Lifetime is bringing terrifying incest back to the small screen with its upcoming TV movie adaptation of Flowers In The Attic. The network has given a green light to an adaptation of the controversial V.C. Andrews novel from 1979. Heather Graham and Ellen Burstyn will star, along with four poor, desperate child actors.
For those unfamiliar with Flowers In The Attic, the story goes like this: Four siblings, two boys and two girls, are abandoned by their sketchy mother (Graham) and forced to endure horrible torture and physical abuse while living in their grandmother’s (Burstyn) attic. The children form a family unit of their own, and—as the older brother and sister come of age while taking care of the younger kids—some weird sexual shit goes down. As Deadline puts it, “Their family’s sordid past entraps them further,” and it gets even more uncomfortable from there.
This is, of course, not the first adaptation of the novel: A poorly received but weirdly popular 1987 feature-film version was directed by Jeffrey Bloom and starred Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, Kristy Swanson, and Jeb Stuart Adams. The original novel was also followed by four sequels: Petals On The Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds Of Yesterday, and Garden Of Shadows.