kids find out that in order to for their mother to win back her father's affection (and fortune) they cannot exist in the house, so they are locked away in the attic. A stern grandmother makes them even more uneasy ... apparently some family secrets make it impossible for her to love her own grandchildren. Things go from bad to worse as mother's visits become more infrequent and grandmother stops feeding them. The kids want to love their mother, but also realize the insanity of the situation. How will they escape, and what will become of their little family?
I thought this was an average film. A creepy gothic film is executed well with this plot. The acting was decent, definitely creepy, by all involved. The scenery was apt. There was nothing stellar in this film, but it is definitely not that bad. And the film did leave a lot to the imagination, so I will be reading the books to fill in the gaps. Recommended.
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Holy Messed Up Movie Batman! by Michael S. Milano (Rochester, NY) 4 Stars
September 09, 2009
I watched this movie a lot when I was a kid. I would blame it on my mother, like when she made me watch "Mommie Dearest" just to show me how lucky I was that I had a good childhood, but this was when I was being watched during the day at my aunts house while mom and dad were working, so I basically watched it on the sly. Watching the movie now, I see how truly crazy the story is, and how much you don't realize or pay attention to as a kid. Not only are these poor siblings in the middle of a fight between their mother and grandparents for being spawn of a relationship between Uncle and Neice, but they are locked away in the east wing of this huge mansion with nothing but the bedroom they sleep in and the attic above the room. For being such an abomination in the eyes of their bible bashing Grandmother, they are forced to endure little to no contact with the only family they have left, the verge of starvation and slowly watch their mother change while she prepares to start a new life of redemption, leaving the memory of her 4 children behind, never to be remembered again. Will the children escape this hell they have stumbled upon? Watch and find out.
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