Entertainment
Stephen King's Underrated Haunted House Series Only Exists Because Of Spielberg
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Stephen King can pull a horror story out of anything. At one point in the book Faithful, where King and his friend Stewart O’Nan chronicle the 2004 Boston Red Sox season, he casually drops a potential horror plot based on watching a baseball game on TV. That it took him decades to develop a story based on a haunted house makes sense; it’s too obvious.
The 2003 miniseries Rose Red is his take on the classic horror setting, which embraces all the old tropes instead of The Overlook Hotel subverting them. King fans wouldn’t have that if not for Steven Spielberg outright asking the Master of Horror to write a story about a haunted house.
A Classic Haunted House Story From The Twisted Mind Of Stephen King
The Stephen/Steven connection had been simmering for years when they finally teamed up in 1996 and started hammering out the script for Rose Red. Originally, it was going to be a feature film, and as King has discussed in interviews over the last 30 years, the project fell apart when Spielberg wanted to take the script in a more upbeat, positive direction, and King wanted it to be a terrifying horror movie. Simple creative differences kept the movie from ever happening, but the idea was out there, and through Spielberg’s simple suggestion, King had his haunted house script.
Rose Red was broken down and rewritten into a miniseries, airing on ABC over the course of three days in January 2002, which is what television events were like back before streaming. The Rose Red of the title isn’t a person, it’s a mansion, think of the Winchester Mystery House if it were built on a large Native American burial ground. A professor specializing in psychic phenomena, Dr. Joyce Reardon (Last Man Standing’s Nancy Travis), assembled a team of academics and psychics (which includes the late Julian Sands, Yellowjackets’ Melanie Lynskey, and Bones herself, Emily Deschanel) to venture into Rose Red and unravel the mystery.
Over the course of the three episodes, we learn the hidden history of Rose Red, and in typical King fashion, its true nature is revealed because nothing can be only a haunted house, or only a killer clown, there’s more to it than what it seems on the surface. The different investigators all have their own special powers, from talking to ghosts to telekinesis, but that’s little comfort when going up against a cursed building that’s been haunting a family for generations. Watching the ways various members of the investigation die, from encounters with spirits to literally dying of fright, it makes you wonder how Steven Spielberg envisioned the original project.
The World Is Still Waiting For the Steven And Stephen Collaboration
Though it was considered middling by critics of the time, Rose Red pulled off an 8.5 rating and nearly 20 million viewers. It’s often overlooked today as it’s not the greatest King adaptation, but it’s also not the worst. It’s somewhere in that huge stretch alongside Sleepwalkers, IT: Part 2, and Doctor Sleep.
To this day, Stephen King and Steven Spielberg have yet to collaborate on a project together. They were close, again, when the Duffer Brothers were going to adapt The Talisman for Netflix. Spielberg happens to own the film rights to King’s series thanks to a sweetheart deal with Universal dating back to 1982. That deal has seemingly fallen through, with everyone involved moving on to other projects, but that’s what happened with Rose Red 30 years ago.
It could still happen, but for now, Ready Player One’s extended homage to The Shining is as close as we’re going to get. King’s next projects include a Cujo remake, while Spielberg is getting ready to rule the Summer of ‘26 with the alien blockbuster Disclosure Day.
Rose Red is available to stream on Hulu.
Entertainment
Get Ankers 14-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Dock for $60 less at Amazon
SAVE 15%: As of April 22, you can get the Anker Prime 14-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Dock for $339.99, down from $399.99, at Amazon. That’s a 15% discount or $60 savings.
$339.99
at Amazon
$399.99
Save $60
Working off a laptop is great until you realize you only have two ports and need to plug something in. If you’re hooked up to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, you’re pretty much out of luck on the rest. Not only that, but your previously uncluttered desk will most likely look like a Best Buy exploded (a rat’s nest of cords isn’t cute or helpful for anyone getting work done).
If you literally hate mess and cords as much as I do, you need a docking station to hide all that chaos and protect your aesthetic. Right now, Anker’s Prime TB5 Docking Station is on sale for $339.99 at Amazon, down from $399.99. (That’s a $60 price cut.)
Mashable Deals
Are you going to use all 14 ports at the exact same time? Probably not, but you’ll never have to dig through your bag for a specific adapter again. You just plug a single cable into your laptop, and the dock handles the rest. It features a Thunderbolt 5 upstream port, two Thunderbolt 5 downstream ports, two USB-C ports, three USB-A ports, SD and TF card readers, a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port, an audio jack, and your choice of HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 2.1. It’s also fast enough to transfer a 150GB file in 25 seconds.
