Something to while away the time with (Rose Red (DVD))

Member Name: Walshy_walshy

Product:	Rose Red (DVD)
Date:	16/08/09 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sometimes eery, sometimes gripping

Disadvantages: Cheap effects, actors aren't really people you can empathise with

During the nineties, Stephen King found himself to be one of the foremost writers in the horror/thriller genre. His books sold in their millions and spawned a few movies and even more TV miniseries. This is one of them. It's a mixed bad of a programme with more unanswered questions than you would like to think.

A doctor takes a group of special people with heightened mental abilities into a house with creepy ghosts and watch as one by one each one dies and there's the predictable twist and the ultimate fight for survival.

What would make a thriller by numbers mini series actually bearable is if they put together a cast that has chemistry, or as a basic requirement, could act! The suspense that is so well constructed in the book is lost with hapless actors so you do not care what happens with anyone. It doesn't help that the budget was not utilised and so the effects look cheap (even for the mid-1990s) and so much was shown to destroy the suspense through atmosphere. Some parts also stretch the credibility a little TOO far. Such as one of the characters

It's a shame as some points in the movie were played out quite well. The story was there, just the execution that hurt it.

Overall, the mini-series is an enjoyable yarn that takes in many of King's previous themes and mashes them into a big mush... It also shows how tired his books became with also the same themes played out.

Watch it if you need something to watch on a Sunday afternoon for ironing. It's not good enough to go out of your way for.

Summary: King creates another good attempt at the horror/thriller genre.