Reviews

No wonder this wasn't even listed in my comprehensive special edition video book covering thousands of movies ~ not even as a dog. Since yesterday, 10/16/06, was Angela Lansbury's 81st birthday they featured her movies on Turner Classics. Evidently Jane Fonda must still have some pull with Ted, because her performance didn't warrant viewing; it made ME uncomfortable watching her. Angela, in a recent interview, mentioned her disappointment with that movie. No surprise! That's 90 minutes I'll never get back. However, I made a lovely cauliflower au gratin and a pumpkin pie while the movie played on our kitchen TV (I kept thinking something would happen or the story would get better; it didn't).

True this movie is close to a classic but it's so darkly chilling and gloomy that it was hard to tolerate. The performances of some of the kids were so intense that I wonder how they were effected. Talk about child actors spiraling downward. That poor little Gerty must be a basket case. One reviewer shares my sentiments in perceptively calling 'Our Mother's House' an "ancestor of 'The Cement Garden'." As a child my daughter was traumatized when I took her to see 'Cement Garden' and she still reminds me that it damaged her psyche. So, despite excellent portrayals by talented, professional young actors I would advise against exposing children, even horror/thriller jaded kids of today, to this dark, creepy story.