Stephen King's Doctor Sleep

I figured out the thing had always bothered me subconsciously about The Shining, that basically it is not about that “shining” in the title. In Kubrick’s film, it feels like a mythological element quite inorganically incorporated into an ordinary and simple horror film about people living in a haunted hotel. I bet that nine out of ten people asked to briefly retell The Shining wouldn’t mention that Danny is “special”. Compared to that, Doctor Sleep has a rich mythology set in a universe I would like to return to discover other stories that may be taking place. Warner really failed at selling the film, the trailers left me quite underwhelmed, but in the end, I think this’s been one of the most pleasant horror surprises of this year. And, for the second year in a row, Mike Flanagan has significantly improved the year’s horror balance, clever boy. I like how Doctor Sleep connects to The Shining in a meaningful way, while still being a different film which, with only minor changes, would perfectly work on its own. For a horror film, it’s not afraid to have copious footage, it’s not afraid to use snares or to avoid relying on jump-scares, and nor is it afraid to be nasty and uncompromising in many ways. (14/11/2019)

Doctor Sleep might put you to sleep! Mike Flanagan tries his best, but once again I was not pleased. I find his films terribly uninteresting. This one is a direct sequel to The Shining after 40 years and introduces the main character played by Ewan McGregor (the boy in The Shining) who follows in the footsteps of the True Knot cult who suck the souls out of dead victims. Filmed decently, both Ewan and Rebecca Ferguson, playing the villain, are solid. The music is also good, fans of the first film will be pleased with the many references and the finale is quite intense. But the film is not scary, suspenseful, brutal and certainly not entertaining, I haven't seen such a slow film in the cinema for a long time. I'm personally not a big fan of The Shining either, so this story and mythology doesn't do anything for me and actually doesn't interest me much. I don't want to put it off completely, fans of The Shining will probably enjoy it and IMDB praises it as well, so it's not a dud, more like nothing for me. 55% (01/11/2019)

A difficult to adapt yet incredibly good work by Stephen King. If the screenplay were to strictly follow the structure of the original, half of the running time would be devoted to AA meetings. I therefore understand why Mike Flanagan focused much more on Abra and Rose because their storylines are far more cinematic (albeit not too personal), but poor Danny remains a secondary character. Considering that it necessarily had to follow on the film version of The Shining and less so on the book, the ending is surprisingly strong, more terrifying in terms of its logic, and respectfully faithful to the source material, despite some changes (including the biggest) being frustrating at first. From a story about overcoming one's own shadow, something different has emerged: a horror movie that is not afraid to avoid cheap scares and only uses the atmosphere to pay homage. (15/01/2021)

A great adaptation, faithful enough to the book to please its fans, and different enough for it to tie in with the end of Kubrick’s movie. McGregor is excellent as Danny, but the sexy Rebecca Ferguson’s performance as Rose the Hat is just heaven. Much better than in the book. The climax at the hotel, logically different from the book, is a playful variation on the original Shining, with an ending that closes the circle. (15/02/2020)

King's The Shining is quite an interesting long-running phenomenon, now comprising two novels (from 1977 and 2013), both of which have been made into films, the first also as a miniseries, and there's one more TV project to come, apparently called Overlook. So how good is the film version of Doctor Sleep? It’s a decent modern King film, with an excellent McGregor and a declaration of love for the original The Shining. It’s comparable to the new versions of It or Pet Sematary. (31/12/2021)

A very faithful adaptation of a book I enjoyed very much, that builds on one of the best films I've ever seen. The courage of the makers of Doctor Sleep was tremendous – to continue Kubrick's story, but at the same time be true to King and make more than an epilogue to The Shining. They succeeded brilliantly, thanks largely to Mike Flanagan, who straddled the line between King and Kubrick, standing firm, and I can only thank him for it. When you see all the original and very impressively executed mind travel (and combat), the atmosphere, which is much better than the trailers suggested and relies not on scares but on honest suspense... That's exactly how I imagined it when reading the book, and yet the book lacked the film's biggest trump card – the Overlook. I could find a scene or two to fault, but overall I'm so pleased with Doctor Sleep that I can't, or rather won't. The ending is a downright treat for anyone who has not only seen The Shining, but also read it... Notto mention the amazing Ewan McGregor. (15/11/2019)

