The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (film)
2003 television film directed by Craig R. Baxley
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer is a 2003 American television film directed by Craig R. Baxley, and starring Lisa Brenner, Steven Brand, and Tsidii Le Loka. It is a prequel to the miniseries Rose Red (2002), and is based on the 2001 novel by Ridley Pearson, which itself is an accompaniment piece to the miniseries. The film premiered on ABC on May 12, 2003.
Plot
The film is an adaptation of The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red (2001), written by Ridley Pearson under the pseudonym Joyce Reardon, PhD. Pearson's novel was based on the script of Stephen King's Rose Red.
The plot revolves around the construction of the Rimbauer mansion, Rose Red, in Seattle, Washington, tracing a series of mysterious accidents throughout the mansion's early history which cause it to become cursed. Set at the turn of the 20th century, the stately, sinister 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). Rimbauer uses much of his wealth to build the mansion in the Tudor neo-Gothic style and situate it on 40 acres (16 ha) of woodland. The site has been a Native American burial ground. The house appeared cursed even as it was being constructed: three construction workers are killed on the site, and a construction foreman is murdered by a co-worker.
Shortly after her marriage to Rimbauer, Ellen begins keeping a diary in which she confesses her anxieties about her new marriage, expresses her confusion over her emerging sexuality, and contemplates the nightmare that her life is becoming.
The public source identifies “The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (film)” as 2003 television film directed by Craig R. Baxley. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Diary, Ellen and Rimbauer.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1170504. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2002 and 2001.
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