Rating: R
Genre:
Thriller
Release Date: 10/14/2003
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 88 Minutes
Flags: Sexual Situations
Distributor/Studio: Lions Gate
Based on the novel by
Ridley Pearson,
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer is a prequel to the goose-pimply 2002 TV miniseries
Stephen King's Rose Red. In its efforts to "explain" the supernatural events in the earlier project, this made-for-TV
chiller is set at the turn of the century, when the stately, sinister Rose Red mansion is constructed by powerful Seattle oil magnate
John Rimbauer (
Steven Brand) as a wedding present for his timid, submissive young bride,
Ellen (
Lisa Brenner). At first impressed by her husband's extravagance,
Ellen eventually comes to hate and fear
John, especially when learning a few unsavory facts about his past. Meanwhile, the mansion seems to be festooned with ghosts, possibly those of the many people close to
John Brand who have mysteriously vanished. Can the eerie moanings and manifestations be interpreted as a warning to
Ellen that she, too, may some day disappear without a trace? This is the sort of film in which, after someone exclaims "I'll be damned!," someone else replies, "You already are."
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer originally aired May 12, 2003, on
ABC.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
