Stephen King famously detests Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of The Shining. Nevertheless, the film has gone on to be loved by movie fans and is the version that most people are familiar with. The iconic author took exception to, among other things, the portrayal of Jack Torrance. The character’s struggles with alcoholism mirrored King’s own, and, being close to his heart, the changes made to the character for the film really upset him.
In 2013, King released a rare direct sequel, Doctor Sleep. As The Shining dealt with addiction, this new story examined recovery. He wrote it as a sequel to his novel only, taking care to use elements that weren’t in Kubrick’s film. This brings us to 2019’s cinematic adaptation of the sequel, written, directed, and edited by Mike Flanagan. Knowing that Kubrick’s now-iconic film was too powerful to ignore, Flanagan thankfully convinced King to allow a melding of the sources. What results is a fairly faithful adaptation of King’s sequel novel that also heavily references Kubrick’s interpretation of the first book. November 8 sees the film celebrate its fifth anniversary.
After escaping his father and the sinister Overlook Hotel, Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor with Roger Dale Floyd showing up here and there as young Dan) has a rough go of it. By 2011, he’s become a volatile alcoholic drifter. After a particularly distressing incident that’s exacerbated by his psychic powers (aka the Shining), Dan finally asks for help. Recovering alcoholic Billy (Cliff Curtis) understands Dan’s situation and lends a friendly hand.
Eventually, we flash forward to 2019 and see that Dan has achieved sobriety and is working as an orderly at a hospice center, where he uses his Shine to help ease the dying residents’ passages to the other side. At the same time, we also get glimpses of Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), whose Shine is much more powerful than Dan’s, growing up with her loving family. She takes notice of Dan via their shared abilities, and despite the considerable distance between them, she begins leaving psychically enabled messages for him.
Unfortunately, the malevolent Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), a sort of psychic vampire who feeds exclusively on people with the Shining, senses Abra’s vast power. Along with her group of fellow vampires, the True Knot, Rose sets out to find young Abra. Dan and Abra eventually face off against Rose and her cult, which also forces Dan to confront his past and the long shadow cast by the haunted Overlook Hotel.
McGregor gets top billing, and he does a fine job here, exuding warmth, regret, and determination. But the film is honestly more of an ensemble piece. We get just as much screen time with Curran and Ferguson. Both are great, and the totality of these performances carries the film. It’s important to note that sequences involving key characters from The Shining do not use the original actors or CGI wizardry. Instead, new actors were cast to mimic their counterparts. Carl Lumbly stands in for Scatman Crothers’ sage Dick Halloran, Alex Essoe channels Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance and Henry Thomas of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial fame plays a certain someone who I won’t spoil here, though I’m sure you can guess. There are also small but pivotal roles for Bruce Greenwood and Jacob Tremblay. On the whole, the acting is polished and naturalistic, leading to an immersive experience. Ferguson has the flashiest role and is the film’s secret weapon.
Now, no one is ever going to mistake Mike Flanagan for Stanley Kubrick. However, I’ve enjoyed much of the writer/director’s past work, and there’s a lot to like here despite such a delayed follow-up. Dan’s story is compelling and feels like an organic extension of the events of The Shining. Flanagan’s script, and I’m talking about the 180-minute director’s cut as I haven’t seen the theatrical version, allows for solid character work and confidently tackles a semi-complex timeline, assuredly switching focus between the three leads.
The film never reaches the eerie heights of the Kubrick film, but there are a few effective scares and a genuinely disturbing sequence involving a child’s murder. Flanagan uses many callbacks to The Shining but avoids dipping into the realm of fan service. The film easily could’ve been a disaster, and the fact that it works as well as it does is pretty astonishing. It’s obvious that Flanagan understands the material and has a great appreciation for both King and Kubrick.
The production design is top-notch, with the set used for the last act of the film being the most impressive in its fidelity to the details of the first film. While it apes the look of Kubrick’s film in a handful of sequences, Flanagan also brings his own feel to the project. The sets of Dan’s attic room and the mini train station deliver on the small-town charm that grounds the story. His tone isn’t as oppressive as Kubrick’s, but this is a more optimistic film, fitting the subtext about recovery. The Newton Brothers provide a score that makes great use of Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind’s profoundly gloomy and unsettling themes from the first film, while still distilling some flavor of their own.
Not everything works in the film, though. Even at three hours, the writing can feel a bit like a Reader’s Digest version of King’s book. Certain character moments aren’t earned, and I wonder how much I was filling in the gaps based on my knowledge of King’s books and Kubrick’s film.
There will certainly be those who say that Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep (and Stephen King’s source novel, for that matter) is an unnecessary follow-up. However, I greatly enjoy it, though it’s not flawless and definitely not on par with Stanley Kubrick’s masterful The Shining. I think with those managed expectations, there’s a lot to like here. As an aside, The Dark Tower fans should keep an eye out for a handful of references to King’s sprawling multiversal mythology. With any luck, Flanagan will get to circle back to those bits, as the filmmaker is working on bringing Roland and his Ka-Tet to television screens in the near future. Recommended for fans of The Shining, Clean and Sober, and T2 Trainspotting.
Michael Cavender