Entertainment
How I scored ad-free Paramount+ Premium for only 99 cents
SAVE $26: As of April 22, returning subscribers can score two months of ad-free Paramount+ Premium for only 99 cents per month with the code N8C27L. Usually $13.99 per month, that’s $26 in savings. Just note that your mileage may vary.
$0.99/month for 2 months (save $13/month) with code N8C27L
If you’re looking to save some money on your streaming lineup, my number one recommendation is to cancel your subscriptions. While it doesn’t work for every streamer, many will offer you a special discount to come back. Not to mention, you’ll be eligible for any new deals that may appear that are marketed to “new and returning customers.” Case in point: as of April 22, returning subscribers can get two months of ad-free Paramount+ Premium for just 99 cents per month.
I’ve tested this out myself, so I can vouch for it. When you navigate to Paramount+ and sign in to your existing account, you’ll be prompted to pick a plan. Select the Paramount+ Premium monthly plan for $13.99 per month. On the “Welcome back!” page, scroll down to the box that says “Have a promo code?” and enter N8C27L. Once you hit “apply” the price should drop to just 99 cents per month.
Credit: Paramount+
That’s all, folks. You can take advantage of two full months of ad-free Paramount+, Showtime, BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, CBS live TV, UFC fights, and more for less than two bucks. That’s $26 total in savings.
Mashable Deals
Paramount+ has a surprisingly hefty library. Subscribers can enjoy Paramount+ Originals like Landman and RuPaul Drag Race All Stars, Showtime series like Dexter Resurrection and Yellowjackets, CBS hits like Survivor and NCIS, and nostalgic shows from Nickelodeon and MTV. Not to mention, there’s a lineup of movies that’ll keep you fully entertained for your two-month promotional period. Just be sure to cancel again before the second month is over if you want to avoid paying full cost. You can always sign up again when another deal arises. I know I will.
Entertainment
How Stargate SG-1 Used A Classic Trope To Emotionally Wreck Its Fans
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Garfield and Friends said it best: “Oh no, we’ve resorted to an evil twin storyline.” Star Trek: The Original Series did it the best with Mirror Universe Spock, and ever since, it’s been a lazy excuse for every series to use when they run out of ideas. The exception is Stargate SG-1’s sixth episode, “Cold Lazarus,” which plays with the trope by making the twin less evil and more confused.
When fans say they skip this episode when rewatching, it’s not because it’s a lazy, poorly written episode. In fact, it’s the opposite. The ending of “Cold Lazarus” is a pivotal character moment for Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) and a gut punch to the audience.
Stargate SG-1’s First Evil Twin
“Cold Lazarus” opens with the SG-1 team on a planet that doesn’t look like Vancouver (it was a giant pile of sulfur at the port of Vancouver). The desert landscape is dotted with shattered blue crystals that look like the remnants of a civilization until we see a crystal eye-view of O’Neill, a mysterious light knocks him out, and all of a sudden, a second O’Neill is looking down at the first. Turns out, the crystals are the civilization.
Fake O’Neill is trying to figure out who O’Neill is and what SGC is all about. When he pulls out photos of his family, it takes Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) by surprise. O’Neill’s never mentioned his wife, Sara, or his son, Charlie. Confused, the Fake O’Neill goes to the home, where Sara is disgusted he’d come by and thinks it’s a sick joke that he’s asking about Charlie. If you’re wondering if you missed a key part of O’Neill’s backstory, don’t worry, this is the first time that either Sara or Charlie is mentioned, and tragically, we soon learn why.
No One Ever Dies
Charlie shot himself with O’Neill’s gun. Fake O’Neill starts to piece this together when he goes into Charlie’s old room and breaks down, prompting Sara and him to finally have the conversation about their shared grief. Back in SGC, the crystal’s nature is revealed to be an energy alien calling itself Unity, which accidentally killed a Jaffa, and the Goa’uld shattered them in retribution. That’s when O’Neill stumbles back through the Stargate, and the team realizes the mistake they made.
The Fake O’Neill is soon captured at a local hospital, suffering from Earth’s radiation, where he explains that he sensed O’Neill’s pain after he took his form and wanted to help ease the suffering, as nothing ever truly dies to Unity. To prove its point, Unity transforms into Charlie, giving O’Neill and Sara one last chance to see their child. Fans who haven’t lost a child can understand the emotion, but for fans who have, this scene is emotional torture, in the best way possible.
Jack knows this isn’t Charlie, but he talks to him like he is, and then they walk together through the Stargate back to Unity’s planet. It’s a beautiful moment that explains so much about O’Neill’s throwing himself into work and how even his friendships remain professional. “Cold Lazarus” may have started out with the “evil twin” trope in full effect, but the ending is proof that even early during its run, Stargate SG-1 was going to be the greatest.
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