In 1980, the world was introduced to the horrors at Overlook Hotel that would scar Danny Torrance for years after. Not to mention creating a fear of twins, no thanks to Kubrick, and Lisa and Louise Burns. In Doctor Sleep – based on Stephen King’s 2013 novel of the same name – director Mike Flanagan seeks to create a sequel to Kubrick’s celebrated horror, The Shining, while reconciling it with King’s original novel and (rather avoidable) televised screenplay. Odd that he can write successful horror novel after successful horror novel, yet his screenplays just fall flat…
The Shining will always be remembered for Jack Nicholson’s frighteningly eccentric display of insanity and axe skills, spooky twins, and equally eerie use of symmetry and tracking shots. But does Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep shine like it’s predecessor? Or does this sequel dim in comparison to Kubrick’s Shining cinematic masterpiece?
When I was a kid, there was a place, a dark place. They closed it down, and let it rot. But the things that live there, they come back…
Guess where he’s referring to?
Doctor Sleep takes place years after the events of The Shining, with a prologue set during the aftermath of its climactic ending, where we are introduced once again to Danny Torrance – now an adult struggling to deal with his traumatic childhood experiences at the Overlook Hotel. By the time we reunite with Danny, well… let’s just say anything “shining” will likely just result in a mighty headache. Especially early next morning.
Just his luck then that when he finally reaches a town where he can settle down and clean-up, he comes into contact with Abra, a young girl in need of protection from a cult known as The True Knot. This cult actively hunts children with powers similar to Danny’s, committing heinous “redrum” in order to consume the mist that grants them their abilities and rejuvenates their youth, staving off death as long as possible… Neat trick, though perhaps they should just take up vaping instead?
Like The Shining, it’s a relatively slow-burn, taking time to build suspense, setting up Danny’s post-Overlook adult life (or lack thereof), and expand on the lore of the “Shining” itself, drawing more heavily in this instance from Stephen King’s own mystical Lovecraftian vision. Keen fans will recognise camera shots – more so towards the climax than anywhere else – that recreate some of the more infamous scenes from Kubrick’s 1980 film, with familiar settings and props, though the majority of the film takes place away from the claustrophobic, empty halls of the Overlook, opting to use suburban towns and forest clearings.
Abra: You’re magic, like me
Fans might be reminded of Dick Halloran explaining “the shining” to a young Danny Torrance
Danny: I don’t know about magic. I always called it “the shining”
As the narrative progresses – changing perspectives between the cultists, Dan and Abra – it hints at themes of inherited trauma which can’t be outrun, but rather must be confronted. Dan has become an alcoholic like his axe-wielding father Jack, and no wonder, when he’s haunted by childhood memories of Shelley Duvall, and being chased by Jack Nicholson through a creepy hotel with orange and brown carpets and ghoulish entities lurking around every perfectly symmetrical corner.
Flanagan certainly takes his time before allowing the three parties to properly cross paths, though during the time it takes for this to happen the threat of The True Knot is made explicit. Like a band of witches from a disturbing children’s fairytale, hunting children to feast upon, The True Knot hone in on children tapping into the Shining, torturing them to salt the meat. The motions of the merry band swarming over a child writhing in pain, breathing in the mist they emit flavoured with their screams of pain and fear, add a surreal kind of horror that transforms these human-looking characters into dark vampiric entities, treating their victims like human vape pens. It certainly doesn’t help when their eyes flash a ghoulish white, like vampiric junkies getting their Shining hit, elevating the horror-elements of Doctor Sleep past the more nuanced supernatural influence over Jack Torrens’s conversely intense and depraved motions of insanity.
But really fans of Kubrick’s The Shining will be waiting for the inevitable return to the charming hotel, now somewhat dilapidated and in disrepair, last seen in the rearview mirror as Danny and his mother drive away with Jack freezing to death in the expansive maze. And let’s face it, it’s hardly a spoiler, seeing as the trailers and promotional art take liberties where possible to reference the infamous corridors, even recreating the “Here’s Johnny!” scene with Ewan McGregor. It’s a good 2-hours to the climax, but once you’re there, you’ll be treated to a whole sequence that recreates the drive up to the fateful haunted hotel, exploring locales and scenes that toy with our past familiarity, and possibly nostalgia, for the Overlooks distressed interior.
The world is a hungry place, a dangerous place, and a dark place. I’ve only met two or three people like us. They died. When I was a kid, I bumped into these things…
In this sense, you get a real impression – and quite frequently too – that Flanagan is conscious about re-staging and referencing Kubrick’s camera work and iconic scenery during the film’s climax at the hotel. More often than not this provokes fond, if distressing memories of the first film, as we are taken on a tour through the long corridors, remembering moments with a sense of creeping distress; at times you’ll want to warn characters of an impending danger lurking around one of the many corridor corners. Though at this point, some may perceive Doctor Sleep to be a tacked-on extension to a now 39-year-old classic, trying to appease the many iterations of the Torrens’s harrowing story as it can. While there is a certain thrill that comes from retracing old familiar steps, it’s also a convenient excuse to recapture those iconic moments .
