This original tv miniseries focuses on a team of psychics who are assembled by Joyce Reardon to stir the sleeping spirits of a haunted house called Rose Red. Reardon, played by Nancy Travis, is sort of a more realistic portrayal of a pre-Ghostbuster Ghostbuster. She lectures at a university, discussing the more paranormal aspects of psychology and she is mocked by a share of her students as well as the faculty. They look down on her for believing in such wacky things such as ghosts, but she's determined to prove herself.
She pays rather handsomely to assemble her crew too, offering each member $5,000 out of her own pocket to participate in the study. I'd take 5 grand to investigate a haunted house.
There are actually a few nods to Ghostbusters. While no one paints "Burn in Hell Reardon" on her door, someone does leave a card on her door as a sign of mockery. A skeptical college reporter also publishes an article titled "Who ya gonna call?". Emery also has a vision that originates from his refrigerator.
Her target, the aforementioned Rose Red is a century old house with a dark and troubled history. Think of it like the Overlook's twin sibling. Like the hotel, it straddles the fine line between "haunted" and "sentient". Also like the Overlook, it feeds on psychic energy. One of the interesting developments is that the house continues to grow. It appears the same on the outside, but the rooms change and more appear as time progresses.
They put together a decent cast, as well as Travis, you have Bones herself Emily Deschanel in a supporting role (it's really weird seeing her as a blonde by the way) as well as the actress who plays Rose on Two and a Half Men (which is oddly fitting). There are also a slew of actors whose names you won't recognize, but whose faces you will. Stephen King even makes a quick cameo as a pizza guy.
The acting is passable for the most part, but there are some really bad aspects as well. What is the deal with Emery's face for example? It's annoying. He might've been a somewhat sympathetic character were it not for that goofy expression he has on his face the entire movie. Yeah, he's not likable, but when you see his situation, you understand why he is that way. I mean, good grief.
Speaking of Emery, you'll notice quite a similarity between him and Harold Lauder. I would not be surprised to find out that it was intentional seeing as Harold's middle name was, in fact, Emery.
There's also one particular narmy scene where Travis tells off her boss for being narrow minded and stuck up. She really hams it up and you can't help but laugh a little.
The script is the same, passable, but there are some really bad lines in there as well. One of my roommates hated the movie in general and the other said that it was OK except the script was terrible.
This part is largely exposition. A large portion is spent discussing the history of the house itself as well as somewhat establishing the personalities of each of the psychics. The team doesn't even really make it to the house until the latter half of this portion of the miniseries.
The first real activity we see from Rose Red comes when a reporter sneaks into the house ahead of the team and is attacked by a swarm of bees.
Bees. My God.
The makeup effects are pretty subpar as well. A good chunk of the "monsters" look like people wearing Halloween masks.
It does the creepy thing pretty well. It's nothing you haven't seen in other haunted house faire, but it's done well enough. The score is effective and it does a decent job of building up suspense at a few points.
Compared to some of the other movies I've reviewed it is good by comparison, but it didn't really impress me all that much. It's not so bad that I suggest avoiding it, but it's not great enough for me to say check it out.
This, of course, only covering the first half of the series. We'll have to wait and see how the series feels after I watch it in its entirety.
Part 2
The second verse is more or less the same as the first in this case. In some ways it's better, but the improvements are negated by enhanced flaws.
One of the good things about this part is that we've moved past all of the over-complicated backstory and are just watching a group of people struggle inside of a haunted house.
The downside is that Emery manages to be even more annoying. Whereas you could feel some sympathy for him in previous parts, it's all but gone as this part goes on. Where the previous part had a small amount of hammy acting, this one ups the ante considerably.
Most of it comes from Nancy Travis, who really overdoes the whole crazy thing.
The woman who plays Emery's mom also amps it up to 11. Watch the scene where she first appears and try not to laugh.
Oh, I should mention that while Wikipedia lists the series as having three parts, I'm reviewing this by the two discs that the series comes on in the DVD. So part 1 is disc 1 (which contains parts 1 and 2 in the series) and disc 2 is part 3.
For as long as this series is, none of the characters seem all that fleshed out. Some are developed well enough, but you never really get a feel for others like Nick or Cathy.
This part was also sorely lacking in Bones' presence.
So, this is a series that's better left on the shelf. If you catch it on the SciFi channel on the weekends and you just feel like lounging around, there are worse movies to spend your time watching, but this didn't really impress me all that much.
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