Doctor Sleep

King's The Shining is quite an interesting long-running phenomenon, now comprising two novels (from 1977 and 2013), both of which have been made into films, the first also as a miniseries, and there's one more TV project to come, apparently called Overlook. So how good is the film version of Doctor Sleep? It’s a decent modern King film, with an excellent McGregor and a declaration of love for the original The Shining. It’s comparable to the new versions of It or Pet Sematary. (12/31/2021)

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. (02/11/2020)

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. (11/27/2019)

At first (and for quite a while) it seemed terribly boring. When I looked at the running time, I was seized by horror, but then the story picked up the pace, bad guys began to inhale massively, good guys started thinking about how not to get inhaled and the whole thing came back to life. It was really interesting to watch the two female protagonists (Rebecca Ferguson and Kyliegh Curran) erase their male comrades (Zahn McClarnon and Ewan McGregor). I didn't think I'd have such a good time after such a lackluster beginning. (03/06/2020)

A very faithful adaptation of a book I enjoyed very much, that builds on one of the best films I've ever seen. The courage of the makers of Doctor Sleep was tremendous – to continue Kubrick's story, but at the same time be true to King and make more than an epilogue to The Shining. They succeeded brilliantly, thanks largely to Mike Flanagan, who straddled the line between King and Kubrick, standing firm, and I can only thank him for it. When you see all the original and very impressively executed mind travel (and combat), the atmosphere, which is much better than the trailers suggested and relies not on scares but on honest suspense... That's exactly how I imagined it when reading the book, and yet the book lacked the film's biggest trump card – the Overlook. I could find a scene or two to fault, but overall I'm so pleased with Doctor Sleep that I can't, or rather won't. The ending is a downright treat for anyone who has not only seen The Shining, but also read it... Notto mention the amazing Ewan McGregor. (11/15/2019)