History Film / FlowersInTheAttic

* AdaptationalConsent: In the book, the sex between Chris and Cathy is rape, or QuestionableConsent at best. In the movie, it's 100% consensual. There are a few reasons for this. In the book, Cathy and Chris's growing {{UST}} is a subplot, sure, but it's not the ''core'' of the story. Now all these years later, the story is famous specifically ''for the incest''--that's what views are watching for. Lifetime was planning on doing all 4 books, and Chris and Cathy as a couple is central to the series as a whole. Without Cathy as a narrator, it would be very difficult to convey the nuance of that scene on screen even if they wanted to. So while it's a significant change, it's an understandable one.

* WhamLine: The numerous [[TheReveal reveals]] in the final act are climaxed by Grandmother's line "[[spoiler:It was your mother who poisoned you, not me!]]" This is a change from the novel, where Chris figures it out on his own.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Chris still has visible abs even after being locked in the attic for over two years. While abs do usually form when a person doesn't eat a lot of food, the rest of his physique wouldn't look that toned if he was being malnourished--no matter what his exercise routine is. EnforcedTrope, as asking a young actor to become malnourished is unethical.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: It removes the mention that [[spoiler: Malcolm Foxworth changed his will to say that Corrine would be disinherited if it was ever proven that she had children with Chris Sr]]. Thus it removes the most obvious motive for [[spoiler: poisoning the children, making it look like she simply just [[AdaptationalVillainy didn't care about them]] anymore]].

* AdaptationalModesty: In the book Chris walks in on Cathy topless admiring her new breasts--and begins to admire them right along with her. The movie changes this so Chris only accidentally sees Cathy in her underwear. An EnforcedTrope, as Kiernan Shipka was 13 during the filming.

* AdaptationalConsent: In the book, the sex between Chris and Cathy is rape, or QuestionableConsent at best. In the movie, it's 100% consensual. There are a few reasons for this. In the book, Cathy and Chris's growing {{UST}} is a subplot, sure, but it's not the ''core'' of the story. Now ''Flowers'' is famous specifically ''for the incest''--that's what views are watching for. Lifetime was planning on doing all 4 books, and Chris and Cathy as a couple is central to the series as a whole. Without Cathy as a narrator, it would be very difficult to convey the nuance of that scene on screen even if they wanted to. So while it's a significant change, it's an understandable one.

* Mason Dye as Chris
* Ava Telek as Carrie
* Maxwell Kovach as Cory

Starring Creator/KiernanShipka as Cathy, Mason Dye as Chris, Ava Telek as Carrie, Maxwell Kovach as Cory, Creator/HeatherGraham as Corrine, and Creator/EllenBurstyn as Olivia.

In 2014, {{Creator/Lifetime}} did a MadeForTVMovie associated of [[Literature/FlowersInTheAttic the book]].

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flowersintheattic_4756.jpg]]

''Flowers in the Attic'' is the 1987 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] of the 1979 [[Literature/FlowersInTheAttic novel of the same name]] by Creator/VCAndrews.

From the outside, the Dollangangers appear to be the perfect family: happily married parents Chris and Corrine and four beautiful children Christopher, Cathy, Carrie, and Cory. But when father Christopher is killed on the night of his thirty-sixth birthday, the family is quickly financially devastated. Lack of savings and Corrine's inability to find work mean that they must sell their possessions and then their house. Soon there is only one place left for them to go.

Corrine takes her four children to Foxworth Hall, her childhood home, to live with her parents. Years ago her father disinherited her over her marriage. She plans to win her way back into his heart so that she can provide for her children. The grandmother permits them to stay on one condition: the children must live in a secluded upstairs room with only the attic for extra space to live and play.

And it all goes downhill from there as physical and emotional abuse, the lure of money, and an entire attic full of ugly family secrets all come into play.

Another film adaptation was produced for the Creator/{{Lifetime}} network in 2014.

