Director: Craig R. Baxley
Release date: 2003
Contains spoilers
Having established that Rose Red is a vampire film – with potentially vampiric ghosts but, more importantly, a vampiric building, it became apparent that I should also look at this TV movie, which serves as a prequel to the miniseries.
It is based on a novel by Ridley Pearson, under the pseudonym Joyce Reardon, PhD – a main protagonist of the miniseries – and that novel was based on Stephen King’s script. Overall it does little to add into that background, more showing us visually things that are mentioned (and perhaps captured in flashbacks) in the series main.
 |
| John and Ellen |
It follows the fortunes of Ellen Rimbauer (Lisa Brenner) an innocent woman who is proposed to, and subsequently marries, oil tycoon, misogynist and philanderer John Rimbauer (Steven Brand). Rose Red is built to be their home but the troubles with it manifest through construction and there is a murder on the site as John proposes – blood spills into a grate, implying feeding. I assume this was the first death and strangely we did not see the accidental death shown in flashback in the actual miniseries. There was an interesting throwaway line about the house being brought from England brick by brick – which may have made the vampire an émigré but I suspect had more to do with Thornewood Castle, the filming location, having been imported in such a way. Later mention is made of it being built on a First Nation burial ground – a favourite American haunted house trope.
 |
| guest in distress |
John and Ellen travel the world for a year for their honeymoon, as the building is constructed, ending up in Africa where he instigates sexual shenanigans, gives her an STD and where she meets confidant, friend (and lover?) Sukeena (Tsidii Leloka). Back home and at a ball a nosey attendee is somehow accosted (we don’t see how, just a shimmer in the air) and sent into distress (and, probably madness) and then people start to vanish. John’s mistress Fanny (Deirdre Quinn), openly carrying on with John whilst Ellen is pregnant, vanishes before Ellen’s eyes. It leads to a séance – where Ellen grows to understand that she will not die whilst the house is being built and the eventual disappearance of her daughter, and second child, April (Courtney Taylor Burness), orchestrated by the house to keep Ellen there. The death of John (killed by the house and the ghosts therein) gives Ellen the means to build continually – until she herself vanishes as per the miniseries.
 |
| fangs superimposed |
The film seems to be designed to give the fan of the miniseries a little more but is tonally quite different. It plays like a period drama with a dash of murder mystery, and whilst there is the ghost/supernatural/vampire element the film fails to capitalise on either a spooky atmosphere or horror feel. In this way it is much more subtle than the miniseries but perhaps too subtle. We do see a manifestation of the house, during the murder of John, where we see a fanged mouth superimposed over a stained-glass window. To me the film is more a completist thing and pretty average. 5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On DVD @ Amazon US
On DVD @ Amazon UK
No comments:
Post a Comment