IF THERE BE THORNS (2015)

Wow, didn't realize Lifetime was cranking these out this fast.  The third in the weird, creepy, yet endlessly fascinating saga of the Dollanganger children, If There Be Thorns is where the book series starts to unravel a bit.  Flowers in the Attic was fascinating reading, even if you felt a bit like a perv enjoying it; Petals on the Wind, well, we all wanted to find out what happened to the kids afterward.  After that, the series became lurid and lackluster at the same time; here the story of Chris and Cathy Dollanganger (now Sheffield), living their lives as a married couple even though they're biologically brother and sister (yes, you read that right) and raising their two sons (by Cathy, via two different men, neither of them Chris; things don't go quite that nuts) in an idyllic life ... until a mysterious woman moves in next door who will prove to bring all past sins home.  Meh acting and writing, plus a melodramatic religious zealot storyline, don't help - and yet, as the film goes on, Mason Cook in particular (playing youngest son Bart) helps to make it all sickly fascinating, somehow.  (rated TV-14)  C-