If There Be Thorns (film)

If There Be Thorns
Genre	Drama Romance Thriller
Based on	If There Be Thorns  by V. C. Andrews
Screenplay by	Andy Cochran
Directed by	Nancy Savoca
Starring	Heather Graham Rachael Carpani Jason Lewis Mason Cook Jedidiah Goodacre Emily Tennant Mackenzie Gray Glynis Davies
Theme music composer	Douglas Pipes
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Dan Angel Richard D. Arredondo Lisa Hamilton Daly Harvey Kahn Kane Lee Tanya Lopez Charles W. Fries Rob Sharenow Jane Startz
Editor(s)	Mark Shearer
Cinematography	James Liston
Running time	100 minutes
Production company(s)	A+E Studios Fries Film Company, Inc. Front Street Pictures Jane Startz Productions
Distributor	Lifetime Pictures
Release
Original network	Lifetime
Original release	April 5, 2015 (2015-04-05)
Chronology
Preceded by	Petals on the Wind
Followed by	Seeds of Yesterday
External links
Website

If There Be Thorns is a 2015 television film based on the 1980s best-seller novel of the same name. It premiered on April 5, 2015 and was produced by Lifetime.^[1][2]

Plot

Six years after Petals on the Wind, Cathy and Chris are happily married and live in California with Cathy's sons, Jory and Bart. Bart feels lonely and outshone by his brother and parents. One day, a woman entirely dressed in black moves into the mansion next door and invites Bart and Jory over for tea and cookies. During this, she explains to them that she is rich but has no family except for her butler, John Amos. She takes a picture of them for keepsake, and asks them to visit her often. Jory declines, but Bart agrees after she promises to give him anything he wishes for. Bart is curious as to why he has no other relatives, both he and Jory being aware that Chris is their step-father. Jory says that their maternal grandmother is in a mental hospital and that all of Chris' relatives are deceased. Corrine lavishes gifts and treats on Bart, including a pet python, and eventually tells him that she is his grandmother, Corrine. John Amos gives Bart a journal that belonged to his great-grandfather, Malcolm, and makes him promise to never reveal it to his family. Bart reads Malcolm's fanatical entries and writings, referring to beautiful women as sinful and degrading, which begins to leave a deep impression on him.

One night, Cathy places three beds in the house attic, which worries Chris about her behaving similarly to their mother. However, Cathy insists that she is only creating a back-up plan in case her and Chris' secret is ever exposed and facing the possibility of losing her children. She pleads with Chris to adopt Cindy, one of her ballet students, whose mother had died from cancer, and he agrees in order to calm her down about losing their family. Bart soon goes missing and the family discover him unconscious in the woods due to an infected cut on his arm, leading him to be hospitalized. He starts to suspect that his parents are keeping secrets from him, and he confronts Corrine over a painting of a boy who resembles Chris since he believed she had never met him. Corrine confesses that Cathy and Chris are actually both of her children, leaving him horrified at the incestuous relationship of his parents.

Bart starts to withdraw and lash out to his family, greatly worrying them. Bart begins to pressure Corrine to tell him about his biological father, whom he knows nothing about. John Amos continues to influence Bart about the sins and hypocrisy of the family, further straining his relationship with his parents and brother. Jory soon finds the family dog having been killed and begins to believe Corrine to be responsible for the change in Bart. He tries to convince him to stay away from her, but Bart blackmails him into staying quiet and calls him weak for feeling emotion. Feeling pressured by Bart, Corrine admits that his biological father is her late second husband whom Cathy seduced to get back at her. Corrine then reveals how she wants Bart to become the child that she never got to have with his father.

