First let's talk about the movie and its many problems, to be succinct it sucks. The screenplay is the first major flaw in this movie; it didn't fleshed out the characters into believable human beings. Not even the character of Cathy and she's the narrator. The closest to a multidimensional character in the movie is the oldest brother Chris. Everyone else seems to be just mannequins standing around waiting for the next plot twist to fall on them. The acting for the most part is stiff from just about everyone with the exception of Louise Fletcher, she was the only one who seemed to bother to act and she wasn't that good either. Her performance paled in comparison to another deranged religious fanatic, Piper Laurie's Margaret White, 'Carrie' 's mother. How about just plain quietly deranged? Judith Anderson's Mrs. Danvers from the Hitchcock version of 'Rebecca' comes to mind. Everyone else seems to be just mouthing the words without understanding the circumstances around them. The movie moved at a snail's pace, which is an insult to snails, they move faster than this flick. And there doesn't seem to be any imagination to the directions in terms of camera angles and movement. The set decoration and designs are just plain awful, did they have to use floodlights in every scene? That has got to be the brightest attic I've ever seen. By the way when was the story set? I saw the oldest boy wearing Nikes and jeans in one scene, yet when they finally left the house they were wearing clothes that have been outdated 50 years earlier than 1987 when the film was made. Finally, back to the story line, the final confrontation with the mother was not the least bit believable. No self-respecting daytime soap opera would allow such a contrived and awkward confrontation to occur. I've never read the V.C. Andrews novels, and from other people's comments in Amazon.com, thank god! They were favorable comments but the novels seem to be filled with deceit, betrayal, revenge, and incest. Is everybody sure that V.C. Andrews wasn't a pseudonym used by Jackie Collins? Maybe some executive from Lifetime or Oxygen would turn the whole book series into a Maxi-miniseries. If they do please do not blame me for imparting that lack of wisdom to them.