I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This is a typical paranormal activity movie: The characters act like idiots, making always the worst choice (like going alone somewhere), most of the paranormal things do not happen on screen, characters die one by one (although they do stay longer in this 4-hour mini series) and you can't even understand why these characters are there in the first place, music that you would never listen by itself (it feels strange that the OST seems to have been released as a double album) and a whole stage and acting that offers more laughs than its parody could ever do. So, the story is about a mentally problematic "psychology" professor who is also a fond fan of paranormal activity. Trying to boost her career, she decides to go and collect some "hard" data (hahahaha) to prove to her boss and the psychology scientific community that paranormal activity is real. The place for that is a mansion belonging to her boyfriend and is supposed to be haunted. Because of numerous deaths, the place was left empty for many years and is considered to be sleeping... For reasons unknown, the "scientist" believes that the house will wake up thanks to a group of other paranormal crazees that she is actually paying to go to the house with her and especially a telekinetic teenager that seems to be special among the rest (we don't know why). Although each of the members seems to have a special talent (a special move if you are a gamer), they barely seem to need it as any random guy could act the same way in that house. So, this professor takes all the expensive equipment of the university (telemetric... hahaha) and goes to collect some hard data. These equipment include a camera and a machine that measures temperature (called thermometer) and how many people are in the room (and despite the number being larger than the actual people, it still doesn't make a difference in the story). After they move in and before setting the equipment, they go on a tour. Although a lot of the paranormal activity happens during this tour (like the screaming room), they don't record anything, and the prof continues the tour like nothing happened. Later on, when more paranormal things happen, the same professor who was so adamant that there is paranormal activity, appears to ignore it and get even crazier forgetting the reason she went there in the first place. Maybe at the end, we understand why... Anyway, to tell the truth, if you like this kind of movies, you will have some pleasant time, with some nice laughs when you know what is going to happen (and it does!). But it's a terribly long movie, with very slow development and these boring scenic gaps fitted for TV shows. Anyway, I'd better go change my underwear for the fifth time. Still half an hour to go.

I generally enjoy adaptations of Steven King stories, especially when he does the adapting, and this was no exception. It has some surprising weaknesses, but all in all it was a very enjoyable movie.The story focuses on Professor Joyce Reardon (Nancy Travis), a professor of psychology, whose fascination with the paranormal, and obsession with the mansion called Rose Red, have earned her the scorn of her department head, Professor Carl Miller (David Dukes). In fact, Prof. Miller's only desire in life seems to be to discredit Joyce, and to that end he has hired reporter Kevin Bollinger (Jimmi Simpson) to spy on her, take damaging pictures, and write damaging articles. While Miller sees Joyce's obsession with Rose Red as a way to completely humiliate her, Joyce sees it as a way to prove her theories about the paranormal. And it just so happens that Joyce is now seeing Steve Rimbauer (Matt Keeslar), descendant of John (John Procaccino) and Ellen (Julia Campbell) Rimbauer, the original builders of the mansion. So, it's not much of a problem to get access to the house for a weekend to do some research. And Joyce has lined up some special guests to assist her: Pam Asbury (Emily Deschanel), a psychic who gets impressions from objects she touches; Vic Kandinsky (Kevin Tighe), a psychic who's precognitive; Emery Waterman (Matt Ross), a mamma's boy with undetermined psychic abilities; Nick Hardaway (Julian Sands), whose strong psychic talents aren't really given a name; Cathy Kramer (Judith Ivey), whose gift is automatic writing; and Annie Wheaton (Kimberly J. Brown), an autistic girl with powerful psychic gifts, who is accompanied by her sister, Rachel (Melanie Lynskey), better known as Sis. Asserting that Rose Red is a dead cell, Joyce hopes to "awaken" the house, which, indeed she does, with results that surprise them all.King's storytelling is as good as ever in this particular piece. He creates a brooding and foreboding atmosphere, and for the most part, gives just enough information to let you figure out what has happened. That being said, some of his characterizations are surprisingly weak, Sis and Annie's parents (Mary Jo Dugaw and Robert Blanche) are almost more caricatures, than characters, especially the abusive father. And a little more information about what actually happens to Pam, Vic, and Nick would have been helpful, although I suspect that may be due to elements that didn't translate well from the narrative. It's a little slow at times, but overall, it's a good, suspenseful story.The acting was also very good. I'm not a huge fan of Nancy Travis, but I have to give her credit for creating a sympathetic character in the scenes that are told from her point of view, and a much less sympathetic character in scenes that are told from the point of view of others. I always enjoyed David Dukes, and was sad to note that this was his last performance, and that he died while filming the movie. Judith Ivey did an excellent job in a non comic role. Matt Ross and Julian Sands did good jobs with their characters. Emily Deschanel and Kevin Tighe are sadly wasted in unfortunately small roles. The film really belongs to Matt Keeslar, Melanie Lynskey, and most notably Kimberly J. Brown, all of whom turned in wonderful performances.It's a bit long, especially when shown all at once, which is how SyFy has been doing it, but I still think it is well worth investing the time to see a very scary, and very well done movie.