Possibly the most telling directorial style that screams “Flanagan” comes from the otherworldly mind games and astral-projection trickery, recalling his past efforts from Oculus (2013) or Ouija (2016). This aspect of the filmography takes a decidedly non-Kubrick angle that defies The Shining’s illusionary long corridors and tracking shots by flipping rooms on an axis, and exercises in psychic sequences worthy of X-Men’s Charles Xavier. (Then again, I wouldn’t be too shocked if a chair-bound Patrick Stewart approached Danny and invited him to join his school for mutants!) These sequences perhaps have more visual fun with the more obviously Stephen King concepts, playing around with supernatural powers and outer-body perspectives, yet it should be noted that even despite being heralded as a sequel that uses older footage for flashbacks and recaptures Kubrick’s camera style during the climax, there is little else stylistically throughout the film that makes it seem like it exists within the same universe as the 1980 classic.
Billy Freeman: Not many ride the bus this far north. Are you running away from something?
Danny: I’m running away from myself, I guess
Notably Ewan McGregor stars as a now adult Danny, struggling with past traumas, keeping old ghost’s and inner demons locked-up (quite literally too), and two Jack’s; one being a Torrens, the other being a Daniels. However, as much as Flanagan plays around inside the heads of his characters, there’s still a nagging feeling that we never quite get to properly explore inside the (hedge) maze that is Danny’s mind. McGregor undoubtedly provides Doctor Sleep with a great performance as the damaged Danny, as you might expect, though there is an impression that he is working with a somewhat limiting script to show the deeper inner torture and turmoil of the character.
Kyliegh Curran plays fellow Shiner Abra (cadraba?) with a steely resolve and defiance that makes Danny Lloyd’s Danny Torrens look more babyish and naive, although her role in the story places Danny – funnily enough – in a similar role as Professor X. She’s clearly powerful and clearly aware of her power, but the temptation to push the boundaries of her unique abilities also puts her in danger, leading her closer to an encounter with perhaps the highlight cast member; the sadistic, if somewhat seductively fearsome Rose the Hat, portrayed by Rebecca Ferguson. She channels a chilling child-snatcher, traveller witch into her performance, vaping the pain and screams of kidnapped children for prolonged life, using astral-projection powers that would make Doctor Strange tilt his head, with a stylish hat to boot. It’s the calm confidence that elevates the sense of danger about her, while her inviting smile that conceals her true intentions adds a parental fear to the mix in the way Pennywise’s temptations make you want to impulsively yank Georgie away from the strange man in the storm drain. With the clown face. And blood-red balloons. And vicious, deceitful grin…
The Newton Brothers, who have previously worked with Flanagan on past projects, bring musical cues that intensify Doctor Sleep’s distressing supernatural elements. The merciless orchestra from The Shining also returns to join Danny as he makes his final journey to the Outlook and its spooky guests, but even the moments where the music quietens down to a silence add a nerve-racking thrill of suspense, making the use of familiar scores more potent. It is plain to see however that the use of the infamous “Dies Irae” theme is another attempt to try to riff off past familiarity and bring attention to the tenuous universe it shares, although arguably you couldn’t really make a Shining sequel without it! And besides, it still commands the same feeling of doom and inevitable tragedy as it did when Jack Nicholson drove Danny Lloyd and Shelley Duval up the snaking mountainside road of Colorado to his quaint hotel…
Yes, you run, dear. And then I will find you, and you will scream for years
Rebecca Ferguson’s Rose the Hat holds a frighteningly captivating charm throughout Doctor Sleep
Regardless of its supernatural elements and cannibalistic cultists, Doctor Sleep is rarely, if at all, as distressing as The Shining. Kubrick managed to coax a sense of isolating inescapability and uncertain dread thanks in part to fixed camera perspectives and forced symmetry, giving an impression of an all-seeing presence elevated by the already eerie hotel setting.
Although lacking in the genuine thrills and foreboding atmosphere that marked its predecessor as a shining example of a horror classic, kaleidoscopic visuals, a compelling performance courtesy of Rebecca Ferguson, and simply seeing King’s 2013 sequel novel realised on-screen make this worth seeing. Despite its misgiving, Jack will be pleased to know it’s not all work and no play, and far from dull. Even if we are curiously made to question whether or not this, like King’s well-received novel, is a sequel made too late – by some 39 years. Still, it outshines Stephen King’s 1997 TV screenplay and doesn’t change the fact that hotel corridors and twins are forever and always tainted with a creepiness by association with the original Outlook hotel!
