Doctor Sleep

Stephen King’s distain for Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film is pretty legendary, he much prefers the version that came out in 1997 as it was much closer to the book. He is, however, very much in the minority as Kubrick’s version only gets more and more popular with age. Such is the popularity of the 1980 film, director Mike Flanagan makes a film that’s an adaptation of the king novel and a sequel to the 1980 film. 

The film sees Danny (Ewan McGregor) trying to supress the memories of his dark past. Drugs and alcohol help numb the pain, but when he decides to rid him of drink and drugs he is contacted by Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran) who possesses the same abilities. However, she draws the attention of a strange, vampire like clan named True Knot who use the ‘steam’ of people with Shining to live for eternity and Abra has a lot of ‘stream’.

One of the reasons Stephen King did not like Kubrick’s adaption of his book was the fact it toned down the supernatural – leaving it more ambiguous. In trying to adapt King’s novel and make a sequel to the 1980 film, Flanagan keeps a lot of the novel’s supernatural aspects but makes modifications to make the film fall in line with the Kubrick film. 

True knot are much like a vampire clan, they need a specific substance to survive and they are led by Rose the Hat (played by Rebecca Ferguson is a suitably chilling and menacing performance). The emotional core of the film is anchored by a terrific performance by Kyliegh Curran. Much like the mutants from the X-Men series, her incredible gifts make her a target, even her own parents eye her as different. Ewan McGregor also delivers a good performance, but Danny’s alcoholism feels a half-baked and too easily discarded.

The film is lacking in scares, but one could argue as a counter point that it wasn’t that type of horror film. Yet, there are a number of shocking scenes (the baseball boy’s death is pretty harrowing), and Ferguson makes for a devilish villain, but it never truly ventures into horror that same why The Shining did. The tone and aim of the film is different, the supernatural is much more in your face and it certainly won’t stand up as much to repeat viewings and bring out many different interpretations.

The film is also a sequel to The Shining and being a geek, director Mile Flanagan gives us plenty of knowing nods to the film. The trip back to the Overlook hotel is a delight (he even directly homages some of the more famous scenes). Familiar characters return but the actors put their own spin on them, though Alexandra Essoe’s performance is so similar to Shelly Duvall’s it’s almost a perfect mirror image of the real thing.

4/5