Flowers in the Attic (1987) on Netflix
R19871h 33mDramaHorrorMysteryThriller
Chris and Cathy Dollanganger and the twins Cory and Carrie move with their mother Corrine into her parents' mansion after their father dies. Grandmother Olivia locks them in one room.
- Netflix2.0/5
- IMDb5.8/1012,372 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes20%
Trailer
Plot summary
After their father dies suddenly, teenagers Chris and Cathy Dollanganger and the five-year-old twins Cory and Carrie travel with their mother Corrine to the estate of her wealthy parents, who disowned her years earlier. Corrine's mother Olivia, a religious fanatic, agrees to take the family in only if the children are locked in a room, hidden from her dying husband Malcolm. A secret stairway connects that room to the attic, and Corrine is the one visitor they are allowed. Corrine tells them her father's will still promises her a fortune as long as he dies without knowing she has children, and her visits grow less frequent as she takes up the life of the house again.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Flowers in the Attic (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Jeffrey Bloom quit after filming when he could not talk the producers out of shooting a new ending; one of their ideas was that the siblings accidentally kill Corrine during their escape. The replacement ending, partly inspired by Wes Craven's own screenplay, was filmed by someone else.- A December 1986 test screening of Bloom's early cut in the San Fernando Valley drew negative reactions, mostly to the incest scenes between Cathy and Chris; the teenage-girl audience, the books' target demographic, wrote on test cards that they were revolted by those scenes and by Corrine being whipped by her mother.
- Wes Craven was once scheduled to direct and wrote a screenplay draft, but the producers were disturbed by his approach to the incest-laden story, and Jeffrey Bloom ended up with the writing and directing duties.
- Director Jeffrey Bloom had a young Sharon Stone audition for Corrine, the mother, but could not convince the producers to give her the part; he said big names were not considered for any role in the low-budget film.
- V. C. Andrews demanded and received script approval when she sold the film rights to producers Thomas Fries and Sy Levin, and turned down five scripts before choosing Jeffrey Bloom's, who also directed.
- Bloom said in a 2010 interview that nudity and incest scenes were cut not only because of negative test-audience feedback but because the studio and producers wanted a lower rating; even small suggestive shots were cut to get a PG-13 from the MPAA.
- Louise Fletcher called V. C. Andrews to ask about her character's motivation and stayed strictly in character as the Grandmother at all times, even when she was not shooting.
