Doctor Sleep (2019)

Review

151min

Genre:    Drama, Horror, Thriller

Director: Mike Flanagan

Cast:      Ewan McGregor, Kyliegh Curran, Rebecca Ferguson…and more

Writers:  Mike Flanagan and Stephen King

-Synopsis-

Forty years after the events at the Overlook Hotel and with his psychic abilities in full flow, ‘Danny Torrance’ struggles to rebuild his life while being haunted by the past, only to meet a young kindred ‘shining’ spirit who he must protect from a dangerous cult with unnatural lives who prey on people like them—in both an adaptation of the Stephen King novel and a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic ‘The Shining’.

Nearly four decades after Kubrick’s game-changing adaptation terrified millions and captured the imagination of generations—yet irked Stephen King by departing from his source novel to become a springboard for the director’s own distinct vision—like ‘Anakin Skywalker’ director Mike Flanagan arrives to team up with King himself and bring balance to the ‘Shine’. Turning to the dark side, but in the right way, to skilfully bridge the gap between the original novel, Kubrick’s film and King’s 2013 follow-up, delivering a captivating morbid human drama and modern horror epic which just about manages to do justice to almost everything which came before it.

Ewan McGregor stars as telepath Danny Torrance, a damaged alcoholic drifter haunted by the events at the haunted Colorado hotel four decades ago, turning his life around in a small New Hampshire town with the help of loyal friend ‘Billy’ (Cliff Curtis). But when a group of sinister quasi-immortal psychic vampires who feed on those with the shine appear, led by the power and manipulative ‘Rose the Hat’ (Rebecca Ferguson), and with their sights set on hugely powerful young teen shiner ‘Abra’ (Kyliegh Curran), Danny is pulled back into the fold and confronted with the grim past he sought to leave behind—combining his abilities with the limitless powers of the young girl to protect her and stop the predatory essence hunters . . . with all roads leading back to where it all started.

Graduating from small human dramas and indie horror to big studio fare, writer/director Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil) has a near impossible task here; satisfying fans of one of the most iconic horror films ever and acknowledging its legacy, while doing justice to its source novel and King’s 2013 follow-up, all while captivating a modern audience which may have no investment in anything which came before—wrapping it all up into one cohesive narrative. As such he and King himself opt for a narrative blend which brings together nostalgia and modernism, harking back to Kubrick’s masterpiece in terms of style and parts of the plot, but weaving an entirely new narrative for most of the film. One which feels contemporary and has shades vampirism, and even the feel of a dark morbid superhero movie . . . for better or worse, before fully plunging back into history for a familiar foreboding third act set-piece finale at a certain isolated Colorado mountain retreat.

With the terror centred around a pseudo-hippie cult of vampire-like fiends with a Manson family feel, who sustain their abnormal lives by brutally feeding on the ‘steam’ and fear of children who shine—not to mention the spooky supernatural elements which might look familiar, some turbocharged telepathy and general psychic warfare—‘Doctor Sleep’ is indeed a legit horror flick. Yet it lacks the consistent frights and the jumpscares of your average horror film, and is anchored by a nuanced human drama at its core, making it less of an overt genre piece and a more rounded movie—albeit with little of the hypnotic and claustrophobic quality of Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’.

As such and like all Stephen King stories, this is a horror film with wider a social and humanistic resonance, at its heart a tale of trauma, abuse, rage and alcoholism, revolving around a man struggling to escape the legacy of his father and the morbid events of a childhood which threaten to forever define him—all built on the foundations of the original ‘sixth sense’ and boy who sees dead people.

Despite the heavy human drama though, Flanagan and his regular cinematographer Michael Fimognari certainly don’t skimp on spectacle, crafting tense psychic mano-a-manos and dreamlike mind control sequences in style, even crossing into comic-book movie territory here and there, and on one occasion taking a leaf out of the ‘Superman’ playbook. The stylistic influence of Kubrick’s film are clear but really come to the fore in the finale, as an impressive effort to recreate the Overlook with top notch production designs and some CGI flourishes makes for a big nostalgic conclusion, all while a foreboding and occasionally pulsating score from the director’s regular collaborators The Newton Brothers set the mood . . . with a little help from some rather familiar themes.

Yet it’s the expansive nomadic narrative—criss-crossing the country and adding a road trip element—which prevents Flanagan’s film from even approaching the palpable claustrophobia and ominous quality of ‘The Shining’. Despite a solid effort from McGregor and a sumptuous villainous turn by Rebecca Ferguson, there aren’t any real standout performances, let alone anything of Jack-sized proportions. Ultimately it just doesn’t have the magic which made the 1980 adaptation so unique and enduring, regardless of whether King approved of it or not, and ‘Doctor Sleep’ manages to replicate little from Kubrick’s classic beyond the visual references—although if cinematic history has taught us anything, it’s that a follow-up decades after the original was never likely to anyway.

Revisiting or trying to tweak greatness is a risky proposition—and replacing original actors with lookalikes for flashback scenes and new Overlook encounters will be sacrilege to some. But acknowledging that it’s only one element of a bigger story, and if you can get over it and realise that this was never going to be a film just for fans of the Kubrick film, you might be able to appreciate the admirable and largely successful effort at doing justice to the essence of Stephen King’s vision, and accept ‘Doctor Sleep’ for what it is—an engrossing, unsettling, and yes reverential character horror of its time, for its time.

The Bottom Line…

Mike Flanagan’s cinematic tightrope act just about manages to pay homage to Kubrick’s classic, while doing justice to the novel on which is was based and adapting Stephen King’s 2013 follow-up—without quite creating a new horror masterpiece—delivering an engrossing and morbidly satisfying character piece supernatural horror, and a psychic battle royal for the ages.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

The Shining (1980)

A writer takes up a winter caretaker position at an isolated mountainside hotel with his young family, where his behavior takes a turn towards the strange and sinister when his young gifted son begins to have visions of the horrors that took place in the hotel . . . and those yet to happen, as a quiet idyllic seasonal stay becomes a nightmare in this classic horror from legendary director Stanley Kubrick.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd among others.

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