Doctor Sleep

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)

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. (14/02/2020)

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)

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)