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          The chilling tale of Dr. Joyce Reardon, an obsessed psychology professor who commissions a team of psychics and a gifted 15-year-old autistic girl, Annie Wheaton, to literally wake up a supposedly dormant haunted mansion - Rose Red.  Their efforts unleash myriad spirits and uncover horrifying secrets of the generations who have lived and died there.

"Houses are alive. If we're quiet... if we listen... we can hear houses breath. We say haunted... but we mean the house has gone insane."
                     - Dr. Joyce Reardon

          From reading Stephen King's Danse Macabre I saw what a passion Stephen King had for the haunted house premise in horror fiction. If one watches The Shining you may think he already did his haunted house story (after all what is a hotel?), however, the book is a much different creature that goes beyond cabin fever, telepathy and diving into insanity. After 26 years of scaring America the Master of Horror has found its home and it is Rose Red.
          After Storm of the Century one could hardly hope for a more ghastly tale to grace the small screen but Stephen King outdid himself again. In the first chapter of the tale dread sets while we learn the histories of all our participants and invariably side with Dr. Joyce Reardon, superbly played by Nancy Travis, having only seen her in sitcoms I was truly in awe of her performance it was one of many which left me spellbound in this film. The second chapter is two hours of gut wrenching taut tension and the end neatly closes up King's tale in one of the finest climaxes he's ever written either in prose or for the screen.
          Craig R. Baxley showed that Storm of the Century was no fluke. His combination of slow pans, lightning, fast zooms, skewed angles and pretty much the entire mise-en-scene of the piece added to what was already an amazing tale. His directing paired with Gary Chang's chillingly masterful score add to create an atmosphere that is absolutely intoxicating. Along with Nancy Travis another notably brilliant performance was that of Matt Ross as Emery Waterman. Ross completely immersed himself in the part and played King's best pest to date. David Dukes who played Miller was also fantastic and who sadly lost his life after completing this project was wonderful and I also congratulate the producres for not pulling any punches with his character but merely dedicating the entire mini-series to his memory. The colorful interplay of the ensemble characters rival if not surpass his best multi-character works (It, Needful Things, Desperation).

          This film also boasts some of the best and most convincing CGI i've seen to date. It was supernatural only when need be other than that it looked utterly convincing and frightening. Another thing that resonates after watching Rose Red is that this is indeed one of his nastiest collection of characters not since The Stand did he even come close to having a contingent of nasty characters such as this but even still they are all likeable in at least one way or another. The undertones of religion and evil hit home harder than ever before. I'm not going to give anything away but if you analyze it you won't find clear cut good guys and clear cut bad guys.

          Stephen King has delivered one of the most bone-chilling suspenseful mini-series of all time. The format seems truly to have been created for his work. In Rose Red, Stephen King invites us to dance the Danse Macabre.

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          - Although the story originally took place in California, it was moved to Seattle to take advantage of the locations. 

          - The series is loosely based on Sarah Winchester and The Winchester "Mystery" House. 

          - According to Stephen King, Steven Spielberg wanted to do the scariest "haunted house" movie and asked him to write the story. By the time he was able to write it, Spielberg had moved on to other projects. The film was made as another of King's mini-series projects for the ABC television network.

          - Stephen King  has a cameo as the pizza guy in the second episode. 

          - David Dukes died of a heart attack while he was playing tennis on the set. 

          - The raining stones and telekinetic girl named Annie are both directly from the novel Carrie

          - Rose Red has many qualities found in The Shining. A large, haunted building with a rich history that taps into the powers of those who enter it. 

          - Craig Baxley, Stunt Coordinator, took David Dukes place for his zombie scenes wearing the life mask created for Dukes.

          - The glass floor in one of Rose Red's rooms references the early short story The Glass Floor by Stephen King.

          - Actor Matt Ross had to gain weight for the roll of Emery; he also had to wear a fat suit on top of that.

          - The gruesome arm that came out of Emery's refrigerator belonged to Aidan Kennedy, one of the production assistants.

                         

             

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