Flowers in the Attic

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:

It could have been better........2007-08-31

The movie seemed to me a mash of both book one and parts of two. I think it would have been way better if they had the charaters you know. If you never read the book you would say so what's the big deal between brother and sister. The movie made it all to innocent. It would have been better if they made it a rated R movie.

I saw the movie first, OK?.......2007-08-03

When I was 10 yrs old, my mother told me to sit down and watch a special movie with her. When the movie ended, however, I needed more! I felt the lives of the kids were left so up in the air. It was during high school, though, that I found the paperback in the library--and that a whole series had been published! I was stoked. I finally got my fix on the swiss cheese storyline. I, however, respect both the movie and the series of books. They are works of art in their own way, and THAT'S the truth.

Fair but should have been so much better!!.......2007-06-03

I liked all of the actors in this film and thought they did a fine job. I probably don't need to go into specifics as to why this wasn't as good as it should have been, most people have written about it already. With all of the remakes happening in Hollywood, it is beyond me why this one has not been picked up yet because if there is any movie that could be improved upon, it should be this one. We don't need a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Leave the classics alone and redo the ones that will be better than the originals, not worse. I would love to see Nicole Kidman as the mother in a remake and perhaps Kathy Bates, Ellen Burnstyn or Gena Rowlands as the Grandmother. I will be really excited to see a new version of this if it's done right the second time around. However, this 1987 version is still worth a look. 3 stars. Wish it could have been 5.

I loved it! .......2007-04-30

I don't want to ruin the movie but it was creppy but good! it is about a lady who turns to her mother for shelter when she loses her husband but she is there to win respect of her father but something more awaits her children.....

DO! NOT! WANT!.......2007-04-13

Flowers in the Attic (Jeffrey Bloom, 1987)

I wish I could say that Flowers in the Attic is the worst movie I've seen this year. Unfortunately, it is not, for I have been embroiled in a two-week crapfest the likes of which I would not wish on my worst enemy. With that frame of reference, when I say Flowers in the Attic is more of the same, hopefully you will understand.

The story, which was beloved of grammar school and junior high girls everywhere when I was a kid (it was THE cool book to have read when I was in fifth grade in 1979), but which may have faded into obscurity: there is a family. The father (Jagged Edge's Marhsall Colt) dies. Mother (La Peste's Victoria Tennant) takes the four kids-- Chris (Jeb Stuart Adams of The Goonies), Cathy (Kristy Swanson, the only Buffy the Vampire Slayer who really mattered), Cory (Ben Ryan Granger, who recently, before his seeming retirement, popped up in Ed Wood), and Carrie (Lindsay Parker, who enjoyed a few years of child stardom before scaling back to occasional guest performances)-- and heads off to the family homestead, run by the dying Grandfather (Nathan Davis, recently of Holes) and Grandmother (Louise Fletcher, most recently of The Last Sin Eater). However, Grandma tells the kids in no uncertain terms they're evil little beasties, since it seems mom and dad were related; Grandpa is not to know they exist, so Mom and Grandma keep them locked up in the northern wing of the mansion, where they develop their own little world-- except not everyone is content to leave them alone in it...

The original posters for the movie declared it had been written and directed by Wes Craven (facsimiles of them are included with the DVD); it should take the average viewer about two minutes to realize this isn't the case. Subsequently, Jeffrey Bloom took responsibility for this travesty, and (perhaps not coincidentally) did not work again in Hollywood, aside from an extremely short-lived TV show he produced and directed, for eighteen years. Yes, this movie is that bad. The novel is, of course, a genre potboiler, practically made for the purpose of being filmed, and yet the script (also written by Bloom) still manages to leave out large sections, both in the (seeming) interest of "cleaning up" the novel to get a more family-friendly rating and in order to streamline things, we assume. Unfortunately, the streamlining, as much streamlining does, gets rid of the vast majority of the stuff that gives the book any emotional impact whatsoever.

The acting is bloody well atrocious. I'm half-amazed any of the principals ever worked in Hollywood again, and completely amazed Kristy Swanson was actually nominated for an award for this (more so that she won!). I've seen less melodramatic soap operas.

There's really nothing else to be said-- if you never read the books, read them instead. If you did, don't see this, for you will end up hating everyone involved with a passion you didn't know you had. Absolutely awful. (half)

Average customer rating:

Wonderful movie but DO NOT BUY TOP TEN MEDIA'S VERSION!
This DVD is TRASH!!!

Flowers in the Attic

Manufacturer: Top Ten New Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

ASIN: B0002KPKOO

Product Description

From back cover, "Corrine, widowed and penniless, moves with her four children into her wealthy, but nasty parent's mansion. To retain her presence in her fatehr's will, Corrine must keep the fact that she has children a secret, becasue her fatehr had disapproved of her marriage. Hiding her children in the attick, she slowly poisons them with arsenic-laced gingerbread cookies. Unfortunately, it isn't until one brother falls ill and dies, that the children discover their motehr's plot to re-marry and start a new life without them. Escaping from the attic during their mother's wedding reception, they run to freedom, but not before exposing the horrible truth about Corrine in front of the entire wedding party."

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful movie but DO NOT BUY TOP TEN MEDIA'S VERSION!.......2005-12-09

Flowers In The Attic is an amazing, unique, and moving movie. However if you buy the one put out by "Top Ten New Media" you will be terribly disappointed. DO NOT BUY THIS VERSION!! You would get a better recording by pointing a camera at a snowy TV and recording it. The picture is horrific, grainy and dark. The scene selections that pop up the minute you put in the DVD actually SHOW THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE. How stupid!

Please be aware when purchasing this DVD. I have placed a photo of the cover of their version, its not the same as the good quality version put out by Anchor Bay. Make sure you buy Anchor Bay's version and NOT TOP TEN NEW MEDIA'S!

This DVD is TRASH!!!.......2005-07-02

This DVD is trash! The picture is very bad is had tons of grain and it looks like the DVD was taken from an old VHS. The audio is crappy too just like VHS audio. There are no extra featurs just a sceene selection. And the DVD cover is bad as well. It looks like the book cover and the cover insert is too small for the case. Dont buy this DVD buy the other one. "Top Ten Media Production Limited" is the company who put out this crap DVD... STAY AWAY!!!

Average customer rating:

Flowers in the Attic [Region 2]
Starring: Louise Fletcher , Victoria Tennant , Kristy Swanson , Jeb Stuart Adams , and Ben Ryan Ganger
Director: Jeffrey Bloom
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00004WIA0

DVD:

DVD

DVD