Even when Stephen King is bad, he's usually creative. Rose Red is therefore a bit baffling: it's a generic retread of the haunted house genre, offering absolutely nothing new. Initially, there is too much creepy and not enough scary -- or plot -- and eventually it just gets too chaotic to build real suspense.

The mistakes made in haunted house stories are many, but the most crippling for Rose Red is bending the rules of the world too much. Tension only comes if we sense that the story is playing by the rules it sets out for itself. Rose Red does not, although it certainly tries hard to convey that illusion.