Rose Red (DVD)

*** ROSE RED ***

I read a review on this film and was so excited that I had to search for it and buy it, so it was straight on to E-bay I went and found my copy. In my excitement I did not take much notice on the length of the film from either the review or the box it came in. As soon as my hubby had retired for the night I curled up in his chair to watch the DVD, 2.5 hrs later I was still there getting very weary. That's was when ...
...King went on to write Rose Red, a story of a haunted house.

Stephen King was inspired by a true life haunted house story; he elaborated on this and expanded it to make Rose Red. The story that inspired him was about the Winchester family. Oliver Winchester made the famous repeater rifle, which earned him millions; the family fortune was left to his son William, who sadly passed away at a relatively young age, leaving his grieving ... more

*** ROSE RED ***

I read a review on this film and was so excited that I had to search for it and buy it, so it was straight on to E-bay I went and found my copy. In my excitement I did not take much notice on the length of the film from either the review or the box it came in. As soon as my hubby had retired for the night I curled up in his chair to watch the DVD, 2.5 hrs later I was still there getting very weary. That's was when I checked the timing and found out that it was over 4 hrs long. Ooops, well much too tired to stay up any longer, I had to watch it in two sittings. But it was well worth it.

Okay, a very long introduction sorry, I know you want to know about the film. Back in 1986 Stephen King was approached by Stephen Spielberg to write a very frightening horror story for ABC (America TV network). Stephen King went on to write Rose Red, a story of a haunted house.

Stephen King was inspired by a true life haunted house story; he elaborated on this and expanded it to make Rose Red. The story that inspired him was about the Winchester family. Oliver Winchester made the famous repeater rifle, which earned him millions; the family fortune was left to his son William, who sadly passed away at a relatively young age, leaving his grieving wife Sarah a very rich lady. Prior to loosing her beloved William, she also lost there only daughter to illness. Still grieving months after loosing both her husband and daughter, Sarah went to see a Spiritualist Medium who told her that her husband (who is in the spirit world) is not happy and that he says the family has a curse over it, because of the killing weapon the family had bought to the world and for the many lives that have been lost to it. Through the medium she was told to sell up and move to the west, buy a house and build it up, for her and the spirits (ghosts) to reside. She was told to keep building and as long as she built on the house she would stay alive. For years this is exactly what she did, building new rooms, halls even wings onto the house, the house ended up with 7 floors and numerous rooms. This continued until the day she died at the grand age of 83 years. This story inspired Stephen King to think of Rose Red as building itself, and he incorporated the Winchester mystery into the plot.

*** The Plot ***

You have a college professor Reardon who is trying to keep her course on parapsychology going at the college. She is dating the last surviving ancestor of the Rimbauer family. The professor wants to get a team of physics together and wake up Rose Red, which she believes to be a 'dead cell', which means that there has been no psychic activity there for a number of years.

Since the day that they started building Rose Red, people have died. During Rose Red's life time many people have either been found dead or have gone missing never to be found again.

Ellen Rimbauer at the age of 20 moved into Rose Red with her husband John aged 40 after a year long honeymoon. Her husband was a philanderer constantly having affairs and not very subtle about it. Ellen went on to have two children, she occupied herself with the house, entertaining and having séances - it was at one particular séance that she was told that when she had completed the house she would move on unto the after life. So she never stopped building the house, but at some stage during her life the house took over and started building itself, and one day Ellen just disappeared.

So with this information Joyce and the group of psychics went to spend a weekend in the house, to wake it up and record what information they could get, to gain proof of psychic activity.
They were in for some surprises along the way, some might survive, some may not. If you want to know the answer then you will have to watch the DVD to find out.

*** The Cast ***

Nancy Travis - Professor Joyce Reardon - (her face bugged me to remember where I had seen her before, then I remembered her from Three Men and a Little Lady). Professor Joyce Reardon obsessed with gathering proof of physic activity to save her course at the college. One of her colleagues is fighting to get the course closed down. So she decides that by waking up Rose Red she will get all the proof she needs. She enlists the help of six psychic which various talents to achieve the results.

Matt Keeslar - Steve Rimbauler - he is the last in the Rimbauler line. He has bad childhood memories of Rose Red and hence is quite reluctant to go back there, but his girlfriend is the Professor so he goes along for the ride. He has telepathic skills and his childhood memories do come in useful, but enough said. He is there to protect the family interest as he owns Rose Red and this is to be the last visit before it is pulled down to make way for condominiums.

Kimberley J. Brown - Annie Wheaton - Annie is a 15 yr old, who is autistic and has telekinetic skills. These skills are observed at the very beginning of the film. She is the key to opening up Rose Red. She also has other skills that show themselves through the movie (I will not spoil it for you and tell you now).

David Dukes - Professor Miller - He was the Professor at the college who was trying to close down Professor Joyce Reardon's course. He sent a young reporter out to cause trouble for Joyce. Sending him to Rose Red to try and take pictures of the group. David Dukes(6th June 1945 - 9th October 2000) died during the filming, they had filmed about 2/3 of his part, the rest of the filming continued with a stunt double, re-using some shots, voice and face doubles and finally they changed some of the story extending one of the actors parts.

Judith Ivey - Cathy Kramer - Cathy played a very religious woman whose special talent was automatic writing. She came over as a very nervous lady who was using all her will power just to stay there. In her past she had always run away when things got difficult, she was determined to stay the course.