At his best, Stephen King has good ideas and writes excruciatingly bad prose. And even the good ideas vanish in the translation to the screen. In my experience, there are only two good movies made from King's books--Christine and The Dead Zone (The Shining is Kubrick's biggest disappointment.) Rose Red is the worst haunted house film I have ever seen, and in the top 1% of worst movies I have ever seen. Gregory, the infallible movie cat, who normally responds to bad films with a disdainful sniff and a malodorous trip to the litter box, nearly made the same comment in from of the television about 10 minutes into the second segment.Where oh where can we start? Let's start with the special effects, if only to dismiss them. Pretty as they are, they dress up a pig. And as we all should know, you can dress up a big, put lipstick on her, and call her Monique--but she is still a pig. No bad film was ever made good with special effects--and this turkey is a prime example.How about the cast? On the whole pretty good, with a couple of veterans like Judith Ivey and Julian Sands, both of whom are capable of enlivening a film. Not here.And now, the plot. Oh, the plot. What a dreadful mess. First of all, it's a mishmash of elements from far better work. The house that's alive and malignant? And the experiment with psychics? Look no further than the best of all haunted house movies, the original version of The Haunting (not the remake!). Even King used it before in The Shining. The child medium? Firestarter, and any of a dozen different films and movies. And The Haunting did more in two hours than this in well over four.And why? To begin with, everything, including the kitchen sink and all the the plumbing, has been tossed in, with decidedly ill effect. We have academic politics. We have a mad scientist in Nancy Travis's character, who is so annoying that it's a wonder that the rest of the investigators didn't roll her up in a carpet and jump up and down, up and down, crushing her like Nero did Poppea. For heaven's sake, we even have a nerd with a neurotic smothering mother--a veritable field day for Freud.And what is worse--far far worse--is that the whole preposterous farrago makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Why does writing "Open the doors" 100 times open the doors? If the house is the evil entity, why does its influence extend far the house. And, for that matter, given the aerial shots of the house in the middle of downtown Seattle, where the devil is all the open space in which characters keep getting lost? And we do not get to see the house blown up at the end? A terrible cheat-perhaps the SFX budget ran out. And, to cap it all, the dialogue is written--and delivered (with a few exceptions) in a fever pitch of hysteria that heightens the overall sense of--well, confusion is perhaps the kindest word for it.Four hours on DVD, six on television with breaks. For heaven's sake, save yourself time and brain cells. Rent a good film like the original version of The Haunting or The Uninvited (Ruth Hussy, Ray Milland.) Why anyone watches this festering heap of poo is beyond me.

I really enjoyed this. It is very good, very well made and the acting is very good as well by everyone. The pace is good and it's engaging. However,......sometimes it takes a long time for the actors to play out their scenes, take you to the place in the house they want to be and then......something happens that you anticipate as being very scary only to see something very mild. In other words, it isn't exactly a frightening film. It is more mysterious. If you are in the mood for a good haunted mansion film then this will do the trick. If you are looking for intense scares, you might be disappointed. The special effects are good but not fantastic. This is story & character driven. Some scenes play out a little bit too long and end a little flat. I think the characters would have been much more shocked by the situations they find themselves in but they seem to brush things off pretty easy. Sometimes it has a 'made-for-tv' feel.