Stephen King's Doctor Sleep: Shining Continued

Danny Torrance still has The Shining.

Doctor Sleep was released on February 4. Viewers can try Blu-ray, DVD and Digital. The Digital format appeared early on January 21.

SLEEP

It’s been nearly 40 years since The Shining came out in 1980. Director Stanley Kubrick’s film saw Jack (Jack Nicholson), Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) move into the Overlook Hotel. The isolating winter does not go well for the family.

Stephen King wrote The Shining in 1977. A simple Internet search discovers that King hated the Kubrick movie, although many critics would call it one of the best horror films ever made.

Doctor Sleep, published in 2013. A rare sequel for King on one of his early stories. To make the movie came to a challenge, though. How to adapt his book, but also connect to a movie the author hated?

Director and writer Mike Flanagan took up the challenge. Ewan McGregor stepped into the role of the grown-up Danny. Rebecca Ferguson is not-so-nice as Rose the Hat. Kyliegh Curran is Abra in her feature film debut. The ensemble cast includes Carl Lumbly, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Bruce Greenwood, Jocelin Donahue, Alex Essoe and Cliff Curtis.

(Jacob Tremblay, star of Room and Wonder, shows up in a small role. Which likely will become one of the unforgettable sequences in the movie.)

Doctor Sleep fared out decent with most critics. It has a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. This makes it ‘Certified Fresh.’ But the box office was likely a bit disappointing with over $72 million worldwide.

Doctor Sleep is rated R for disturbing and violent content, some bloody images, language, nudity and drug use.

TAKE

Would I buy this film? Yes…I am a Stephen King reader. So, maybe a bit of bias.

Most of the time, the debate for the book to movie screen usually tends to be ‘Well, the book was better.’

But I found the movie to be one of the better King adaptations. There are some changes and the biggest goes to Stanley Kubrick’s version of the Overlook Hotel. Something that got highlighted in plenty of promotional materials.

In The Shining novel, The Overlook burned to the ground. But in The Shining movie, The Overlook got left standing. (It’s been 40 years, so hopefully not a big spoiler for either.)

The Doctor Sleep novel definitely has nothing connecting to Kubrick’s movie.

The return to the Overlook Hotel doesn’t happen right away. Doctor Sleep is a 152-minute story, after all. (Or there’s a Director’s Cut lasting 180 minutes.) But there’s plenty of imagery to pop from the 1980 film when the callbacks happen.

Before all that, there are about three stories that eventually collide.

Ewan McGregor is quite good as Danny. Now, grown-up but still very much haunted by the Overlook experience. He resorts to a lot of alcohol. When he reaches rock bottom with a drugged-out girl and her kid, he decides to make a change and be better with his life.

He is soon found by a young girl named Abra, who is also very powerful. She realizes that Danny has a similar ‘shine’ to her. I never would have guessed it was Curran's first movie.

Abra’s power is noticed by Rose The Hat. Rebecca Ferguson could go from very sweet and chilling, quite easily in the role. Rose and her True Knot followers hunt for ‘steam’ from people who have a shine. The steam helps them live long and stay young.

While IT Chapter 2 - another King adaptation - was the big horror movie of 2019. I think I liked Doctor Sleep better, even if it’s just as strange and weird.

Now, will it top Kubrick's The Shining? Probably not for most people. But that's a whole other conversation. Doctor Sleep is for the most part, quite a different movie - and story - from The Shining. 

Do you have to see The Shining first? It helps, but not really. 

SPECIAL FEATURES OVERVIEW

From Shining to Sleep (4 minutes, 56 seconds.)

- Director and writer Mike Flanagan and King discuss Kubrick’s movie. Why Flanagan likes The Shining and why King did not. And the changes are done for Doctor Sleep. (King does give a thumbs up to this film.)

The Making of Doctor Sleep: A New Vision (13 minutes, 57 seconds)

- The behind-the-scenes reel - director and writer Mike Flanagan sees The Shining and Doctor Sleep as two different novels. The clothes that worn and some of the make-up used etc.

Return to the Overlook (14 minutes, 59 seconds)

- Probably the most interesting feature if you were a fan of The Shining. The Kubrick Estate approved the recreation of the large Overlook sets with loaning the actual designs to use. The fact the interior and exterior don’t match. Some talk of details, right down to the same model typewriter to the Big Wheel that Danny rides. 

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