Doctor Sleep (2019)

Top comments

1. 

   Siskoid

   Doctor Sleep is a terrible name for a movie, especially for a sequel to The Shining, and it wasn't a great title for the novel either. In fact, the way it's plugged in the film made me wince. That said, I have little else bad to say about the film. The golden '70s aesthetic director Mike Flanagan developed for Ouija: Origin of Evil is well-used here, and the picture looks gorgeous across the board. Flanagan pleasantly melds elements of the movie AND book versions of The Shining in his tribute to Kubrick and King, trading (as the book does) horror for supernatural thrills. The difference, for me, is that in one the protagonists are under threat and you're scared with them, while in the other, it's the monsters who are scared of the protagonists hunting them. Honestly, I didn't think it would work. Doctor Sleep seemed to me King's cruel trolling of fans begging for a sequel to his first hardback bestseller - you wanna know what happens to Danny? Well, he's an itinerant drunk and there are vampires who drink the Shining and Professor X should start his School for Gifted Youngsters before all the kids with super-powers get eaten. Hrm. But it works. The movie is on the long side at 2½ hours, but there's a lot to get through, setting up the villains, contemporary Danny, and the super-Shiny Abra he must help. There's just enough of the Overlook in my opinion, no actor gives a bad performance (though the necessary re-casting of Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson is perhaps distracting), the vampires getting their asses kicked is quite satisfying, and the theme of addiction is well used to give Danny an effective throughline. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, which probably means Stephen King fans are gonna hate it ;-). 4 years 5 months ago
2. 

   Ezergill

   Awesome movie. In my opinion, a great tribute both to King's novels and Kubrick's movie 4 years 5 months ago
3. 

   Marasmusine

   I was interested in this depiction of psychic warfare, which we don't see too often. 2 years 5 months ago

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