Rose Red

Saw that this was finally available to stream after years of being a piece of elusive, DVD-only programming and decided to watch it on a whim, only to slowly realize that I’d actually seen it before! Over the years, I guess I somehow buried the memory of watching the premiere of Rose Red with my dad on television over the course of three nights when it first aired in 2002. I was nine years old, and my mom did not want me staying up late watching a series written by Stephen King, but I was at the peak of my Halloweentown obsession, and the advertisements for the show were heavily pushing Kimberly J. Brown. Despite multiple protests, I was eventually allowed to see it, on the condition that the TV be turned off if it got too scary (which to young me, meant: do not show any outward signs of fear or you’ll never figure out how this ends).  Two decades later, I honestly can’t remember if any part of this mini-series truly scared me, and revisiting it now as an adult left me pretty unfazed. This was a made-for-television horror piece, and it really shows. The scares are minimal, mostly made up of puppets or low-budget CGI, and never lingered on for very long.  The story itself starts a bit slow, loading us up on exposition to garner intrigue about the mysterious Rose Red property. Things slowly escalate, tensions steadily rise and haunts abound, but none of the characters in our ensemble cast ever manage to meaningfully develop, and then the final act feels fumbled and hokey.  There are drawbacks here, sure, but there is still something undeniably fun and nostalgic in this series. The early-2000s nostalgia contained within it is so strong, and the core story of an evil, ever-growing haunted mansion has a lot of promise. There were also several genuinely interesting and terrifying ideas that the team was trying to bring to life via CGI, but neither the show’s budget nor the technology available at the time could do them justice. As I watched, I couldn’t help but think about how great the re-make potential for Rose Red could be. I have no doubt that Mike Flanagan is a very busy man, but if he could ever get his hands on this IP, I know he could make it unforgettable. Maybe one day!