The Shining is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. There are plenty of reasons why I enjoy it, but one thing that I like about it in particular is how different it is from my other favorite horror films. This has a lot to do with Stanley Kubrick’s direction, of course, but it’s also a more psychological film than the others that sit in my mental pantheon of horror classics. Nearly forty years later since The Shining’s original release, Doctor Sleep has come out as the sequel to the horror classic with Mike Flannigan in the writer and director chairs. I don’t think I need to say that there are not many directors who could measure up to Kubrick. However, Flannigan has proven himself capable with some horror films and series in the past. So, I was hopeful this would be an interesting film, if not something that could measure up to the standards Kubrick set with his masterpiece.

Pros

Good acting from a majority of the cast
Solid casting for all of the ‘familiar’ faces
Interesting camera effects and cinematography; some shot-for-shot recreation of scenes from the original film
Story goes in a lot of different directions without feeling tired
Strong focus on characterization
Develops more of the ‘Shining’ ability without getting needlessly complicated

Cons

Long film with some segments of the plot that could have been shortened
Some odd lines in the script that should have been left on the cutting-room floor
The way a majority of the villains are dispatched feels a bit clunky
While creepy in the beginning, not much of a scary movie—it’s too plot-heavy

Plot & Thoughts

Doctor Sleep’s plot revolves around three primary characters whose stories all eventually overlap and intertwine. The way in which it all happens could be explained via a Venn diagram, in some regards.

Dan Torrence (Ewan McGregor) has had a rough life since the incident at the Outlook Hotel and the death of his mother. As an adult, he’s mostly stumbled through life in a drunken haze, living on the street, and dealing with the visions of ghosts that haunt him from his past. When he passes through a small town and meets a friendly philanthropic person by the name of Billy (Cliff Curtis), he’s finally able to clean his life up, get a steady job as an orderly at a local hospice clinic, and use his mental abilities to help ease the pain of people passing away. In his room, he occasionally interacts with his psychic pen-pal by the name of Abra Stone (Kyleigh Curran), a young girl living in an entirely different part of the country who has an incredibly high level of psychic power.

Finally, there’s Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson). She leads a band of Gypsy-like nomads through the US. Although it’s unclear at first what their goals are, it is laid out rather quickly that they are malicious in nature. There were only two characters in in The Shining who had the ability to ‘shine’ but it was suggested there were more people like them out there. Doctor Sleep confirms this and establishes that there are some who have these psychic abilities and are using them for benevolent purposes.

The story of Doctor Sleep converges on Dan, Abra, and Rose when Rose senses Abra and realizes the type of power that she has. It takes a long time for the film to reveal the intentions of the nomadic band of psychics, so I won’t discuss them here, but essentially: Rose wants to get Abra and Dan tries to hide Abra until they decide to face the situation head on. Doctor Sleep is a long movie that takes its time getting to the plot. This would be a bigger problem if the time spent elsewhere was poorly utilized. Instead, a majority of the film’s runtime is spent with characterization, something that director Mike Flannigan is known to focus on. So while Doctor Sleep has a long runtime, it doesn’t feel that long because we’ve spent enough time getting to know all the characters and are invested in what happens to them when the action picks up. I would argue that some of the drama surrounding the villains is unnecessary because we’re not supposed to care so much what happens to them—they don’t have any redeeming qualities to justify it anyway.

When the plot finally converges on the three main characters, Doctor Sleep is an engaging movie. There’s action. There’s drama. Most of it is well-acted. There are some moments in dialogue and scenes that feel a little forced, but it still manages to culminate well in a satisfying climax and conclusion that suits the film. As an overall experience, Doctor Sleep is kind of a fun movie that injects some action and suspense into a personal battle between psychics. It’s got some horrific moments, but it’s barely a horror film. There aren’t any moments that had the tense atmosphere and psychological suspense of The Shining. So if you’re going in with expectations of a spiritual successor, you’ll likely be disappointed because that’s not what this movie is trying to do. In terms of what the film is trying to do, I think it mostly succeeds, which is why I’m glad it didn’t try to be any sort of traditional sequel to a film that didn’t need one.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

Doctor Sleep is a very different movie from its predecessor and tells a very involved story revolving around its characters and the nature of the psychic power, the Shining. Despite being surprised by this film’s approach, I thoroughly enjoyed Doctor Sleep. The story was engaging enough. The characters were interesting and not one-dimensional. There was some interesting lore added to the world regarding the powers that the psychics had which could lead to interesting side stories. If you have a couple of hours available, Doctor Sleep might be worth your time.

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