‘Rose Red’ takes the long view King TV miniseries about haunted house lacks new plot twists

Rose Red violates the first law of real estate.

The gargantuan mansion at the heart of the ABC miniseries “Stephen King’s Rose Red” (9 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Thursday) has a great location, right in the midst of Seattle, and yet most wouldn’t want to visit there.

As for the miniseries itself, who will take the tour? Definitely haunted-house and Stephen King fans, the millions of which should give ABC the ratings it craves. But the labyrinthine production likely will leave novices lost along the way.

In the miniseries, Rose Red is a Seattle urban legend. Built by oil magnate John P. Rimbauer in 1907, Rose Red was continually added onto by his wife, Ellen. Through the decades, nearly two dozen people, including Ellen herself, have disappeared inside the house. It’s kind of like a Northwestern version of “Hotel California,” as people check out but never leave.

Now the logical thing to do would be to stay the hell away from Rose Red. But this being a horror movie, of course there’s an intrepid band ready to march in the front door.

This excursion will be led by Dr. Joyce Reardon (played by Nancy Travis), a psychology professor who has expanded her field to include paranormal phenomena. Naysayers to this line of research are led by department chairman Miller (the late David Dukes in his last role), who is trying to drum her out of the university.

So the expedition to study the abandoned Rose Red takes on added importance to Reardon, whose professional reputation now hangs on it. She recruits a half-dozen people with psychic abilities, to help her “wake up” the supposedly dormant haunted mansion. Strongest among them is Annie (Kimberly J. Brown), a 15-year-old autistic who is telekinetic.

The first evening of the miniseries moves a little slower, as it’s largely exposition, with the characters introduced and the history of Rose Red outlined (we soon figure out why it wasn’t turned into a bed-and-breakfast). It wraps up at the doors to the mansion.

The second episode takes the group inside, as they explore such odd rooms as the mirrored library and the perspective hallway. Also, the spirits in the not-so-dormant mansion start picking off characters “Ten Little Indians”-style. Unfortunately, they disappear in a largely predictable fashion, taking some of the impetus out of the production.

Everything comes to a head on Night 3, with the bulk of the fireworks and the surprises happening then. The miniseries’ “Moby Dick”-like theme is hammered home, with Reardon desperately seeking to land the proof she needs to legitimize her work.

“Rose Red” was created by executive producers King and Mark Carliner, producer Thomas Brodek and director Craig Baxley, the same team behind 2000’s “Storm of the Century.” There’s a good deal of atmosphere, especially inside the mansion, and a good number of chills. The strong visual effects were supervised by Oscar winner Stuart Robertson (“What Dreams May Come”).

Still, King’s script for “Rose Red” was originally movie-length, and it feels more than a little stretched at six hours. There’s just not enough new surprises and twists and too many gratuitous horror shots to justify the length.

So, let’s put “Rose Red” in the middle of the pack among King’s miniseries, below such top-tier material as his epic, “The Stand,” and above the Pac-Man-attack laugher “The Langoliers.” Viewers should check in for as long as they enjoy the ambiance.