There are odd movies and strange movies. But “Flowers in the Attic” (Lifetime, 8 p.m.) which makes its premiere tonight is super crazy.
In many way it seems brittle and stilted and oddly paced. But it’s strange and scary elements, with big dollops of incest and imprisonment, child abuse and gothic evil make it something of a weirdo classic. Even so, the film has the feel of being an almost slavishly reverent to the cult book by V.C. Andrews that has sold an astonishing 40 million copies since it was first published in the 80s.
Ellen Burstyn is almost too evil as the grandmother who imprisons the children she thinks are from a demon seed. Heather Graham balances the role of a mother who you want to believe before she starts changing into someone you want to hate. Among the kids, it’s the coming of age project for Kiernan Shipka, who is so good as Sally Draper of “Mad Men.”
I can’t say I actually recommend it. But it looks like something you have to see, that will be around, and become its own kind of twisted classic.
When it was presented at the TV Critics Association winter press tour last week, Lifetime executive Robert Sharenow said, “We really cannot wait for this thing to premiere. I think the Internet may melt down in anticipation.”
More than that, he said, he announced the network is going to present the sequel, “Petals on the Wind,” “We are so bullish on this movie that we are already planning on the sequel,” Sharenow said, “which doesn’t happen very often.”