Flowers in the Attic (film, 1987)

When Korin Dollaganger suddenly died her beloved husband, hard times came for her and four children. She was left penniless, without work, and did not know what to do. Life forced her to return to the house of her parents, Foxworths, people who were rich, but cruel and hypocrites.

The father was always against her marriage and deprived of her inheritance. Korin hopes to soften him, and for the sake of this he is deceiving: by agreement with her mother, she locks the children in one of the rooms of the house, so that her seriously ill father does not know anything about them. Korin explains to the children that all this is only for a while - until she gets her father's favor. Children are not allowed to go outside, not even into the house. The only place for games for them is the attic. Over time, their existence worsens. When the youngest son Korin dies, the older children realize that something is wrong here.

It turns out that their mother lives in luxury, since she managed to get her father's favor. By inheritance, all property passes to Korin, but there is one condition in the will - if it turns out that Korin had children from his first marriage, then she loses everything. Then the woman, together with her mother, decides to put the remaining children to death, and herself to remarry a respectable young man. However, the children manage to escape, and they appear, to everyone's surprise, at the wedding ceremony ...

• Louise Fletcher - Grandma Olivia Foxworth
• Victoria Tennant - mother, Corinne Dolanganger-Foxworth
• Christie Swanson - Katie Dollanger
• Jeb Stewart Adams - Chris Dollanger
• Ben Ganger - Corey Dollanger
• Lindsay Parker - Carrie Dollanger
• Marshall Colt - father, Christopher Dollanger
• Nathan Davis - Grandfather Malcolm Foxworth
• Brooke Fries - Servant
• Alex Coba - John Hall
• Leonard Mann - Bart Winslow

The production of the film was accompanied by numerous conflicts, despite the fact that Virginia Andrews, selling the rights to the film adaptation, ensured that the last word in terms of approving the script remained with her. So she rejected as many as five scenarios (among them was the script of Wes Craven , which the producers themselves rejected because of his cruelty), before choosing the script of Jeffrey Bloom, who then became the director of the film. Despite the fact that it was Bloom’s script that was closest to the book, he had no freedom of action in terms of adjusting it (all the discrepancies with the book in the plot were made precisely by the producers) up to the point that he had to hire the composer Christopher Young at the behest of the studios although he himself wanted the music to be written by David Shire.

Christie Swanson claimed that when she was introduced to Virginia Andrews, she said that she was exactly the way she represented Katie Dolanganger. Despite the fact that the book is very popular among teenage girls, Svenson did not read it at one time and did not read it before filming, as she relied entirely on Bloom to see her character. The budget of the film did not allow hiring movie stars of the time - Sharon Stone auditioned for the role of Korin and her candidacy suited Bloom quite well, but the producers refused to approve her.

Since the prequel “Garden of Shadows” had not yet been released then, Louise Fletcher, approved for the role of Olivia, spent the whole night with Virginia Andrews, during which she told her her biography and explained the reasons for her cruelty. Fletcher very scrupulously approached her role and remained in the image of Olivia even in between doubles.

Andrews herself starred in an episodic cameo - after the scene of an unsuccessful attempt to escape Chris and Katie from the roof, she appears for several seconds in the form of a maid wiping the window. Anne Patty, who was present on the set of this episode, said that the role of Andrews is metaphorical: "The writer is a person who wipes the window so that the reader can clearly see the characters' lives."

As a Foxworth mansion, Castle Hill in Massachusetts was filmed, in which many exterior and interior scenes were shot. The final scene at the wedding was filmed at the Gaistone mansion in California.

Alternative Finals

The originally mounted version was presented for test views in December 1986 in the San Fernando Valley . Despite the fact that it was pretty close to the book to the extent that it contained hints of incest between Chris and Katie, the audience (which consisted mainly of teenage girls, on whom the book is intended) was negatively perceived mainly by for these very scenes. The scene was also negatively received, where Korin takes off his blouse in front of his father, preparing to accept the punishment from Olivia, and the original ending of the film, which, however, was very different from the book.

In this finale, Katie, Chris and Carrie also announced their mother’s wedding, but the plot of the scene itself was completely different. According to the plot, their grandfather Malcolm was still alive and also attended the ceremony. When the trinity came there, all those present fell into shock. Korin is trying to justify himself, but in response all those present are only silent. Trinity also says nothing and silently leaves the ceremony. When they are about to leave the front hall, they are attacked with a knife by Olivia, but she is delayed by butler John Hall. After this, Katie, Chris and Carrie leave Foxworth Hall. Also, John Hall's storyline in this edition was more verbose.

The producers demanded that the new finale be shot, as it seemed to them that the audience would prefer to see how the children are taking revenge on Korin. The new ending, in which Korin, as a result of an accident, was strangled by a wedding veil during the fall, oddly enough, was taken from the rejected script by Wes Craven. Bloom refused to remove him and was eventually removed from the post of director, and the new finale was filmed by the director, whose name remained unknown. The new finale itself was shot in California and the actors did not like it at all. Victoria Tennant simply left the set and the understudy was involved in the scene of Korin's death. There is also a version that another third final was filmed, which was shown in the second edition at test views in San Jose and Ohio. His story was never revealed, but actor Alex Koba, who played John Hall, said that his story was better than the final that the producers demanded to shoot - according to him, the worst of all three finals was chosen for the final version.

Since Bloom resigned as a director, the second version of the film was already edited by the producers. In addition to the finale, they still decided to cut out all the hints of incest, as well as the shortest conflicting shots, mainly due to the fact that they did not get a tough age rating, and also to reduce the timing, which would allow the film to get more movie shows and, accordingly, fees. This new version was presented for test viewing in January 1987 and, strangely enough, the audience liked it, which is why it was released for rent almost unchanged. Due to the shootings, the premiere originally planned for March 1987 was postponed to November.

At the moment, there is no evidence that all the cut material has been preserved.

• Saturn Prize 1988
  • nomination in the category "Best Supporting Actress" - Louise Fletcher
• Young Artist Awards -1989
  • Best Young Actress in a Horror Movie - Christy Swanson

In 2014, the female cable channel Lifetime made a film remake of the same name with Heather Graham and Ellen Burstyn in the lead roles ^[1] .

• Misty Stars of Ursa Major

• “Flowers in the Attic” on the Internet Movie Database
• Attic Flowers on the allmovie website
• “Flowers in the Attic” on the Rotten Tomatoes website