It’s been long since a sequel made me this happy. Dr. Sleep lacks the author’s vision and unpredictability of Kubrick’s The Shining, but Flanagan builds a meaningful follow-up story that richly develops the possibilities of Kubrick’s secondary themes, smartly blending it with the events of the previous film. This smart director takes other things from the legendary filmmaker: the approach to the protagonist and the narrative style – throughout the film the adult Dan Torrance is an almost surprisingly passive figure under the control of a girl with a strong shining (in a similar way the hotel controlled his father), while the story gradually shrinks, both in time and space, with Flanagan, like Kubrick, using small time lapses to illustrate it. He also manages to imitate the main style characteristics of the previous film, likewise with the music motifs, the reliance on details of the actors during tense moments, the absence of shallow jump-scares, which are replaced by the strategically organised movement of the characters in the mise-en-scène, and the identical staging of some scenes, which both pays homage to and reinforces the narrative connection with the previous film (McGregor’s conversation with Bruce Greenwood in an office looks the same as Jack’s interview with Ullman at the beginning of The Shining; on the stairs, Rebecca Ferguson uses similar gestures as Jack Nicholson; the conversation with the barman, etc.). The long runtime isn’t a problem, either, the film works from the get go with three strongly motivated camps of protagonists (or rather, antagonists) that are slowly being brought together, plus the brilliant return to the iconic hotel, were all the sequences will be gold for the orthodox fans of the original. The Shining told the viewers that the Overlook was the only evil and dangerous place for people who shine, Dr. Sleep expands this into a vast fictional world where Danny gradually assumes the role of his mentor Halloran and his childish self is replaced by a girl who’s going through a similar development (which is highlighted by the film’s very last shot). The very positive impression is completed by a ton of welcome references, the character of the climax and the excellent actors, led by the traditionally likeable and credible McGregor, though the divine Rebecca Ferguson also deserves praise, she’s convinced me again she’s the most charismatic actress of today (and for me, maybe the past, too). If only every sequel of a famous brand was at least half as good as this one. 90% (26/11/2019)

I really like The Shining (perhaps because I’ve never read the book) and that's mainly due to the audiovisual treatment and the demonic Jack Nicholson. So I was very much looking forward to Doctor Sleep, even though I reckoned that it had been a while since 1980 and that the theme might have cooled down somewhat. All my fears were unwarranted! Doctor Sleep is in many ways different from The Shining, so it is not a mere copy reviving old (but still very timeless) material. I liked that the film focused mainly on the "enlightened people", their universe and their "hunters" (with regard to these beings I couldn't help but think of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children). As a horror film, Doctor Sleep doesn't primarily rely on scares, rather it builds an uncomfortable atmosphere with some very raw scenes. Even though it is two and a half hours long, it still keeps the tension at a decent level, in addition to artfully following the plot of the original The Shining (the final half hour). If I wasn't familiar with Stanley Kubrick's film, I'd probably feel lost in the cinema, but this way I enjoyed to the hilt the nostalgic and (still very) oppressive return to Danny and the "redrum" Overlook Hotel. (27/11/2019)

This is what a movie must look like for people who are always complaining about things from their favorite books being left out of movie adaptations. And in doing so, it's the perfect proof of how false their argument is. Doctor Sleep [very aptly titled in the three-hour director's cut] is a literal adaptation in a killer TV treatment that could practically be described as a video book. The film is nominally divided into chapters (which I last saw, perhaps, in Sphere); most of the running time is taken up with two characters locking themselves into several minutes of static dialogue consisting of two shots. Then, in the finale, the film does stray from the book's premise, but only to follow an awkward virtual tour of the Overlook Hotel with one stilted quote after another. And really any recollections of the original Shining this film awakens make it look all the worse standing next to them. Because this is the complete anti-Kubrick. (11/02/2020)

At first (and for quite a while) it seemed terribly boring. When I looked at the running time, I was seized by horror, but then the story picked up the pace, bad guys began to inhale massively, good guys started thinking about how not to get inhaled and the whole thing came back to life. It was really interesting to watch the two female protagonists (Rebecca Ferguson and Kyliegh Curran) erase their male comrades (Zahn McClarnon and Ewan McGregor). I didn't think I'd have such a good time after such a lackluster beginning. (06/03/2020)

Doctor Sleep is an American-British-Canadian production that blatantly rips off some classic movies. For example, there are some scenes from The Shining, only with different actors, which is nice although I did not feel entertained during those two and a half hours. I did not really care how Danny’s life turned out. Although it may be an OK movie, although as a sequel to a great movie, it is weak. (12/02/2020)

Doctor Sleep is a difficult film for the mainstream viewer to digest. Unlike The Shining, whose strength was in the demonic Nicholson and Kubrick's heavy-handed direction (despite the bitter dissatisfaction of King himself, Kubrick's adaptation is one of the best psychological horror films I've seen), its sequel is perhaps a little too dense in terms of psychology, and at times lacks the necessary punch or uncompromising intensity of some scenes – which was so typical of the original The Shining. On the other hand, I have to honestly admit that I actually quite like Mike Flanagan's approach. The overall psychological depth and the strong focus on Sleep's character kind of goes against the current horror trend and moves the whole thing more into the category of intense drama with thriller/horror elements. It may have been doomed to commercial failure from the beginning (be it because of the slow pace, the very daring length, or the unprecedentedly strong psychology of the characters), but I still quite enjoyed it in the cinema. Mike Flanagan is becoming an increasingly interesting filmmaker, but I'd be very skeptical of any major mainstream success in the future. This specific style of storytelling (I wouldn't be afraid of comparisons to James Gray, who in my opinion is also an excellent and underrated filmmaker) just isn't going to happen much in 2019, and it certainly won't be a box office smash. (17/11/2019)