Scream Stream 2023: Rose Red The Final Haunting

Rose Red, an extremely haunted mansion in Seattle, is being studied by a group of psychics lead by Professor Joyce Reardon (Nancy Travis), in the first two installments of this three part miniseries, we meet the team and learn some of their back stories, giving context to who they are and how they will relate to the rest of the characters, and learn some of the history of the house.  Annie Wheaton (Kimberly J. Brown), an autistic girl who is also an extremely powerful telekinetic is being used by the house and its ghostly inhabitants to keep the rest of the team trapped and one by one taking them.  Team member Emery Waterman suggests killing Annie in order to save themselves which angers the remaining members of the group. Steve Rimbauer (Matt Keeslar), the last of the Rimbauer family who owns Rose Red, is the only one who can communicate with Annie telepathically, even though outside the house has no psychic abilities. Even this is not enough to reach Annie on a high enough level to release them.  Joyce in the meantime has devolved into insanity and the rest of the group searches for a way to escape, eventually figuring out that the house isn’t just evil, but it is a type of vampire, sucking their psychic energy and creating corporal monsters from those that have died on the property.  In one last ditch effort to save themselves, Cathy (Judith Ivey) uses her ability of automatic writing to create a psychic bond with Annie and attempts to get through to her.  Can the team survive long enough to escape, or will they all perish like so many before them? Watch and find out!

Of the three episodes within the series, I think this is my least favorite.  I enjoyed it as a whole, but I feel the telling of the story fell apart at the end and some of the explanations of what was happening felt rushed and unclear.  What exactly was Ellen Rimbauer, Sukeena and April?  Were they ghosts, vampires, or something else? I don’t feel we got a definite answer.  There were also several things said that, in a way, contradict each other.  In the beginning it is told that the deaths started even before the house was built, yet in this last episode they allude that Ellen built a “broken” house because her heart was broken by her husband’s infidelity.  I suppose both could be true, and if the house was a type of psychic vampire, it fed off the hurt that Ellen was feeling, but again, no clear explanation was given.  I don’t mind leaving some things up to the audience’s imagination, I feel that there could have been more time spent on the wrapping up of the story.

Besides the storyline, I wasn’t as impressed with the cast in the final installment.  Emery, played by Matt Ross, is supposed to be unlikeable and yet somewhat sympathetic, and yet I found his character a little too unlikeable in this episode. His constant whining began to become irritating.  I know this is purposely done, to partially show character growth in the final scene, but it was a bit too much for me.  Joyce’s snap into insanity was a little too sharp as well.  I didn’t feel there was an appropriate build up to this, one second, she seemed perfectly sane, the next she was crazy, the change was too stark to feel believable.  The rest of the cast, especially Judith Ivey, continued to have strong performances, specifically Judith Ivey in this episode. I did like that the final scene gave closure to all the surviving characters. Overall, I would still recommend giving this a watch while it is still available on Hulu.