Having become resentful towards Cindy since her adoption into the family, Bart attempts to drown her in the kiddie pool when she calls Cathy "mommy". However, he is stopped by Jory. As punishment, Chris locks him in the attic as punishment as Bart then begins to shout that they are "the devil's spawn" and that Chris is "fornicating with his sister". Realizing that he knows about their secret, Cathy and Chris desperately wonder how he could have found out. Bart is placed in a mental hospital and claims that it was Malcolm who tried to drown Cindy, leading doctors to suspect that he suffers from a mild case of schizophrenia. Jory goes to confront Corrine, who tells him that Cathy and Chris are siblings, which horrifies him. Jory then tells Chris that Corrine is living next door, and he goes to confront her. Corrine begs for Chris to forgive her and let her be part of her grandsons' lives, but what she wants most of all is to raise Bart as her own son. Chris rejects her and demands that she stay away from his family and children.

At Cindy's dance recital, Cathy sees Corrine in the audience and accidentally falls off the stage in shock, injuring her leg to where she is no longer able to dance. Jory's paternal grandmother, Marisha, comes for a visit upon hearing about Cathy's accident. However, she has learned about Chris and Cathy's true relationship and threatens to turn them into the police for incest, wishing to take Jory into her personal custody. Cathy is put on edge and confronts her, but Marisha insists that Jory's current living situation is unhealthy for him and points out how "nuts" Bart is. Bart, overhearing this, storms out of the house with Cathy chasing after him. He runs to John Amos for help who tells him that if he can't deal with the sins and hypocrisy of his family then he shouldn't be with Corrine. He tells him that she is a sinner like his parents due to her committing incest with her half-uncle, which is how Cathy and Chris were born. Cathy goes to Corrine's mansion to find Bart, and finds a portrait of her siblings and herself. She confronts Corrine about her involving herself in her children's lives and orders her to leave her family alone. Corrine pleads for forgiveness, but Cathy rejects her and blames her for ruining the life she and Chris worked hard to build. Corrine asks Cathy if she truly does love Chris, which she confirms and blames Corrine for.

During this, John Amos comes into the room and knocks both women out and forces Bart to lock them in the barn. Corrine wakes up, to which John Amos reveals his disgust of the family for their incestuous bloodline and his plan to burn them alive and finally end the "family's cycle of abomination". Bart, however, intervenes to save his family and soon runs off to get Chris. John Amos sets the barn on fire just as Chris and Bart arrive to rescue Cathy and Corrine. Believing that they are about to die, Corrine professes her love for her children, and Cathy embraces her, confirming her forgiveness. Chris rescues Cathy as Bart tries to save Corrine, but John Amos attempts to attack him. Corrine stabs him with a fire poker and gives Bart enough time to escape as she burns to death alongside John Amos. Realizing how much he loves his parents despite their history, Jory decides to remain with his parents and threatens to his grandmother that he will never forgive her if she reports Cathy and Chris.

Afterwards, Bart calms down and even begins to form something of a good relationship with Cindy. Jory and Melodie make up their strained relationship and everything appears to be returning to normal again. However, Bart begins to secretly dressing like Malcolm and still has his journal, hinting that he has not recovered from his madness.

Cast

• Rachael Carpani as Catherine Dollanganger^[3]
• Jason Lewis as Christopher Dollanganger^[3]
• Mason Cook as Bart Jr.
• Jedidiah Goodacre as Jory Marquet
• Bailey Skodje as Cindy
• Heather Graham as Corrine Foxworth^[4]
• Mackenzie Gray as John Amos
• Robert Moloney as Malcolm Foxworth
• Glynis Davis as Marisha Marquet
• Emily Tennant as Melodie
• Christine Lippa as Emma
• Venna Sood as Dr. Phillips
• Isaiah Lehtiene as School Bus Bully

Sequel

Like the book, the film is set to be followed by the film Seeds of Yesterday, which is also undergoing a film adaptation and is the fourth episode in the Dollanganger Series, and the fourth to be released chronologically.

References

External links

• If There Be Thorns at the Internet Movie Database
• Are you excited for 'If There Be Thorns,' the follow-up to 'Petals on the Wind' and 'Flowers in the Attic'? by Andrea Reiher