Caught an early Thursday screening of Doctor Sleep, the adaptation of Stephen King’s novel and sequel to The Shining. The book is a sequel to King’s own novel and this new film is both a sequel to King’s book and Kubrick’s movie. If that doesn’t make sense, just know that the Overlook Hotel burns down at the end of the book The Shining but remains standing in the movie. Thus this film becomes both an adaptation of a novel and a sequel to a movie that is perhaps more iconic than the book it was based on. It’s a very interesting examination of what it means to adapt a novel.
Partly this is an interesting adaptation because the novel Doctor Sleep kind of feels only tangentially a sequel to The Shining (book or movie). The story follows a grown up Danny Torrence (the kid from the original story) as he goes through life trying to drink away the literal and figurative demons from his past. He eventually gets sober and makes contact with a child who also shines… who is herself being hunted by a cadre of Winnebago gypsies who travel America looking to feed on people who shine. The fact that 2/3rds of the story is far more focused on psychics and psychic vampires maybe suggests why this is partly an in-name-only sequel to The Shining. But that doesn’t make either the book or movie bad. It just means that, if you are only familiar with the movie The Shining, a lot of this movie will feel very, very different to what you might expect from a sequel to the classic movie.
It’s a remarkably faithful adaptation of a Stephen King novel which can be a bit weird for a full length film. That’s because King wrote the novel to be expansive both in terms of time but also in terms of character and character development. Most of that is maintained in the film and, honestly, that can make it seem kind of ambling and unfocused. I don’t hate the film at all for that though and I credit them for keeping the structure of the book instead of streamlining it for film. That said, I can understand why some people feel the movie wanders and doesn’t get to the point faster. I disagree.
The final act of the movie differs fairly significantly from the book. In the book, they return to where the Overlook Hotel once stood (since it burned down). In the movie, they return to the hotel itself and we get a very accurate recreation of the old sets. This is where the film seems to be both gaining and losing fans since it does kind of start delving into fan service. And that’s a fair argument but I think the film also uses that space to help Danny’s character come to terms with his past. And, yeah, it’s really cool to see how accurate their set recreations are and also how they use the paranormal to resolve the plot (which, frankly, was done much better than the book… shocking news alert: a Stephen King book with a mediocre ending!).
As a horror movie, I think this film is pretty spot on remarkable. Most scary movies these days are happy with endless jump scares that are predictable and, frankly, not scary. This movie is more focused on mood, intensity, and build-up than it is any kind of moment-by-moment shock. I was very drawn into that mood. I think they did an amazing job with cinematography and scene setup and escalation. One of the better horror movie if you are the kind of person who want that ratcheted-up build more than you need a sudden BOO to release tension. That said, there’s some very intense and violent sequences, sometimes involving children. I credit them for not wimping out and toning that down… but fair warning since it’s pretty intense.
This is helped by a fantastic performance by Rebecca Ferguson as the villain Rose the Hat. She and some of her colleagues in The True Knot are collectively some of the best bad guys I’ve seen in a movie in a very long time. Ferguson alone would have been a great antagonist but they did some good casting and writing for her cohort. She was so good I regretted having read the book before seeing the movie!
Ewan McGregor plays adult Danny Torrence and he’s very good. You can sometimes see exactly why they cast him… I’m not sure if I just never noticed, but sometimes he has a passing resemblance to Jack Nicholson, especially when he smiles. Normally I’d say his smile is completely different to Nicholson’s iconic smile but somehow this movie convinced me otherwise.
There’s other good casting as well including Kyliegh Curran, the young actress playing the teenage girl who shines. This is apparently her second film role so major credit to her. She does a great job playing innocent and young but also adding an anger and almost sadistic joy in tormenting the villains. A good balancing act.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I think it’s one of the better horror/suspense movies in a long time with a great cast and fantastic villains who we get to know. As an adaptation, it had a tight-rope to walk between being a sequel to a book and a movie and I think they made wise choices in how they pulled it off. Some people may be expecting more of a sequel to the movie The Shining and not enjoy the weird plot about psychics and Winnebago vampires and others might get distracted by how they adhere more to the movie The Shining at the end. I thought it worked though arguments against the Shining movie ending have some validity. But a very cool, very good attempt was made.
Score: 88