Selfishness and greed can be terrible motivators when planning out your life goals. For Dr. Joyce Reardon, played by Nancy Travis (So I Married An Axe Murderer and 3 Men and a Baby) proves to be both in this made for TV miniseries once again from the mind (and pen) of Stephen King. Rose Red is a Gothic style mansion that was built in the early 1900’s as a wedding present to Ellen Rimbauer from her husband John. The house was rumored to be cursed before it was even completed as three construction workers were killed, and one foreman was murdered during construction. The curse could also possibly come from the fact that the building site was Indian burial ground because of course it is. The house continues to be the site of several mysterious deaths and disappearances over several decades. Eventually Steve Rimbauer inherits the home.
Rimbauer, played by Matt Kesslar (Scream 3
and The Last Days of Disco), is going to sell the house to developers to make
condos. Before he sells the house, he
allows Joyce to lead one last investigation to find out the true story of the
haunting of Hill House Rose Red.
Going along with Joyce and Steve for the investigation is Kimberly J.
Brown (Halloweentown parts 1,2, and 3 as well as Bringing Down the House), as
Annie Wheaton an autistic child who has telekinetic abilities. Annie brings her sister Rachel with her as
she is her guardian. Rachel is played by
Melanie Lynskey who has also starred in Two and a Half Men and
Yellowjackets. Judith Ivey (Women
Talking and The Devil’s Advocate) is Cathy Kramer an automatic writer who
basically can place herself in a sort of meditative state and unconsciously
write claiming it is a spirit actually doing the writing.
Matt Ross (American Psycho, The Last Days of
Disco, and Big Love) is Emery Waterman a psychic who uses retro-cognition to
assist detectives in investigations. Retro-cognition is the ability to see events that happened in the past
when there is no way that that individual should know of those events. Julian Sands (Naked Lunch, Leaving Las Vegas,
and A Room With a View) is Nick Hardaway who is a telepathic psychologist. Kevin Tighe (Emergency! and LOST) is Vic
Kandinsky who is a psychic with precognition meaning he can see events that are
about to happen in the future. And
finally Emily Deschanel (Bones and Boogeyman from 2005) is Pam Asbury, a
psychic with psychometric abilities meaning she can hold onto a personal item
of someone and tell you about that person.
Rose Red, although purported to be haunted, has sat dormant for years. Along with her psychic group, Dr. Joyce hopes to “wake” the house and experience some psychic phenomena. The group all gets more than they bargained for as the house certainly wakes up and through a series of flashbacks we see how and why the house is such a hotbed of psychic activity. King originally wanted this to be an adaption of The Haunting which itself is a retelling of the Shirley Jackson classic The Haunting of Hill House. When a remake was made in 1999 (The Haunting) King reworked his story into Rose Red and the story went from a feature film concept to being a miniseries. Directing here is Craig R. Baxley who also directed two other Stephen King series Storm of the Century and Kingdom Hospital. The house used for filming was Thornwood Estate in Washington state. King used The Winchester House as inspiration for the story behind Rose Red.
David Dukes (Gods and Monsters and Rawhead Rex) who played the head of the psychology department at the unnamed university that Dr. Reardon works for, died of a heart attack while filming Rose Red. His final scene was filmed using a body double; Rose Red is dedicated to his memory. I saw this when it was originally broadcast on ABC in 2002 but I didn’t remember much of anything about it to be honest. Considering it was spread out over three nights I decided to re-watch it in two parts. The run time of over four hours actually seemed to fly by and it didn’t feel as bloated as I expected it to. There are some decent special effects here too; for a TV miniseries at least. And jeez, I could go on and on about how good all the actors are in this. They all make me like or hate them as I am supposed to do. The sets are gorgeous and almost feels like a Hammer Horror film. I reviewed Storm of the Century earlier in The Countdown to Halloween and I have to say this rates right around where that did. Let’s give Rose Red three and a half Glenn Miller tunes out of five. After that I hope Rose Red can go back to sleep.
Ha. I bet I know why you didn't remember much about it. Because a certain someone (could have been me . . . I'm just sayin') showed up at your door and collapsed (ah remember THAT? Those were the days, huh?) and stayed at your apartment at the Nixon Arms for a week and I dimly recall ROSE RED was on your TV but no one was really watching it. I was practically comatose obviously and not taking any of it in. Which is another "Synchronicity" moment because a few months ago, I bought the old DVD of ROSE RED wanting to give it a watch. Still haven't, it's buried in the mad stacks. But yeah, hearing the same director of STORM OF THE CENTURY did ROSE RED gives me hope because I liked STORM a lot. Gotta dig out ROSE RED now.
ReplyDeleteHoly Crow, is that why I didn't remember much about it??? How terrible of a coincidence is that then? I mean of course I recall nearly everything else about that night but not that this was on my TV.
ReplyDeleteNot as good as Storm, I think the actors were a smidge better, but Rose Red is still good.