C2013 James Dittiger
January is a major premiere month for Lifetime movies. So make some popcorn and get ready to live-tweet the two most anticipated films: Flowers in the Attic on Jan. 18 and Lizzie Borden Took an Ax on Jan. 25.
Flowers in the Attic is based on the 1979 book by V.C. Andrews that was adapted into a poorly received (and seriously campy) film in 1987. Even if you’ve never read the book, you probably know Flowers in the Attic as that incest novel. Although the ’80s movie shied away from the taboo topic, Lifetime promises their adaptation goes there. This new version of Flowers in the Attic will stay closer to the book, which tells the story of Cathy Dollanganger, a teenaged girl who is locked in an attic along with her three siblings for more than two years. All four children suffer abuse at the hands of their sadistic grandmother. Yikes.
Lizzie Borden Took an Ax is based on the infamous court trial of Lizzie Borden, who was accused and acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe in Fall River, Mass. in 1892. The title of the movie is taken from the folk rhyme that immortalizes the girl: “Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.” To this day, people still speculate whether Lizzie actually committed the murders.
Although these Lifetime movies are much darker than typical films created by the network, we’re certainly excited for both. If we had to pick which one looks better, well, we’re not sure we could make that decision. Incest or patricide — that’s a tough one.
