Rose Red

King’s characters inspire indifference—except for the ones who are actively annoying—so you’re unlikely to care that some of the ghostbusters wind up dead. The author has a cheeky cameo in part 2 as a pizza delivery man, but instead of wasting his time acting he should have thought up a satisfying ending. After six hours of Rose Red, it’s truly scary to contemplate that the story may not be over. Bottom Line: Bring on the wrecking ball.

As unoriginal as haunted house stories get, Stephen King’s Rose Red is his “Carrie” and “The Shining” meets “Ghostbusters,” “Night of the Living Dead” and the Psychic Hotline. Written by the prolific King, this overwrought, overacted three-parter on ABC is campy, not scary or even stomach-turning.

Stephen King should get out more. This latest miniseries offering from the too prolific schlock horrormeister may be the week's big TV event, running Sunday, Monday and Thursday, but it plays like a greatest hits collection: Stephen's Best Spooks . Except, like so many such collections, once you get all the songs next to one another, you realize they sound alarmingly similar. [26 Jan 2002]

And six hours later, it's over -- though like most King TV projects, Rose Red doesn't so much end as run out of time. Run the other way. [25 Jan 2002]

Be bored. Be very bored....Stephen King's Rose Red, the new six-hour ABC miniseries written by King, is a haunted-house story that's told so slowly, it's almost inert. [24 Jan 2002]

"Rose Red" is a rambling wreck of a film, chopped into a three-night miniseries -- six total hours, if you include the commercials, airing Sunday, Monday and Thursday -- for no discernible reason other than that King is apparently being paid by the hour. In fairness, "Rose Red" is the first major project King tackled after being seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver in 1999. But while that may be a good excuse for King's less-than-great screenplay, is there no one at ABC with the authority to ask for a second or third draft?