Rose Red (film)

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Rose Red

DVD cover
Directed by Craig R. Baxley
Produced by Thomas H. Brodek
Robert F. Phillips
Written by Stephen King
Starring Nancy Travis
Matt Keeslar
Kimberly J. Brown
David Dukes
Judith Ivey
Melanie Lynskey
Matt Ross
Julian Sands
Kevin Tighe
Julia Campbell
Emily Deschanel
Laura Kenny
Tsidii Leloka
Yvonne Sciò
Jimmi Simpson
Music by Gary Chang
Cinematography David Connell
Editing by Sonny Baskin
Distributed by ABC
Trimark Video (USA DVD)
Warner Home Video (international DVD)
Release date(s) January 27, 2002 (USA)
Running time 240 min.
Language English
Preceded by The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile
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Rose Red (also known as Stephen King's Rose Red) is a television miniseries scripted by horror novelist Stephen King. The series was first broadcast in the United States on ABC in 2002. The story involves a mansion called Rose Red being investigated by parapsychologist Dr. Joyce Reardon and a team of psychics.

Marketing of the film presented the movie as based on actual events. A tie-in novel was published that is based on King's script called The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red (2001) under the pseudonym Joyce Reardon, Ph.D., and claimed to be the actual diary of Ellen Rimbauer. Speculation that Stephen King or his wife Tabitha King had written the book raged until Ridley Pearson was revealed as the novel's author.

A DVD, running 4 hours and 14 minutes, has also been released.

Several references are made to other fictional works regarding ghosts, including Ghostbusters and A Christmas Carol.

Contents

[edit] Plot

A team of psychics are led by Dr. Joyce Reardon, a psychology professor, into the decrepit mansion known as Rose Red to get final proof of ghosts. The old house was known to have "the women go missing and the men turn up dead". Her efforts unleash the spirit of former owner Ellen Rimbauer and uncovers the horrifying secret of all those who lived and died there. Along the way, the group encounters ghosts of the Rimbauer family and people who visited the home.

The gruesome history of the house and Annie's link to it are finally revealed.

[edit] The history of the Rimbauer family and Rose Red

In her induction speech at the university, Joyce informs her group of Rose Red's history. She explains that construction on Rose Red began in 1906 by John P. Rimbauer at the top of Spring Street in the center of Seattle, as a wedding present to his wife. Rimbauer was founder of Omicron Oil Company, the biggest oil company in America until 1950. That year was also the year Ellen Rimbauer disappeared.

"The trouble with Rose Red started even before there was a house. Construction crews worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week" (direct quote from the film). However, apparently, even before there was a house there, that plot of land "drove people mad". A Teamster named Harry Corbin shot and killed Rimbauer's first foreman. "Corbin made no effort to escape; he just dropped his gun in his wagon and went down to a Seattle saloon, which was where the police found him. When he was tried, he claimed he remembered nothing from breakfast that morning until the time he woke up in jail with a knot behind his ear. Neither the judge nor jury believed him and he was sentenced to 25 years. Harry Corbin may have been Rose Red's first male victim" (direct quote from the film).

"John Rimbauer and Ellen Gilchrist were married on November 12, 1907. He was 40 years old, and she was 20. Rose Red had been under construction for a year. Already there had been three deaths on the premises. One man was decapitated by a sheet of falling glass. Another fell from a scaffold and broke his neck. The third choked to death on a piece of apple" (direct quote from the film).

One of the psychics mentions that Rose Red "looks like it has metastasized" after observing that the building had grown on its own over the years. No one really knows how many rooms it holds. 23 people have disappeared inside of Rose Red's walls since the end of World War I. Five men and eighteen women have disappeared in Rose Red. The last recorded disappearance in Rose Red was in 1972. Liza Albert, a woman on the Historical Society's annual tour, was with the group when they went upstairs. After the tour was over, the group realized that she was not with them anymore. The police did not find her, but they did find her purse, bloody and ripped. Since her disappearance, the house has been closed to tours.

