A money-grubbing widow takes her beautiful children to live with their religious zealot grandmother and ailing grandfather. Hell-bent on claiming the substantial inheritance their deaths will bring, she locks her offspring away in the attic and concentrates on disposing of her parents.
VC Andrews’s twisted gothic bestseller gets a rather sanitised makeover in this big-screen adaptation.
Victoria Tennant is unconvincing in the villainous role of a loopy widow who keeps her own children (including Jeb Stuart Adams and Kristy Swanson, the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer) prisoners in a creepy old mansion while she plots to rid her parents (Louise Fletcher and Nathan Davis) of their fortune.
Director Jeffrey Bloom raises the odd fright, but the finale is plain silly.
Corinne
Victoria Tennant
Cathy
Kristy Swanson
Chris
Jeb Stuart Adams
Grandmother
Louise Fletcher
Cory
Ben Ganger
Carrie
Lindsay Parker
Father
Marshall Colt
Grandfather
Nathan Davis
Narrator
Clare C Peck
Director
Jeffrey Bloom