Incest is not just part of the movie, it's what the movie is about. Karina, pretty but brainless, starts it off by marrying her half-uncle and having 4 inbred children with him. Then 2 of those inbred children also start having sex with each other as young teenagers.
Empty-headed Karina, an adult with 4 children, even lets her whack-job mother whip her with a switch. Why didn't any of them just push the old bee-atch down a flight of stairs?
For that matter, all the kids had to do was crash that dinner party that Karina had, with her wheel-chair father present and all the friends and neighbors and the lawyer boyfriend: "Guess what folks? We're Karina's 4 kids that she's been hiding up in the attic for the last 2 (?) years. We haven't been to school or outside of the attic in all that time. HELP!!!"
None of the characters is likeable, not even the 2 youngest kids who are cranky, bratty and demanding. I hope they all grow horns, 3 eyes, 7 limbs and 12 fingers from all their inbred diddling!
Actually, the movie is about how children become their parents and cycles of behavior are repeated from generation to generation.
Not all the time. I know someone whose birth-giver is the epitome of a useless waste of space and air. The woman shoved all her children off on others to be raised (and didn't care at all when she thought one might have been being abused, looking into it would have taken too much time from her partying/drinking/drugging). And yet all three of her daughters turned out to be decent, hard-working human beings. But I know, that depends on whether or not someone wants to rise above it.
On the same note, I also know one guy who was raised by decent, normal parents. he's been in and out of juvie and then prison for years.
So no, you don't have to "become your parents".
In Cathy and Christopher's case, they just proved the grandmother was right in her suspicions about them.
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Agreed ... but it can go either way, for sure. Like take the child of an alcoholic. It seems like one of the extremes is going to happen. The child either grows up vowing never to touch alcohol, avoid it like the plague because of the negatives they experienced through their parent. Or they end up becoming an alcoholic as well. It seems this is typically the case of any negative, or even destructive behavior. An example ... my husband grew up in a home that was probably pretty close to a Hoarders type home. It's interesting to see he an his brothers. Several of them ended up almost OCD in their own apartments/houses. Or married someone who *was* OCD. But a couple of them kind of turned out that same, and tend to be pack rats and have the problem.
So it depends on the person ... some of them look at something with their parents and kind of take that vow of "I will *never* let that happen to me. I will *never* do that." And do everything to make sure that is the case. Others inevitably end up repeating the same mistakes or having the same problems.
This film is not "ugly" as you say; it is rather a very pretty looking film with some nice production values and a beautiful cast of actors. and you realize that if the children had exposed their presence to the Grandfather, then the two years in the attic would have been for nothing? The whole idea of them being kept a secret was based on the last Will of the Grandfather, that states if 'Corrine' (not Karina) is proven to have had children with her half uncle, the inheritance would be forfeited. The whole point was to get that inheritance. as for "pushing the Grandmother down the stairs;" most normal people aren't capable of murder. It sounds like you have been watching too much of the "Lifetime" channel.. Apparently you have no concept of the "Gothic novel," or you wouldn't be so offended about this film. The movie effectively shows that behaviors are passed down from parents to their children, who are sometimes doomed to make the same mistakes as their parents. This is possibly the heaviest subject matter that Lifetime has ever attempted, and i give them credit for not shying away from the more controversial aspects of this story.
"IMdB; where 14 year olds can act like jaded 40 year old critics...'
I read all the books and what this book is about depends on your outlook. To me it's more about the imprisonment of the children and how they endure despite abuse due to greed and fanatics religious hypocrisy from the people that supposed to protect them. It just happened to have incest in the story as the reason the fanatical religious hypocritical grandparents use to punish and imprison innocent children. If you use Garden of Shadows as Canon it's the Malcolm Foxworth fault this all has come to pass starting with his obsession with his mother.
all the kids had to do was crash that dinner party that Karina had, with her wheel-chair father present and all the friends and neighbors and the lawyer boyfriend: "Guess what folks? We're Karina's 4 kids that she's been hiding up in the attic for the last 2 (?) years. We haven't been to school or outside of the attic in all that time. HELP!!!"
That's actually how the '80s movie ends.
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Incest is not just part of the movie, it's what the movie is about. Karina, pretty but brainless, starts it off by marrying her half-uncle and having 4 inbred children with him. Then 2 of those inbred children also start having sex with each other as young teenagers.
No, not necessarily. It's certainly a theme in the movie, however, it is not the crux of the story.
Empty-headed Karina, an adult with 4 children, even lets her whack-job mother whip her with a switch. Why didn't any of them just push the old bee-atch down a flight of stairs?
What was she to do? She had nowhere else to go and if she had fought back, I can assume that things would only get worse. I'm also sure that knocking the old hag down a flight of stairs would only destroy the mother's chances of getting her name back into the will, so that's probably why she just decided to grin and bare it all, rather than fighting back.
Also, I'm not sure how you managed to get "Karina" from Corinne.
For that matter, all the kids had to do was crash that dinner party that Karina had, with her wheel-chair father present and all the friends and neighbors and the lawyer boyfriend: "Guess what folks? We're Karina's 4 kids that she's been hiding up in the attic for the last 2 (?) years. We haven't been to school or outside of the attic in all that time. HELP!!!"
Obviously you have not seen the 1987 film...
None of the characters is likeable, not even the 2 youngest kids who are cranky, bratty and demanding. I hope they all grow horns, 3 eyes, 7 limbs and 12 fingers from all their inbred diddling!
I agree with the OP. The acting in this was horrible. Heather Graham always had this bug-eyed, horrified and frightened look on her face after damn near everything she said. The grandmother was about as scary as a 6-week old kitten.
Then there's the script...
Was Corrine on their side or not?? She kept promising them she'd get them out ASAP, but then is out galavanting and sailing with old friends and shoving her tits in other men's faces. I thought she was grief-stricken over her recently dead husband? It's sounds like she was just as heartless, evil and self-centered as the ugly grandmother.
And how does no one realize the kids aren't enrolled at a school?
All Corrine talked about was her future fortune. "We just have to wait until grandfather croaks, then we'll be millionaires, hee hee!" Really? I thought she got along great and had a close relationship with the dad, yet she's counting the minutes until he drops dead? Such cheesy, corny writing.
The book/movie is set in the 50s - no one tracked the movement and school enrolment of children moving to another state.
Corrine was on their side at first, and believed the children would not be locked up for long because her father was at death's door. The major theme of the book is that her greed for the inheritance changed her to the point where she stopped loving her children in her desperation to get the money and then keep it.