----
!!The film adaptation provides examples of:
* AbusiveParents: And Grandparent. First, the grandmother is this to both Corrine and her four grandchildren. Then, it's not long at all before Corrine herself to start acting this way towards them.
* AdaptationDyeJob: Grandmother has grey hair in the books (and it turns out to be a wig) but is red-haired in the film.
* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Cathy calls her oldest brother Christopher throughout the whole film, which comes across as a little strange. It's not explained that since the father was Christopher as well, he was called Chris while Jr. was Christopher.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: The movie is set in the 1980s while the book was set in the 1950s. As a result Corrine going back to her rich family for money instead of finding a job herself is a little strange since there were less housewives and stay-at-home mothers in the 80s than there were in the 50s. Also Chris and Cathy are aged up to around 15 and 16 (they are 14 and 12 respectively in the book) so one wonders why they didn't work either. Although it should be noted that in the book, Corrine was heavily in credit card debt, which would have been more common in the 1980s than the 1950s.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the book, Olivia has gray hair. Plus she is described as tall and mannish, with a square jaw. In the movie, Olivia has red hair, manicured nails, and make-up.
* AgeLift: Christopher is 14 in the book and Cathy twelve (though they're imprisoned for three years). The film ages them up to fifteen or sixteen.
* AlliterativeFamily: The man's name is Christopher, with his wife Corrine and there four children; Christopher Jr., Cathy, and twins Cory and Carrie.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Used by the Grandmother in her sermons and lectures, proclaiming the children the "Devil's Spawn."
* BigBadDuumvirate: Corrine and Olivia.
* BigFancyHouse: Foxworth Hall.
* BigNO: Cathy when Grandmother knocks the music box off the mantelpiece.
** This was also Cathy's reaction to when her father died.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Not really that big, but definitely screwed up.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: The most famous thing about this adaptation is that it removed the incest that the story is so famous for in the first place.
-->'''[[https://www.thedailybeast.com/lifetimes-flowers-in-the-attic-review-the-incest-is-there-the-strange-magic-is-not One reviewer]]:''' Leaving the incest out of a ''Flowers'' adaptation is like turning Herman Melville's ''Literature/MobyDick'' into a movie about a man who's very determined to catch a flounder.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The cookies, or more specifically, the arsenic-laced sugar topping]].
* CompressedAdaptation: The film is only 90 minutes long. As such, a lot of the emotional drama of the novel as the children are slowly worn away by their attic prison is glossed over with bits of narration.
* CreatorCameo: V. C. Andrews appears very briefly washing a window.
* DaddysGirl: Cathy. Corrine aspires to become this again.
* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler: Corrine]] in the film. She does die in the third book but [[spoiler: in a fire]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: The Grandmother punishes severely for the most minor infractions, including simply existing [[spoiler: as the products of incest]].
* EvilMatriarch: The Grandmother.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first shot we see of Corrine involves her looking at herself in the mirror, instead of her daughter who is right next to her.
* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: Corrine was personally poisoning the cookies that her children ate.]]
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Corrine turns from loving mother to uncaring shrew]].
* FallenPrincess: Deconstructed. Corrine comes from vast wealth and gave it all up to marry her husband but once he's dead she won't work and returns to her family, hoping to be rich again. [[spoiler: She ends up trying to kill off her own children just to get her inheritance]].
* TheFilmOfTheBook
* FriendsRentControl: A line from Cathy's narration, "I got a job to put Chris through medical school". And what kind of job would an uneducated teenage girl get that would pay for medical school?
* GildedCage: The children's attic prison initially comes across as this when they are fed regularly and frequently given expensive presents. It becomes a nothing more than a cage, however, when their mother increasingly neglects.
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Initially played straight with the Dollanganger family, but eventually subverted as the family breaks down.
* HulkSpeak: Cory and Carrie don't speak good "'cause Momma don't like them no more."
* {{Hypocrite}}: Of the super-religious type. The Grandmother takes the incestuous relationship her daughter had committed, and used it as an excuse to starve, abuse, lie, blackmail, dehumanize children,and commit outright murder, among other things. Also, it is mentioned once that the grandfather feels like he is entitled to act however he wants and do whatever he wants because he funded a church.
* IncestSubtext: The scene with the father giving Cathy her music box when she's alone in her bed, topped off with giving her a ring in a posture that looks very like a proposal. [[spoiler: Cathy and Christopher's relationship is relegated to subtext at best.]]
* InnocentBlueEyes: Initially played straight with the Dollanganger family, but eventually subverted as the family breaks down.
* InsufferableGenius: Christopher wants to be a doctor, which apparently involves knowing everything there is to know about everything in the world. It gets to the point where Cathy shuts him up with a snide remark.
* KickTheDog: Grandmother breaks an ornament Cathy's father gave her ForTheEvulz. She actually didn't do it in the book because Cathy had to leave the ornament behind when they moved.
* [[LoserSonOfLoserDad Loser Kids Of Loser Parents]]: The grandmother thinks that the kids, especially Chris and Cathy, [[spoiler: are somehow incestuous by nature because they were inbred.]]
* MamaBear: Averted with Corrine, who doesn’t give a rat's ass about her kids. PlayedStraight with Cathy, who is a surrogate mother to her little brother and sister.
* MommasBoy: Christopher will not tolerate any criticism or questioning of their mother.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: With arsenic laced desserts]].
* ParentalAbandonment: Their father is dead and their mother just flat out abandoned them.
* PerfectPoison: [[spoiler: The children are slowly fed arsenic to get rid of them.]]
* PetTheDog: When Cory becomes very ill, it's the ''grandmother'' who insists he be taken to the hospital.
* PolarOppositeTwins: Cory is quiet, polite and gentle. Carrie is loud, adamant and forceful.
* PromotionToParent: Chris and Cathy become surrogate parents for their much younger twin siblings Cory and Carrie. They called it a game, with Chris as the daddy, Cathy as the mommy and Cory and Carrie as the children. It becomes more serious when it is made clear that their real mother doesn’t seem to want them any more.
* RichBitch: Corrine becomes one.
* SpoiledBrat: Corrine quickly becomes this when she gets a taste of the good life again.
* ATasteOfTheLash: Corrine is whipped to atone for her time spent "living in sin." Seventeen lashes for her seventeen years of marriage.
* TeamPet: Renamed Fred in the film.
* TraumaticHaircut: Done more directly in the film, where Grandmother knocks Cathy down and cuts her hair off.
* TheUnfavorite: Corrine appears to be jealous of her husband's attention to Cathy from the beginning of the film.
* UnnamedParent: The grandparents are only known as The Grandmother and The Grandfather. In the film, the father's name is never given.
* WomanInWhite: Corrine on her wedding day. She is determined to pass herself off as the virginal bride.
** Cathy notably wears a white nightgown when her grandmother attacks her.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: The movie is set in the 1980s while the book was set in the 1950s. As a result Corrine going back to her rich family for money instead of finding a job herself is a little strange since there were less housewives and stay-at-home mothers in the 80s than there were in the 50s. Also Chris and Cathy are aged up to around fifteen and sixteen (they are fourteen and twelve respectively in the book) so one wonders why they didn't work either. Although it should be noted that in the book, Corrine was heavily in credit card debt, which would have been more common in the 1980s than the 1950s.