OCTOBER 10, 2014 10:09AM
#BadGrandma: Twitter in the Attic
FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC
Released: 2014
Director: Deborah Chow
Writer: Kayla Alpert, VC Andrews
Notable Cast: Heather Graham, Ellen Burstyn, Kiernan Shipka
Plot: Based on the wildly popular VC Andrews southern gothic sensation, Flowers in the Attic is the tale of an insipid widow and her four kids who seeks to maintain the lifestyle she's accustomed to ... by winning back the love of her psycho religious grandparents and locking her four secret children away in an attic, leaving them at the mercy of #BadGrandma. The kids mature into adolescents in that attic and as they struggle to survive cabin fever and their Grandma's nastiness, they eventually discover the awful truth about their mother, and um ... the older brother and sister discover each other. Ick.
Commentary: "These are not for you," said my older sister, snatching away her paperback copy of Flowers in the Attic from my meddlesome, pesky twelve year old hands.
So of course, when she was gone I had to sit down and devour the whole damn three books in three days.
The books are irritatingly florid and overwrought. The writing is bad. But they are un-flipping-putdownable.
This 2014 Lifetime adaptation lacked oomph, ethusiasm and drama, even if it kept the incest (Wes Craven's adaptation in 1987 lacked the incest but succeeded in creep and atmosphere - it's rumored the film was going to be all-out horror).
So Kiernan Shipke was Cathy, the elder daughter. A bit of a dull performance. The good news for the Mad Men camp is that the movie makes Betty Draper look like a warm and excellent mother.
Particularly excruciating was Heather Graham's narcotic performance as the mother of the attic kids.
I also note this trivia: Louise Fletcher of Exorcist II: The Heretic played The Grandmother in Wes Craven's version, while Ellen Burstyn of The Exorcist played The Grandmother in THIS version.
When it aired I had the lovely pleasure of live-tweeting it along with many other folks. This was my first live-tweet party and I had a blast.
And now - Twittermania!
What We're Afraid Of: Flowers in the Attic could be found under the horror section of bookstores in the 1980's, back when bookstores had horror sections. But it's more of a lurid, gruesome and transgressive romance.
I suppose the monster in this story is The Grandmother, although the mother's evil is more egregious. And what do both mean? Fears of child abuse, of abandonment, of being controlled by malevolent family, and I guess some fear of burgeoning adulthood and sexuality.
Also, more "economic anxiety": the weak and corruptible mom was under the monetary thumb of both her parents and her husband, and the kids were of course powerless. People become monsters when they need to support their cushy lifestyle.
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Comments
Definitely a creepy
story. I just don't like it but in a morbid way had to watch a little
anyway. "Sally" from Mad Men just drooped and it was sad. Ellen B.
was scary but still they are all tough roles to play with any zest.
I'd almost like to see it one in comedic form.
R&R ;-) Real life horror stories are much more terrorizing than prophylactic monsters.
Zanelle - agreed. Although with Heather Graham's awful acting, you could almost call this one high camp.
jmac - "prophylactic monsters"? I thought they stopped using condoms in porn? :p
jmac - "prophylactic monsters"? I thought they stopped using condoms in porn? :p
Of course, what is more
creepy...V.C. Andrews died in 1986...but another writer has taken over
writing AS V.C. Andrews. Apparently bad fiction never dies, either...
KC, so true! VC Andrews became an industry after her death....pretty amazing if you think about it.
Maybe also the fear of
hereditary evil—the sins, so to speak, of the grandmother being passed
down to the mother, then down to the children, unto the seventh
generation. Louise Fletcher! Was there ever a more terrifying, more
thoroughly pernicious, character than the one she played in “One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”?
Heather Graham, heh,
quite a doll. Admittedly a Barbie doll, but my goodness have you seen
her shuck her clothes in some of her R rated movies? whoo.
I missed the remake but still remember the original, with Kristy Swanson, which came out when I was young and horny, and crushing hard on Kristy. Heh again.
Yknow there was a sequel, PETALS ON THE WIND, which picks up the action ten yrs after they escape from 'The Attic'...
Cathy has become an aspiring ballet dancer,
Chris is in medical school,
Cathy meets Julian Marquet, a fellow dancer,
and Cathy finds herself attracted to him.
On their first date, he invites her to go to New York with him
to try for a leading in Romeo and Juliet,
which she accepts.
But...
Later that night, Cathy and Chris admit
that they still have feelings for each other
and give into their passion, making love.
Cathy, however, insists
that they can't be together and repeat their parents mistakes
and need to find others to love
in order to live normal lives.
I missed the remake but still remember the original, with Kristy Swanson, which came out when I was young and horny, and crushing hard on Kristy. Heh again.
Yknow there was a sequel, PETALS ON THE WIND, which picks up the action ten yrs after they escape from 'The Attic'...
Cathy has become an aspiring ballet dancer,
Chris is in medical school,
Cathy meets Julian Marquet, a fellow dancer,
and Cathy finds herself attracted to him.
On their first date, he invites her to go to New York with him
to try for a leading in Romeo and Juliet,
which she accepts.
But...
Later that night, Cathy and Chris admit
that they still have feelings for each other
and give into their passion, making love.
Cathy, however, insists
that they can't be together and repeat their parents mistakes
and need to find others to love
in order to live normal lives.
yknow, incest is on the increase ever since the 2008 collapse of the capitalist economy, i heard.
people just dont wanna lay out the cash for traditional dates
with people who may or may not sleep with them.
more victims of wall st greed!!
people just dont wanna lay out the cash for traditional dates
with people who may or may not sleep with them.
more victims of wall st greed!!
I never read FITA but
loads of other people around me were reading it when it came out. It's a
shame that this filmed version doesn't work as it features Ellen
Burstyn and Kiernan Shipka, actors from very different ears who I both
like.
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