Marketic
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Livestonth
I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
filippaberry84
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
TheBlueHairedLawyer
Rose Red often gets laughed at among horror fans for downplaying the gore, sex and profanity of many other Stephen King works, but if you love a good, clean and slow-burning supernatural ghost tour with plenty of mystery, friendship and psychic powers, you'll love this three-part exploration of a giant haunted house. Upon my first viewing, I was a little put-off by the character of Annie Wheaton, an autistic fifteen-year-old portrayed as having the mental capacity of a four-year-old at best. Contrary to popular belief, even non-verbal people on the autism spectrum are just as intelligent as anybody else. It's not a mental deficiency. That being said, considering that this miniseries was created in 2002, the fact that it even acknowledges autism at all was quite a big step, as the topic was largely taboo. The overweight mama's-boy character Emery also breaks the politically correct mold of television by insulting Annie, calling her a retard and a burden, giving viewers a taste of what a lot of autistic teenagers begin facing once they pass the age of childhood. Stephen King might be a horror writer, but he knows how to tackle controversial issues with a lot of common sense.All that aside, Rose Red is, much like Stephen King's It and Kingdom Hospital, a very quirky tale of friendship (not to get too sappy but it's true), as well as a supernatural spook-hunt. However I was a little disappointed that many of its most admirable characters like Nick and Pam were killed off as the show progressed, something that seemed somewhat bizarre for King's usual material. Rose Red also gives a bit of a history lesson, including the shameless racism and violence the police of the early 1900's display towards Sukeena, the misogyny of Ellen Rimbaur's husband and of course, the unsafe work standards at the time. This allows for a lot of deep plot development, however it begins to get a little redundant as time goes by. Scenes and stories get repeated frequently. We also get a lot of recycled Stephen King plot devices, such as Annie making a rain of stones fall upon her neighbour's house (his novel Carrie), which might annoy some longtime fans of his work. One of the things that makes Rose Red so worthwhile is of course the amount of striking detail that went into its set. The house itself is incredibly detailed, with everything from a tiny dollhouse embedded in the wall to decrepit stone fountains. The Seattle scenery offers a nice change from King's typical Maine location, and characters like Mrs. Waterman (Emery's humiliating, obese mother) and Professor Carl Miller offer a dose of comic relief at the same time. The dialogue can be a bit corny at times like something akin to a cheesy sitcom, but overall it's very well-done.All in all, I'd definitely recommend Rose Red. It also features actors like Julian Sands from "The Killing Fields" and Kimberly Brown from "Bringing Down the House", who you'll definitely not want to miss.
buzzerbill
At his best, Stephen King has good ideas and writes excruciatingly bad prose. And even the good ideas vanish in the translation to the screen. In my experience, there are only two good movies made from King's books--Christine and The Dead Zone (The Shining is Kubrick's biggest disappointment.) Rose Red is the worst haunted house film I have ever seen, and in the top 1% of worst movies I have ever seen. Gregory, the infallible movie cat, who normally responds to bad films with a disdainful sniff and a malodorous trip to the litter box, nearly made the same comment in from of the television about 10 minutes into the second segment.Where oh where can we start? Let's start with the special effects, if only to dismiss them. Pretty as they are, they dress up a pig. And as we all should know, you can dress up a big, put lipstick on her, and call her Monique--but she is still a pig. No bad film was ever made good with special effects--and this turkey is a prime example.How about the cast? On the whole pretty good, with a couple of veterans like Judith Ivey and Julian Sands, both of whom are capable of enlivening a film. Not here.And now, the plot. Oh, the plot. What a dreadful mess. First of all, it's a mishmash of elements from far better work. The house that's alive and malignant? And the experiment with psychics? Look no further than the best of all haunted house movies, the original version of The Haunting (not the remake!). Even King used it before in The Shining. The child medium? Firestarter, and any of a dozen different films and movies. And The Haunting did more in two hours than this in well over four.And why? To begin with, everything, including the kitchen sink and all the the plumbing, has been tossed in, with decidedly ill effect. We have academic politics. We have a mad scientist in Nancy Travis's character, who is so annoying that it's a wonder that the rest of the investigators didn't roll her up in a carpet and jump up and down, up and down, crushing her like Nero did Poppea. For heaven's sake, we even have a nerd with a neurotic smothering mother--a veritable field day for Freud.And what is worse--far far worse--is that the whole preposterous farrago makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Why does writing "Open the doors" 100 times open the doors? If the house is the evil entity, why does its influence extend far the house. And, for that matter, given the aerial shots of the house in the middle of downtown Seattle, where the devil is all the open space in which characters keep getting lost? And we do not get to see the house blown up at the end? A terrible cheat-perhaps the SFX budget ran out. And, to cap it all, the dialogue is written--and delivered (with a few exceptions) in a fever pitch of hysteria that heightens the overall sense of--well, confusion is perhaps the kindest word for it.Four hours on DVD, six on television with breaks. For heaven's sake, save yourself time and brain cells. Rent a good film like the original version of The Haunting or The Uninvited (Ruth Hussy, Ray Milland.) Why anyone watches this festering heap of poo is beyond me.
Mobius Ridaeon
I do not understand how Rose Red can have received any positive reviews at all, and yet there seem to be many. ROSE RED IS A TERRIBLE FILM. IT WILL WASTE SEVERAL HOURS OF YOUR LIFE. If you are a person who liked it, you need to have your head examined. I suggest you go to a neurologist without delay.This film is a travesty. A long and dull tale of the most terrible team of psychic investigators ever spending the weekend in a haunted house. Wow, how original. I wonder what will happen... will there be ghosts? Will they scare and even kill people? Maybe if there was a bit less plot exposition and continual pointless detractors ( such as academic rivalry, overbearing mothers, romance between people with no chemistry, etc. ) we might have a chance to get involved in the drama or tension of knowing whats about to happen. However, the characters, which are totally shallow and act in a completely retarded fashion throughout the film, are even worse than the lame plot. THe acting takes the cake as the most excremental aspect of this 4 hour waste of time. Nancy Travis makes every scene she is in unwatchable by constantly grinning and showing off her ugly teeth, not to mention acting like a bitch for 4 entire hours of torture. The other actors are pretty awful as well, giving empty performances, though who can blame them when the script is so unintelligent it seems like King wrote it while he was either drunk or operating heavy machinery. Wow. So bad I can hardly believe it and I could not bring myself to continue watching it, but had to stop half way through after getting a pain in my neck from too much cringing.I can stand a lot of crap when I watch a film and I hate not seeing the end, but this was unbearable. Rose Red has no redeeming value, even as material for mockery.
sunznc
I really enjoyed this. It is very good, very well made and the acting is very good as well by everyone. The pace is good and it's engaging. However,......sometimes it takes a long time for the actors to play out their scenes, take you to the place in the house they want to be and then......something happens that you anticipate as being very scary only to see something very mild. In other words, it isn't exactly a frightening film. It is more mysterious. If you are in the mood for a good haunted mansion film then this will do the trick. If you are looking for intense scares, you might be disappointed. The special effects are good but not fantastic. This is story & character driven. Some scenes play out a little bit too long and end a little flat. I think the characters would have been much more shocked by the situations they find themselves in but they seem to brush things off pretty easy. Sometimes it has a 'made-for-tv' feel.
