I saw this prior to Rose Red and reading the book and for some strange reason was unaware it was produced by SK. I loved the movie and then of course had to see Rose Red. Personally I felt that RR was a bit hokey. The character of Joyce Reardon in RR was a comic. The characters in Diary were very interesting and kept my attention. However I would have like to seen more of all of them. For those whose copy had "scene selection" flaws, may want to return or something. My copy works ok.

If you haven't read the book then you'd be quite lost and quite disapointed. If you've read the book, well then, you would not be lost but you'd be disapointed at how many elements were left out. Especially the relationship between Ellen and Sukeena. Many even question why Sukeena ended up in Rose Red in the first place or what was the connection between the two ladies and the fact that their relationship was a lot more intimate . . . those things are revealed in the book.

The fact that Mr. Rimbauer's passions were feeding the house was only touched upon in passing in the movie, but the book lets you know that it was far more complicated then that.

I would suggest that one read the book before seeing the movie(or after, if you've already seen it and then re-watch it- it'll make sense then)

I agree with some of the other critiques - I'm not sure how well this movie is made in terms of explaining the background of the story. Rose Red was scary. Diary is more like a documentary almost. More drama than horror. It mainly has to do with a husband and wife ... the wife is permissive and the husband is a jerk who sleeps with other women. Not sure what that has to do with the house exactly. I thought they should have focused more on how the house first became haunted. I feel there should be a prequel to the prequel now. To explain in more detail what occurred BEFORE all of this. Like before the house was built. What was there beforehand (like a cemetery, ancient burial grounds, etc.) and why is it haunted in the first place. It was not scary. It wasn't really even suspenseful. It did keep me interested through the whole movie though and the actress that played Ellen Rimbauer I thought was quite good. I would suggest seeing this movie if you are a big fan of Rose Red though because it does explain SOME things ... I wish they would make a sequel too though. "Rose Red: Part Two - Revenege of the House", maybe?

As far as the DVD itself goes, what someone else mentioned is true. If you click on Scene Selections, instead of the scenes for the Diary of Ellen Rimbauer, there are scenes from another movie. Which is a pretty major mistake, I say! No one in production caught that??? Come on, that's a pretty big thing to mess up. Unless... they did it on purpose.... I mean, this is Stephen King we're talking about. ;) I plan on writing to the production company to try and figure out the mystery identity of the Scene Selection mess-up. I'll update when I find out which move it is!

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer is a sequel, or rather a prequel to the very successful Stephen King mini-series "Rose Red" a couple of years ago. The creepy and well-done ghost story about a vast mansion in seattle that continued to build itself even after it was empty.

The prequel tells the story of how the mansion was built by oil magnate John Rimbauer and his marriage to Ellen. Mr. Rimbauer is, well, he's a sex maniac. And when he could not get some lovin' from his wife, he more he gladly made use of many of the servant staff in the huge mansion.

All the while Ellen is learning that Rose Red is really alive with a presence that loves her but then becomes jealous and possesive of Ellen, even taking her daughter. She disappears without a trace and it forces Ellen to remain in the house rather than flee as she is advised to do by a Chinese psychic.

Diary unfortunately doesn't have nearly the scare factor of Rose Red. You're a good 3/4 of the way into the movie before you detect any remote chill. Mostly we just get the lurid and sex-crazed life of Mr. Rimbauer.

Not a good sequel and really not needed.

For a Stephen King's fan, I really have to have this DVD in my collection. This is a great movie to watched except that, He shouldn't have cut short the accounts of their year of honeymoon and there's also a slight steepness in the story. Rather have this movie in a more deeper spectative in story.

The upper side of this movie is that you left wondering if Rose Red really exist.