After John and Ellen married, they took a grand, leisurely honeymoon which lasted a year. They circled the globe on ocean liners like the Ocean Star. John Rimbauer's favorite part of the tour was Africa. Ellen, however, contracted an African illness (in her diary she calls it "an unmentionable disease carried by men and suffered by women") and nearly died. An African woman named Sukeena helped her recover. When she and John finally took up residence in Rose Red in January 1909, Ellen was pregnant. John thought the house was finished, but it wasn't; neither in his lifetime nor in hers. What makes Rose Red one of the world's most fascinating psychic artifacts is that the house continued to grow until its death in 1995 or 1996. Until 1950, changes and additions were made according to the will of Ellen Rimbauer. After 1950, Rose Red grew on its own.

"In the fall of 1909, Ellen Rimbauer gave birth to a son. In her diary she wrote, "I have called him Adam, for he is the first." Sukeena saw Ellen through the difficult labor. In her diary, Ellen never refers to Sukeena as her servant. First she calls her, "my friend" and then later, "my sister". When Ellen gave birth to a daughter with a withered arm, she blamed her African illness and her husband's sexual appetites, although she wrote, "In my mind they are one," to which she added, "Damn all men." John and Ellen's daughter was born in April 1911, and she was therefore named April. In the years following the birth of Ellen's daughter, Ellen became convinced that her fever, which recurred periodically, would kill her young. That made her easy game for Madame Stravinsky, as she called herself. Not even Sukeena could convince her that the old lady was a fraud. Fraud or not, Madame Stravinsky—known to police in San Francisco and Los Angeles as Cora Fry—changed Ellen Rimbauer's life one night in August 1914." (direct quotes from the film) Madame Stravinsky told Ellen that she must continue to build. She also told Ellen that she would not die until the house was finished. Ellen told her that the house was finished, but Madame Stravinksy told her that Rose Red would never be finished until Ellen thought it so. Ellen took it seriously, probably she was right to. Everything else aside, she never had another attack of her African fever.

The next week, construction at Rose Red began for a new wing, the first of many. Her husband had nothing to say about this. The girl had a withered arm, but the son was fine. It was the son John Rimbauer cared about. In John's mind, Ellen had fulfilled her function, and could pretty much do what she liked. He was preoccupied with his business and extramarital affairs. Ellen continued to make additions to the house until her disappearance in 1950. Over 40 years of well-financed eccentricity. When she ran out of conventional additions to build to the house, she hired contractors and architects to build unconventional additions, such as the so-called tower of folly which was completed in 1921. John Rimbauer fell to his death from it two years later. Although his death certificate stated accidental death, gossip claimed suicide or ghosts. During Rose Red's active years, women in Rose Red tended to go missing, and men tended to turn up dead.

[edit] Reardon and her group's experience with Rose Red

Dr. Reardon's group experiences many unusual phenomena while exploring Rose Red. As soon as Annie (Kimberly J. Brown) enters Rose Red, a phantom draft occurs.

When Dr. Reardon's group enters the solarium, she tells the group that Ellen Rimbauer called this room "the health room." A railroad executive named George Meader, a friend and drinking buddy of John Rimbauer, died in there after the end of the first World War. According to a doctor, he was stung by a bee and died from an extreme allergic reaction.

When the group enters back into the kitchen, Nick (Julian Sands) says that it was a pity that no one kept up those vines. Steve (Matt Keeslar) mentions that there has not been a full-time groundskeeper at Rose Red "since Omicron Oil fell off the Big Board" a quarter century earlier.

While still lingering in the kitchen, Joyce tells the group about Steve's Great-Aunt April. When April was six years old, she disappeared. Her brother Adam was away at boarding school, sent by John Rimbauer over Ellen's objections. John did not trust Rose Red even then. The kitchen was the last place April was even seen. Sukeena stepped into the pantry for what she stated was no more than 30 seconds, but after she returned, April was gone. 50 men searched the house and grounds. They found no trace of her. John was convinced that Sukeena had something to do with it. Although Ellen objected, John took Sukeena downtown for interrogation. Sukeena was taken to a small basement room and questioned for 50 hours without sleep or bathroom breaks; no mercy. Finally, she convinced her interrogators that she knew nothing about April's disappearance, but it cost her three teeth, a broken nose and a broken wrist. Eventually, Sukeena was allowed to return home again; the only home she had left.

The group arrives upstairs to a long hallway. ELLEN tells the group that Ellen called that hallway the perspective hallway. It was her first major addition. It was designed by Sukeena, not an architect. While trying to open the doors, Pam (Emily Deschanel) finds out that the doors are just pieces built into perspective. Camouflaging the real doors was Ellen's idea. She didn't want them to spoil the illusion.

