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Doctor Sleep
Stephen King returns to his most famous work as the source material for what is, technically, an in-name only, sequel to The Shining called Doctor Sleep, which attempts to craft a new story for the sequel but suffers due to overly complex plotting and a little too much dependence on the legacy of The Shining to engage viewers.
This film reunites the viewer with a now adult Danny Torrance, who calls himself Dan now. As one who remembers the first film can imagine, the events therein have had a profound effect on Dan, turning him into a hot mess of an alcoholic and drug addict unable to piece his life back together. As Dan begins life in a new town, he finds he must embrace his legacy of being able to "shine" when he meets a young girl who also shines, who is being pursued by an evil cult of contemporary vampires called the True Knot.
Director and co-screenwriter Mike Flanagan, whose only work I've seen was the sadly mediocre Hush, adapted the screenplay for this film with King himself, working from King's novel and I think that's where a lot of the problems with this film lie. On paper, this story can be considered a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 classic, but the story has little or nothing to do with that film and the connections that are established within this film to The Shining are paper thin.
King and Flanagan really try to have it both ways here. They have provided a story that could have stood on its own if King and Flanagan really had the confidence in the story that they seem to want to have, but they depend a little too much on the legacy of the first film to engage the viewer and that's a problem as well, Using the first film, there are several scenes and/or motifs from the first film that conjure up memories of the first film but they don't really work because instead of using clips from the original film, Flanagan attempts to recreate things from the first film which really don't work primarily because Flanagan is no Stanley Kubrick. I will admit the scene in the ballroom with Dan and Lloyd the bartender did work. I also loved when Dan stuck his head in the bathroom door where his father did his famous "Here's Johnny!" Unfortunately, the other attempts to recreate Kubrick's magic were an epic fail here.
The pacing of the film is deadening, taking a little too much time with exposition and showing the Knot having complete power over two other shiners, but, inexplicably, being unable to control the real shiner, Abra. Flanagan does manage to provide scenes that shock and repel, but they also make us just want to watch The Shining. There are some solid performances as well, particularly Ewan McGregor as Dan and Rebecca Ferguson's very theatrical turn as the head of the Knot called Rose the Hat, but Flanagan's abilities as a full-bodied storyteller still seem to need a little more seasoning.
Stephen King returns to his most famous work as the source material for what is, technically, an in-name only, sequel to The Shining called Doctor Sleep, which attempts to craft a new story for the sequel but suffers due to overly complex plotting and a little too much dependence on the legacy of The Shining to engage viewers.
This film reunites the viewer with a now adult Danny Torrance, who calls himself Dan now. As one who remembers the first film can imagine, the events therein have had a profound effect on Dan, turning him into a hot mess of an alcoholic and drug addict unable to piece his life back together. As Dan begins life in a new town, he finds he must embrace his legacy of being able to "shine" when he meets a young girl who also shines, who is being pursued by an evil cult of contemporary vampires called the True Knot.
Director and co-screenwriter Mike Flanagan, whose only work I've seen was the sadly mediocre Hush, adapted the screenplay for this film with King himself, working from King's novel and I think that's where a lot of the problems with this film lie. On paper, this story can be considered a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 classic, but the story has little or nothing to do with that film and the connections that are established within this film to The Shining are paper thin.
King and Flanagan really try to have it both ways here. They have provided a story that could have stood on its own if King and Flanagan really had the confidence in the story that they seem to want to have, but they depend a little too much on the legacy of the first film to engage the viewer and that's a problem as well, Using the first film, there are several scenes and/or motifs from the first film that conjure up memories of the first film but they don't really work because instead of using clips from the original film, Flanagan attempts to recreate things from the first film which really don't work primarily because Flanagan is no Stanley Kubrick. I will admit the scene in the ballroom with Dan and Lloyd the bartender did work. I also loved when Dan stuck his head in the bathroom door where his father did his famous "Here's Johnny!" Unfortunately, the other attempts to recreate Kubrick's magic were an epic fail here.
The pacing of the film is deadening, taking a little too much time with exposition and showing the Knot having complete power over two other shiners, but, inexplicably, being unable to control the real shiner, Abra. Flanagan does manage to provide scenes that shock and repel, but they also make us just want to watch The Shining. There are some solid performances as well, particularly Ewan McGregor as Dan and Rebecca Ferguson's very theatrical turn as the head of the Knot called Rose the Hat, but Flanagan's abilities as a full-bodied storyteller still seem to need a little more seasoning.