This is one of those things that have been done before but that King does in a way that you might not expect. Having read Shirley Jackson's book that this was inspired by, and knowing how King likes to play his movies/TV shows/mini series, I am still always amazed at how spooked out I get with Rose Red.It is long, but you won't regret it. Great acting, spooky house, and a creepy backstory make this one of my favorites. There are snarky comments, and for those die-hard King fans, references and similarities to other beloved stories. Enjoy!!!

First of all i can't believe that i missed this M-S all these years, but i saw this on a Stephen King profile here at IMDb and i rent it and i'm very pleased that i did.From the beginning i had high hopes about this and those hopes came true, and i really enjoyed. BTW "haunted houses" have always been in my priority list.Script was good acting too especially Annie (seemed so real), last ten minutes scene was the most enjoyable part. Hoverer the thing that bothered me is that Judith Ivey wasn't involved as much as she deserves.I recommend this to anyone who skipped this "unintentionally" like i did.

As an avid Stephen King fan, I'm always excited about new work of his. Rose Red was no exception. However the more of his movies I see, the more I think he seriously needs to discuss making them with another production company. I love the idea of Rose Red, the cast was chosen well, and of course it was very well written. But the execution was mediocre at best. It was pretty clear that some of these special effects, in fact most of them, were made from a shoestring budget. Some things were just plain cheesy. In this day in age, the graphics should have been a bit more convincing. Nancy Travis did a fine job showing the deterioration from a slightly eccentric college professor to obsessed psychopath, but at times her acting was not the greatest. All in all if you're a King fan like me, you should check this out, but don't expect to find "Shawshank Redemption" or "The Green Mile" here. Good work, but he needs to fire his directors. I give it a 7.5, but round it up to an 8 because it was written by Mr. King.

I generally enjoy adaptations of Steven King stories, especially when he does the adapting, and this was no exception. It has some surprising weaknesses, but all in all it was a very enjoyable movie.The story focuses on Professor Joyce Reardon (Nancy Travis), a professor of psychology, whose fascination with the paranormal, and obsession with the mansion called Rose Red, have earned her the scorn of her department head, Professor Carl Miller (David Dukes). In fact, Prof. Miller's only desire in life seems to be to discredit Joyce, and to that end he has hired reporter Kevin Bollinger (Jimmi Simpson) to spy on her, take damaging pictures, and write damaging articles. While Miller sees Joyce's obsession with Rose Red as a way to completely humiliate her, Joyce sees it as a way to prove her theories about the paranormal. And it just so happens that Joyce is now seeing Steve Rimbauer (Matt Keeslar), descendant of John (John Procaccino) and Ellen (Julia Campbell) Rimbauer, the original builders of the mansion. So, it's not much of a problem to get access to the house for a weekend to do some research. And Joyce has lined up some special guests to assist her: Pam Asbury (Emily Deschanel), a psychic who gets impressions from objects she touches; Vic Kandinsky (Kevin Tighe), a psychic who's precognitive; Emery Waterman (Matt Ross), a mamma's boy with undetermined psychic abilities; Nick Hardaway (Julian Sands), whose strong psychic talents aren't really given a name; Cathy Kramer (Judith Ivey), whose gift is automatic writing; and Annie Wheaton (Kimberly J. Brown), an autistic girl with powerful psychic gifts, who is accompanied by her sister, Rachel (Melanie Lynskey), better known as Sis. Asserting that Rose Red is a dead cell, Joyce hopes to "awaken" the house, which, indeed she does, with results that surprise them all.King's storytelling is as good as ever in this particular piece. He creates a brooding and foreboding atmosphere, and for the most part, gives just enough information to let you figure out what has happened. That being said, some of his characterizations are surprisingly weak, Sis and Annie's parents (Mary Jo Dugaw and Robert Blanche) are almost more caricatures, than characters, especially the abusive father. And a little more information about what actually happens to Pam, Vic, and Nick would have been helpful, although I suspect that may be due to elements that didn't translate well from the narrative. It's a little slow at times, but overall, it's a good, suspenseful story.The acting was also very good. I'm not a huge fan of Nancy Travis, but I have to give her credit for creating a sympathetic character in the scenes that are told from her point of view, and a much less sympathetic character in scenes that are told from the point of view of others. I always enjoyed David Dukes, and was sad to note that this was his last performance, and that he died while filming the movie. Judith Ivey did an excellent job in a non comic role. Matt Ross and Julian Sands did good jobs with their characters. Emily Deschanel and Kevin Tighe are sadly wasted in unfortunately small roles. The film really belongs to Matt Keeslar, Melanie Lynskey, and most notably Kimberly J. Brown, all of whom turned in wonderful performances.It's a bit long, especially when shown all at once, which is how SyFy has been doing it, but I still think it is well worth investing the time to see a very scary, and very well done movie.