Rose Red is a 2002 American television miniseries scripted by horror novelist Stephen King, directed by Craig R. Baxley, and starring Nancy Travis, Matt Keeslar, Julian Sands, Kimberly J.

Due to its long history of supernatural events and unexplained tragedies, the house is investigated by parapsychologist Dr. Joyce Reardon and a team of gifted psychics.

In writing the teleplay, King incorporated a variety of influences, including elements of Jackson's novel as well as the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California.

Dr. Joyce Reardon, an unorthodox university psychology professor, leads a team of psychics to the massive and antiquated Seattle mansion known as Rose Red in an attempt to record data that would constitute scientific proof of paranormal phenomena.

The mansion is publicly thought to be haunted, as at least 23 people have either disappeared or died there and the interior of the house appears to change or increase in size, yet only from the inside.

Reardon's team awakens the evil spirit possessing the house, leading to several deaths and the revelation of the mansion's deadly secrets.

Rimbauer used much of his wealth to build the mansion, which was in the Tudor-Gothic style and situated on 40 acres (160,000 m2) of woodland in the heart of Seattle on the site of a Native American burial ground.

While honeymooning in Africa, Ellen Rimbauer fell ill (from an unspecified sexually transmitted disease given to her by her unfaithful husband) and made the acquaintance of Sukeena, a local tribeswoman.

The Rimbauers soon had two children, Adam and April, the latter born with a withered arm, but Ellen quickly became unhappy with her marriage to her philandering, neglectful, and misogynistic husband.

The mysterious disappearances continued to occur: a famous actress and dear friend of Ellen's, Deanna Petrie, vanished in the house's billiard room during a party in the 1940s.

He abandoned Rose Red after witnessing several paranormal events, such as the ghost of his long-lost little sister April, and watching rooms alter their size and shape before his very eyes.

After his death, and with the family fortune depleted, his wife generated income by permitting the Seattle Historical Society to give tours of the house.

Kevin Bollinger, a reporter for the campus newspaper, skeptically questions her about a trip she will be taking to Rose Red, an ostensibly haunted and abandoned mansion in Seattle.

Dr. Miller takes Bollinger to Rose Red and drops him off, instructing him to obtain additional embarrassing photos once the group of psychics arrives.

The audience also learns that Joyce is having a sexual affair with Steve, although the film remains unclear whether she loves him or is merely using him to gain access to Rose Red.

While the others assist Emery, Joyce Reardon asks Annie to continue to keep the doors and windows sealed, promising to give her the dollhouse if she does so.

The group begins to speculate that Rose Red has never been a dead cell, merely dormant, and that the mansion's supernatural powers are linked to Annie and Steve (whose psychic abilities become apparent only when he is in the house because of his familial connection to the property).

The shape begins to catch up to them, and Nick shoves Cathy into a room, saving her life, and slams the door behind her, turning around just in time to see a skeletal monster rushing up to him.

Back in the house, Joyce suddenly realizes too late that she does want to leave, but is surrounded by the ghosts of Rose Red: Nick, Pam, Vic, Mrs. Waterman, Miller, Bollinger, Sukeena, and Deanna Petrie.

[4] The action was originally set in Los Angeles, California,[5] and the production crew scouted the Winchester Mystery House as a possible filming location.

[2] Although the project was no longer intended to be an adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House, the script continued to borrow heavily from Shirley Jackson's novel.

[3] After a five-month search for a shooting location, the producers discovered Thornewood Castle in Lakewood, Washington, and secured permission to use the mansion as the façade of Rose Red.

[18] Inspired by the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project, King came up with the idea of presenting the novel as real by having "Dr. Joyce Reardon" edit the "diary".

[12] Intended to be a promotional item rather than a stand-alone work, its popularity spawned a 2003 prequel television miniseries to Rose Red, titled The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer.

Richard Dooling, King's collaborator on Kingdom Hospital and writer of several episodes in the miniseries, published a fictional diary, The Journals of Eleanor Druse, in 2004.

[23] But the magazine concluded that the over-long script and "backstories, particularly the origin of the house, are so convoluted and ill conceived, even the best f/x can't save the day.

[23]Other critics panned the screenplay as "dumbly, numbly entertaining pastiche" and "a strained struggle for cogent characters and a coherent story line", but praised the production for its sound, visual effects, music, and make-up.

"...It is made-for-TV pablum, meant to satisfy unsophisticated palates the way restaurants make ordinary food seem appetizing with highfalutin menus.

While the film's super-annuated Halloween tricks are often visually and technically stunning, they also tend to weaken the seriousness of Rose Red's storyline and dominate it at the expense of character development.

[citation needed] The companion novel The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer dates the expedition to the Rose Red mansion as having taken place sometime during or before the year 2000.