Flowers in the Attic (1987)

Children are hidden away in the attic by their conspiring mother and grandmother.

Director:

Jeffrey Bloom

Writers:

Virginia C. Andrews (novel) (as V.C. Andrews), Jeffrey Bloom (screenplay)

Stars:

Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, Kristy Swanson

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Louise Fletcher	...	Grandmother
Victoria Tennant	...	Mother
Kristy Swanson	...	Cathy
Jeb Stuart Adams	...	Chris
Ben Ryan Ganger	...	Cory (as Ben Ganger)
Lindsay Parker	...	Carrie
Marshall Colt	...	Father
Nathan Davis	...	Grandfather
Brooke Fries	...	Flower Girl
Alex Koba	...	John Hall
Leonard Mann	...	Bart Winslow
Bruce Neckels	...	Minister
Gus Peters	...	Caretaker
Clare Peck	...	Narrator (voice) (as Clare C. Peck)

Storyline

After the death of her husband, a mother takes her kids off to live with their grandparents in a huge, decrepit old mansion. However, the kids are kept hidden in a room just below the attic, visited only by the grandmother, and their mother, who becomes less and less concerned about them and their failing health, and more concerned about herself and the inheritance she plans to win back from her dying father, to the point of murder...

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Plot Keywords:

incest | uncle niece incest | girl | partial female nudity | bathtub | 

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Taglines:

They have come to a house where secrets are kept....where the future is haunted by the past.....where the innocent live in the shadow of sin.....where a dark legacy awaits to destroy all who defy it.....

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 November 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Flores en el ático

Filming Locations:

Castle Hill, Crane Estate - 280 Argilla Road, Ipswich, Massachusetts, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$15,151,736

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fries Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Ryder Sound Services)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite being a popular novel among female teenagers, Kristy Swanson had not read it when she was cast in the film. She decided not to read it afterwards, instead preferring to trust Jeffrey Bloom's vision of how Cathy was supposed to be.

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Goofs

Cathy is wearing knee pads when she throws herself on the floor in an attempt to catch the ballerina figurine.

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Quotes

Mother: Nonsense, you know I don't have any children. Get out. I'll not have my wedding day ruined by a cruel, evil prank.
Cathy: YOU'RE the one who's cruel and evil, Mother, you kept us locked up in that attic and you said you'd come for us after your father died. YOU NEVER CAME!
Chris: You couldn't let anybody find out about us, because if you did you'd be disinherited.
Mother: It's not true! No, what proof do they have?
Chris: [holds up a dead mouse] It died from eating the same cookies that Corrie ate.
Mother: Who's Corrie?
Chris: He was your...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in Trailer Trauma 3: 80s Horrorthon (2017)

User Reviews

Why isn't anyone else ripping their hair out at this movie?!

I had been debating with myself for years about watching this movie. Having been an avid fan of the entire series of "Flowers in the Attic" books, I knew there was a strong possibility the film would do nothing but irritate me by way of poor acting and even poorer script-writing. What I didn't realise, was how much of a massacre the film was going to make of such a beautifully written book.

First off, and I'm sorry - but it is a shallow comment to make: Those kids; Chris, Cathy, Carrie and Cory are supposed to be stunning. "The Dresden dolls" because they are *that* striking. Whoever cast the film seemed to have sorted through the "Village of the Damned" rejects in order to find the two youngest (scariest looking couple of children I have ever seen) Chris was, I'm sorry - just nothing like the original character and while Kristy Swansen is very pretty - she just didn't cut it as Cathy.

Which brings me to my next point - Cathy's thing is ballet - she's an excellent dancer - and aside from a couple of pathetic scenes involving Swansen trying to get her leg higher than her hip-bone, they ignored the one thing that the entire character centres around.

And just out of interest - where was the relationship between Cathy and Chris? I know having an incestuous relationship played out in film has got to be controversial - but don't bother even picking up a pen to write a script for a story if you have absolutely no intention of keeping the central story-lines. And if you do, don't have the audacity to pass it off as the film version of a highly acclaimed book just by giving it the same title.

"Flowers in the Attic" was based on a true story. (As stated in the prologue of the copy I have anyway). How - HOW is it OK to just butcher such an awesome piece of work? It's like passing Pokemon off as the Mona-Lisa; sick and entirely wrong. They have completely missed the point of the story: It wasn't about 4 kids sitting in an attic waiting to die or be let out; it was about four children adapting to a situation wherein they have to become adults long before their time. It was about how the relationships between the siblings evolved, and the psychological consequences of losing one parent through death and another through greed.

For anyone who has watched the film and is ready to dismiss the books because of it - seriously; don't be fooled by such an obvious lacklustre attempt at a book adaptation. There are not enough words in the English language to explain how wrong this film is - how utterly and completely pathetic the script, setting, acting, casting, directing and the 101 other ways in which the movie sucks beyond belief.

And just... just don't get me started on the ending. Every time I think about it I just want to do nasty things involving pointy objects to the script-writer.

Please tell me someone agrees with me?