4/5 good movie
  by Sandra Weaver
The book is much better but the movie was fairly good. I was somewhat disappointed with the movie, maybe if I had watched the movie first then read the book...or the series of books, which are really good.

3/5 I have not read the book
  by C Wahlman (Merrillville, IN)
It seems to make a great deal of difference if you read the book AND see the film. I have not read any of the books, so keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that although the book may be in a completely different class than the book, it is interesting to see a different interpretation (like two sketches of the same form: one a Monet, the other a child's drawing).

The Dollanganger family is extremely happy. Mom, Dad, and four precious children (all with names starting with "C") are the picture of perfection, until on dad's birthday he does not come home. Dad has died, and now the family is in shambles. After selling everything they own, mom decides to take the kids to her parent's mansion. Relatives they have never met and a creepy isolated mansion with even creepier help, make for a very uncomfortable homecoming. The kids find out that in order to for their mother to win back her father's affection (and fortune) they cannot exist in the house, so they are locked away in the attic. A stern grandmother makes them even more uneasy ... apparently some family secrets make it impossible for her to love her own grandchildren. Things go from bad to worse as mother's visits become more infrequent and grandmother stops feeding them. The kids want to love their mother, but also realize the insanity of the situation. How will they escape, and what will become of their little family?

I thought this was an average film. A creepy gothic film is executed well with this plot. The acting was decent, definitely creepy, by all involved. The scenery was apt. There was nothing stellar in this film, but it is definitely not that bad. And the film did leave a lot to the imagination, so I will be reading the books to fill in the gaps. Recommended.

4/5 Holy Messed Up Movie Batman!
  by Michael S. Milano (Rochester, NY)
I watched this movie a lot when I was a kid. I would blame it on my mother, like when she made me watch "Mommie Dearest" just to show me how lucky I was that I had a good childhood, but this was when I was being watched during the day at my aunts house while mom and dad were working, so I basically watched it on the sly. Watching the movie now, I see how truly crazy the story is, and how much you don't realize or pay attention to as a kid. Not only are these poor siblings in the middle of a fight between their mother and grandparents for being spawn of a relationship between Uncle and Neice, but they are locked away in the east wing of this huge mansion with nothing but the bedroom they sleep in and the attic above the room. For being such an abomination in the eyes of their bible bashing Grandmother, they are forced to endure little to no contact with the only family they have left, the verge of starvation and slowly watch their mother change while she prepares to start a new life of redemption, leaving the memory of her 4 children behind, never to be remembered again. Will the children escape this hell they have stumbled upon? Watch and find out.

3/5 Hrm...
  by M (Gnawing away at your reality)
I bought this movie many years ago - when VHS was still around. I still have the tape but am now unable to play it anymore as I have no more VCR. I don't know if I will be buying this on DVD due to the quality of the movie. VCA was still alive when this movie was made (even playing the tiny little role of a window-washer), but the movie was released in 1987, so I'm not sure if VCA knew what was going to happen in the ending of the movie (which was very disappointing and NOTHING like the book. Infact, the ending of this movie also changes Petals on the Wind)

We all know that movies are never exactly like the book, but so many vital elements were left out and ignored. In the movie, we do not see the grandfather at all, and all of the f*ed-upness in the book is never truly shown in the movie. By the f*ed-upness I mean Olivia forcing Corrine to show the whip marks to her children, the constant lectures on how they're devil's spawn, the older two catching a glimpse of their grandfather, etc. All the subtle elements in the book that explain the story to its fullest are not even touched upon by the movie, so if you never read the book, this movie will feel confusing for you. If you're a die-hard VCA fan, you might want this as part of your collection for the sake of completeness.

One good part of this movie was Louise Fletcher herself. She made a great Olivia, and if the movie had followed the book more closely, this was a movie in which she could have really defined her role.

1/5 A totally pointless film adaptation...
  by CoffeeGurl (MA)
V.C. Andrews created quite a controversial gothic story with the Dollaganger series, which began with the incredible Flowers in the Attic. The novels were very successful, and it didn't come as a surprise that a movie version was released in 1987. But what was the point of making the film if it would not follow the main themes found in the book?

I won't go into detail about the plot. If you've read the book, then you know what it's about. This film was meant to be a standalone (the other four books would not be made into films), and some changes had to be made. Cathy (Kristin Swanson) and Chris (Jeb Stuart Adams) are a few years older in the film, as are the two younger kids. The ebb and flow had to be different and the ending had to be changed so that there would be no cliffhangers. All of that was understandable. But what about the nature vs. nurture theme? The grandmother (Louise Fletcher) is a religious fanatic, hates her daughter Corrine (Victoria Tennant) for marrying her half-uncle, and sees her daughter's offspring as "devil's issue." It is an irony that Cathy and Chris end up doing the very things their grandmother abhors because they get locked up together in a room with an attic, with no one but each other, playing mom and dad to their younger siblings for three years. Yet none of this happens in the film. Well, you get the vanilla version of it. This is a run-of-the-mill gothic story with some bad acting combined with some very cheesy dialogue. The worst acting goes to Tennant. The woman had a blank expression throughout the film. I've seen mannequins who show more emotion than she does. The only great part about this film is V.C. Andrew's one-second long cameo appearance as a window-cleaning maid. This film is simply awful. Do yourself a favor: if you haven't read Flowers in the Attic and its four follow-ups, watch this film first, then read the books. You'll thank me later.