Flowers in the Attic 2014

Brian Lowry, Variety: The problem is [it] always sounds like it's more fun, or at least more kooky, than it actually plays onscreen. Read more

Genevieve Valentine, AV Club: Though the five-book Dollanganger series eventually descends into straight-faced plot-pretzels (the likes of which will probably show up on The Spoils Of Babylon) much of the Gothic drama in this installment is quaint by cable standards. Read more

Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times: The problem is not that it's just terrible, but that it's also no fun. At all. Read more

David Hinckley, New York Daily News: V.C. Andrews' popular and creepy 1979 novel Flowers in the Attic gets no favors from the scriptwriters in this latest adaptation. Read more

Mike Hale, New York Times: The last thing you want to do is play it straight. Unfortunately, that's the only way Lifetime knows how to play it Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: It was adapted into a middling creepy film in 1987. Now Lifetime has remade it as a sharper creepy TV movie. Read more

Willa Paskin, Slate: Flowers in the Attic acts as if it is just another life-affirming Lifetime movie about surviving terrible situations. Read more

Gail Pennington, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The only way to review "Flowers in the Attic" is to consider how well it does what it sets out to do: that is, adapt the book faithfully and still make an entertaining film. For that, it gets a B+. Read more

Lori Rackl, Chicago Sun-Times: This tale of a twisted family's misguided quest for love and money is still creepy and atmospheric enough to make for pulpy television fun. Read more

Ed Bark, Uncle Barky: It all seems fairly preposterous until one takes into account that stranger things have happened in real life. Read more

Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Magazine/Vulture: All the actors are spot-on, even ones who have just a few scenes. Read more

Hank Stuever, Washington Post: I was particularly delighted when the children figured out that their mother was trying to kill them with powdered rat poison sprinkled on donuts, but this should all be a lot more frightening - or at least more unsettling - than it winds up being. Read more