Movie Reviews "Rose Red"
Rose Red is a miniseries shown on ABC in 2001. It was written by Stephen King as a screenplay.
I love this miniseries and the way it gets so frightening without becoming over the top. The background story of the titular house is a solid backdrop for the main plot and provides for a lot of interesting details to back up what is happening to the characters as they explore the mansion. For somewhat of a description, it is a combination of Carrie, The Shining, the Winchester Mystery House, and The Haunting of Hill House which is a novel written by Shirley Jackson. The elements are combined well, and while the draws from other works of fiction as well as the Winchester Mystery House are obvious it makes a new and wonderful story.
The Winchester Mystery House is a real place. The heiress of the Winchester fortune from sales of the Winchester rifle was told by a psychic that the untimely deaths of her husband and child were due to the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles haunting her family. To appease the spirits, she was to move West and build them a great house. As long as construction continued, she would be safe from the spirits. This greatly parallels the mistress of Rose Red's actions in the building of her own home.
The pacing of the three episode series is wonderful, which run about 4.5 hours on DVD. It builds into intensity in the skillful way Stephen King has long been known for. I've been a fan of his for twenty years and was delighted with this series as well as any of his books.
I love this miniseries and the way it gets so frightening without becoming over the top. The background story of the titular house is a solid backdrop for the main plot and provides for a lot of interesting details to back up what is happening to the characters as they explore the mansion. For somewhat of a description, it is a combination of Carrie, The Shining, the Winchester Mystery House, and The Haunting of Hill House which is a novel written by Shirley Jackson. The elements are combined well, and while the draws from other works of fiction as well as the Winchester Mystery House are obvious it makes a new and wonderful story.
The Winchester Mystery House is a real place. The heiress of the Winchester fortune from sales of the Winchester rifle was told by a psychic that the untimely deaths of her husband and child were due to the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles haunting her family. To appease the spirits, she was to move West and build them a great house. As long as construction continued, she would be safe from the spirits. This greatly parallels the mistress of Rose Red's actions in the building of her own home.
The pacing of the three episode series is wonderful, which run about 4.5 hours on DVD. It builds into intensity in the skillful way Stephen King has long been known for. I've been a fan of his for twenty years and was delighted with this series as well as any of his books.
Comments
Post a Comment