When Steve opens up one of the real doors to the perspective hallway, a strong wind blows through. Annie tells it to be quiet, and the door closes and the wind stops. While still in the hallway, Joyce tells the group that in the mid 1960s, a team of scientists (including a geologist) spent time investigating Rose Red and heard the house scream several times. They recorded a couple of them, although on tape the sounds are not impressive. The scientists concluded that they were hearing the sound of underground water, perhaps amplified by the old water drainage pipes that run under Seattle.

[edit] Ending

Set-up and Storyline: As told above, gives background information about why Dr. Reardon wanted to investigate Rose Red and wake up the spirits. The Head of the Psychology department, Dr. Miller wants to discredit her so he sends Kevin, an undergraduate in journalism, to arrive at Rose Red prior to Dr. Reardon's party. Kevin comes up to the door and meets up with Sukeena (who takes on the form of a house servant) who welcomes him in. He wanders into the greenhouse garden and is attacked by bees and then pulled up into the ceiling of the greenhouse by an unforeseen entity . Later the party finds his camera and hung body in the library; the details of how he wound up there are unclear. Fast forward a few more hours into the film: Emery was unable to call his overbearing mother and she comes to Rose Red to find him, but she is driven insane and runs around the premises while the equally confused Dr. Miller got a call for Kevin so they both crash their car and run in different directions.

Apparently, Vic was suffering from a heart attack and Emery refused to open the window (actually he was terrified and the window was locked) to save him so the old man died. Emery's mother wound up near the kitchen when Nick and Cathy found her but they hit her in the head because she attacked them. Sukeena (now in her spectral form) comes and drags Emery's mother into the wine cellar screaming. Nick and Cathy wander around trying to find the others until they come to the Perspective hall. The creature in the carpet takes Nick as Cathy manages to escape. She makes her way to the attic and using her powers, deduces that Ellen and Sukeena killed John Rimbauer. Steve and Sister find Cathy and take her back to the study. Cathy is able to use her abilities to make Annie open the doors and windows. The group rushes out but Joyce, who is still possessed by the house, refuses to leave. Emery overcomes his mother's grip when he destroys her spectral form. Ellen is also put to rest when Steve throws a hammer at her decayed body. The group makes it out of the house as Annie sends stones into its structure. Snapping out of her trance, Joyce realizes it's too late to escape and is surrounded by the spectral forms of the house's victims.

The house eventually is scheduled for demolition and the survivors reflect on the events that transpired six months prior. Up in the tower the spirits of Sukeena, Ellen and Joyce silently fade into oblivion.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Present Characters

Name Occupation Psychic Power Played By
Dr. Joyce Reardon Parapsychology Professor None Nancy Travis
Steven Rimbauer Unknown Telepathic (only inside Rose Red) Matt Keeslar
Rachel "Sister" Wheaton Waitress None Melanie Lynskey
Annie Wheaton Student Telekinetic, Telepathic Kimberly J. Brown
Cathy Kramer Unknown Automatic Writing Judith Ivey
Emery Waterman Unknown Retrocognition Matt Ross
Nick Hardaway Unknown Telepathic Julian Sands
Pam Asbury Unknown Psychometry Emily Deschanel
Victor "Vic" Kandinsky Unknown Precognitive Kevin Tighe
Dr. Carl Miller Psychology Department Head None David Dukes and Craig Baxley Jr
Patricia Waterman Unknown None Laura Kenny
Kevin Bollinger College Student/Newspaper Reporter None Jimmi Simpson

[edit] Past Characters

Name Occupation Psychic Power Played By
John P. Rimbauer Oil Tycoon None John Procaccino
Ellen Gilchrist-Rimbauer Homemaker None Julia Campbell
Sukeena Ellen's Maid None Tsidii Leloka
Adam Rimbauer Student None
April Rimbauer None None Paige Gordan
Deanna Petrie Actress None Yvonne Sciò
Douglas Posey John's Business Partner None Don Alder

[edit] Cameo appearances

Stephen King has a cameo appearance as a pizza delivery man.

[edit] Links to King Novels

  • Annie has the same power as Carrie, the main character from Stephen King's first published novel, Carrie. As a young girl she dropped stones on houses and does that at the end of the miniseries which helps destroy the home.
  • Rose Red is referenced in Black House as one of the places where "slippage" occurs.

[edit] External links