YMMV / Rose Red

• Angst? What Angst?: Even taking the memorial service at the end into account, Steve doesn't seem to show much remorse over the death of Joyce. Guess he was only in it for the sex? Although her descent into Ax-Crazy probably made it easier to get over her. There are also some very definite hints that she was only in it for his connection to Rose Red, not to mention him drawing so close to Rachel as a result.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Nick, with his Unfazed Everyman Deadpan Snarker personality and his going out by way of Heroic Sacrifice, rescuing Cathy from the being under the carpet.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: At the end of the film, Rose Red is scheduled to be destroyed, and replaced with condominiums. This would seem like a happy ending - except that the land was dangerous and prone to killing people even before Rose Red was built. The new condos might well end up turning out just as bad as Rose Red, but with a lot more people available to eat now. Though the final shot is actually ambiguous: Sukeena and Ellen look a lot less threatening and frightening (the fact they've become misty white figures certainly softens the horror), and they actually seem to be communing with Joyce who only watches pensively/wistfully as the others leave. A case could be made that what Annie did has broken the power of the house, and now the spirits haunting it are free to move on. On the other hand, the slogan for the condominium company as seen on the banner in the same scene ("We build for the future") is extremely ominous in context and could mean the horror will keep on going. It's really up to the viewer to decide. Also keep in mind that, for all Steve's bragging about the demolition crew taking a wrecking ball to Rose Red, this was taking place during a time when demolition crews were moving to safer methods of destruction, like excavators and explosives. Rose Red was killing people before it was finished. So what kind of damage will it do to a demolition crew wandering the property?
• Ho Yay: Nick and Steve.
• Les Yay: Ellen and Sukeena, especially in an online excerpt from the tie-in novel. The website for these has since been taken down.
• Narm: "SAY CHEESE!"
• Nightmare Fuel
  • The scariest shot in the movie is probably Cathy looking out the kitchen window and just missing Sukeena looking at her from the flowers. Or more correctly, the extreme close-up of her undead face snarling/smiling evilly directly afterward.
  • The atmosphere of the movie is what's so unsettling: Being in a desolate mansion rumored to be haunted and then you begin to realize that it is alive. One early scene which makes this even more blatant is near the end of part one, when Miller calls the cell phone he left with Bollinger to warn him Joyce's group is coming; because the phone is left on, sitting on the floor of the solarium, the viewer is given the impression it is the house itself that is listening to him, being warned of their arrival.
  • The scene where Joyce gets back at Miller for revoking her tenure by wiping the blood from a cut on his face is deeply disturbing, from the look on her face/in her eyes, to her whispering tone, to how she backs him up against a wall and gets right up in his ear; as much as he is a Smug Snake and Jerkass, you can't really blame him for freaking out. Whether this might be some bit of Ellen/Rose Red already influencing her (it's been shown to be able to make contact with both Annie and Emery already), or simply her being fed up with Miller and wanting to scare the hell out of him, it's clear Joyce is already a bit unstable, and Nancy Travis plays it very well.
  • The Reveal scene where Cathy is lost in the house (within the attic too where a portrait of Ellen and John is) and has a vision of Sukeena tricking John into thinking she wants him only for her and Ellen to throw him off the roof (through the stained-glass rose window of the tower), instead of the implied suicide death. When Cathy comes out of her trance, Ellen in the photo looks more vampiric and monstrous. And then she begins to move inside the photo...
• Relationship Writing Fumble: It's not clear if Steve drawing closer to Rachel as the miniseries progresses is meant to be a friendship, an extension of his caring for her sister, or a replacement Love Interest after Joyce goes Ax-Crazy.
• Special Effects Failure: John Rimbauer's fall, the ghost in the fire, and the insects.
• Tear Jerker: In a meta sense: following Julian Sands' death in 2023, Melanie Lynskey wrote a heartfelt tribute to him on her Instagram, detailing how the two of them had bonded during filming and how much she appreciated and would miss him.
• The Woobie:
  • Cathy, at least from when she gets separated from Nick up until Steve and Rachel save her; she certainly experiences the most traumatic and terrifying events in the house apart from Emery and Vic. On the other hand, some argue she did kind of deserve it, being Too Dumb to Live and going out at night with Nick (and getting him killed, to boot), all because she wanted some iced tea (though that seemed to be more of an excuse she made to get away from Emery's jerkassery and Joyce's increasing instability). It cannot be denied, however, that for all her naivete and Genre Blind nature, she was still one of the nicest and most genuinely caring people in the group who didn't deserve what happened to her.
  • Iron Woobie: Steve, considering he hates Rose Red for destroying his family line, and taking care of a group that's falling apart and being tormented by the fact he's a Rimbauer.
  • Rachel, the poor girl deals with immense stress by the fact her own family is afraid of Annie, the fact that she can't even contact Annie due to her strange abilities, and all while trapped in an insane sentient house; you can't help but be amazed on how much she's able to withstand anything. One of the worst moments for her has to be when Emery torments her about Annie, daring her to deny that she's never thought of killing Annie (or at least of her dying) so she could be free of her and wouldn't have to take care of her. Afterward she almost runs off alone into the house, and when Steve chases after her she actually tearfully admits there was at least some truth in Emery's words, that she isn't sure if there is anything in Annie to hear her that is worth saving and that all she might be good for is "helping the house kill us." This is particularly heartbreaking in light of her talk with Steve in the solarium, how there is so much more to Annie than her abilities, that she responds to love with love and deserves a place in the world. "When I look at her I don't see stones, I see roses..."
  • Emery, although he slides into the Jerkass Woobie status. The guy suffers from an uncontrollable power of precognition, has an insane, clingy and controlling mother, and not to mention is tormented by the spirits by the house and loses his fingers, which can all do a number on a guy. Of course, he gets way better by the end, and even seems to care for Annie, even though he originally treated her like crap.