For the rest of you, though, this mammoth 250 minutes horror miniseries, is well worth the time. Stephen King has probably created one of his best screenplay-to-screen only works (not based on a novel) in "Rose Red", a chore usually not too successful ("Sleepwalkers", anyone?). This haunted house tale, about a creepy enormous mansion in Seatle, and the intrepid psychics that go there for a "field trip", boasts amazing production design and sets, fine acting, especially by Nancy Travis as the determined Joyce Reardon and Matt Ross as Emery ("Go and warn someone who isn't broke!), and decent special effects (especially considering this is made for TV). Although not everything is always clear, and although the middle part tends to sag a little, this is a high quality mini-series which amazingly manages to sustain interest through four hours of haunted house shenanigans, one of the most overused themes in horror. It's length also allows it to dedicate the first hour to character development and story buildup, so that when the characters walk for the first time into "Rose Red", we are almost as anxious as they are. this wouldn't have worked in a two hour film.