Melanie Lynskey - Rachel (sister) Wheaton - She is Annie's sister and is instrumental in getting Annie to Rose Red. She becomes like the mother to the group, she has no special skills, she is just there to watch over her sister and the others. She is for a while the only person that Annie will listen to (for a while!!)

Matt Ross - Emery Waterman - Well every group has to have one I suppose, he is the moaner, the mommy's boy that has not let go of the apron strings and hates it, but does nothing about it. You would not want him to watch your back for you and come to your rescue. His special talent he has post cognitive skills, this is where he sees things that have already happened (usually ghosts). He has some interesting experiences.

Julian Sands - Nick Hardaway - He has a very sexy voice and plays a very nice part in the film; he is like the knight in shining armour. His talent is mind reading and seeing the present, seeing the past, (a bit like watching a film), in his words he does a bit of this and a bit of that. If anyone can tell me where I recognise his voice from, when you have seen the film, please drop me a line. His voice is so sexy. Oops sorry, getting carried away again.

Kevin Tighe - Victor Kandinsky -has precognition skills which basically means he sees things before they happen, he plays a rather strange man in the film, that has to keep running off, starts shaking until he has taken a small tablet and then back to normal. He does have some interesting experiences in the film.

Julia Campbell - Ellen Rimbauer - she got quite a mention earlier on in my review, so I won't bore you and say it all again.

Emily Deschanel - Pam Asbury - she is a naive young woman who is just learning how to use her skills - she can touch an object and get like a flash back of who last touched it etc. Again I don't want to tell you too much and spoil the fun.

Jimmi Simpson - Kevin Bollinger - he is a young man, a budding journalist, taken in by Professor Miller to ridicule Professor Reardon and make a mockery of what she and her group are doing at Rose Red. Kevin is sent into Rose Red on his own by Miller, (they always have to get someone else to do their dirty work), what happens to him, you will have to wait and see.

Laura Kenny - Mrs May Waterman - she plays the mother from hell, you know the type that shows you up in front of all your friends, treats you like you are still in nappies. Due to the untimely death of David Dukes, they built her part up and she goes through some pretty scary times during the movie.
There are others but I feel I have covered the main actors that are in it.

*** The Film ***

It starts off showing you Annie as a young child, demonstrating her Telekinesis, we then skip to the present and we are with Professor Joyce Reardon with a class of students. Here we meet Joyce and Kevin Bollinger for the first time.

Introductions over and the seed is sown about the little 'field' trip to Rose Red, we start to move along and get introduced to the rest of the cast and our group of psychics. We meet them all at the same time and we start to hear the story of Rose Red, from its creation to modern day. We hear of lives lost and the details of Steve Rimbauler's descendants. There was a great line in the film, when his girlfriend Joyce says "why do you hate Rose Red so much", he answers "it ate my relatives".

The next main section is our group being introduced into the house and our first tour. This house is amazing as it changes itself, you can go down one corridor and turn round to come back and it has completely changed.

The fun has started and goes on, it would seriously be unfair of me to spoil all your fun. Enough said.

*** My Opinion ***

I love everything about Rose Red; I personally thought it was brilliant. Why did I think it was so good, well I love Stephen King's work for starters, I am also into Spiritualism and Psychic phenomena. That's two good reasons. It does follow Stephen King to a 'T'. You have rooms that are upside down, you have corridors that are big at one end and little at the other. You have a room with a glass floor that turned to liquid in one scene.

I did not find Rose Red frightening, but some might. I did jump on a couple of occasions which to me makes it a good film to make me jump. You also have the element of waiting for something to happen, because right from the start you know the house is haunted and you want to see the ghosts. They are there! Don't expect to see 'Casper' or a white sheet floating around it just does not happen. I have read from some peoples' opinions that they are vampires but, I would say more like zombies, which do appear occasionally throughout the movie. Yes, the dead do walk.

Well I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did, my only complaint was the length it was approx: 245 mins, just over 4hrs long, but considering it was originally a mini series made for ABC network of 6hrs long, I don't suppose 4hrs is too bad really.

The movie is on two discs. It is suitable for persons 12 years and over. So it is not blood thirsty and gory, which I have to say is a very pleasant change as my imagination is a lot scarier believe me.

Stephen King a bit like Orson Wells likes to play a cameo part in his movies, so look out for him.

*** Now for the DVD extras: ***

Oh I did really enjoy watching these.

Disc One - you have languages - Audio French or English.

Subtitles - in eight different languages

Scene Selection - scenes 1-24

Disc Two (my favourite extras)

As above subtitles and languages

Scene Selection - 25-36

Special Features:

Bad House The Making of Rose Red.

This was interviews with Steven King, Producers, Directors and Actors. You got to learn where they filmed Rose Red, how the story came about; how they did the special effects (this was fascinating). It was really interesting to see how the special effects were done, the amount of work that went into filming this. The outside of the house being in one place, the gates and the drive to it being another place and the inside filmed in an airport hangar where they built the set. Astounding!

This lasted approx 30mins.

Unlocking Rose Red - The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer - This was what I believe to be a promotional short film made for ABC to promote the up and coming Mini Series Rose Red. It lasted about 30mins and it was done like a documentary with a Professor Joyce Reardon (not played by the actress Nancy Travis) who talks about her psychic interest in Rose Red. People from Seattle (where Rose Red was meant to be), saying there little stories, etc - It leaves you to make your own mind up whether the story was real or fake. It was very well done and very convincing.

Artwork Gallery - pictures.

Well I hope this has helped you make up your mind whether you wish to see this or not.

Thank you for reading
 

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