I want to like “Rose Red” but it is just not a very scary or suspenseful movie. I don’t really like any of the characters so that impacts my interest toward this two-night Stephen King television movie. It used to be a regular event for network television to buy one of King’s properties and then create a TV movie. Some were good, others not so good. I think this is one lesser quality King works.

A team of ghost hunters head off to a notorious haunted property to see if they can find any evidence of activity. Their search will of course take a disastrous turn for the worse before they are done.

I certainly can’t fault King’s enthusiasm for the haunted house story. Certainly, “The Shining” stands as a monument to that category. It’s just that “Rose Red” seems to lean too heavily on past haunted house themes as can be found in Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House”, and Richard Matheson’s “Hell House”. There are also references to “Ghost Busters” and “The House of Haunted Hill”. Go seek out those works for more engaging and frightening examples of the haunted house tale.