Doctor Sleep review: For the last few years Mike Flanagan has been steadily making a name for himself in the world of horror. Ouija: Origin of Evil might have been a slight blip, but his work on Oculus, Hush, Before I Wake, Gerald’s Game, and of course Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House have all proved him to be a masterful handler of the macabre. Now though, he faces his biggest challenge yet as he tackles not one, but two titans of the genre as he adapts Stephen King’s novel Doctor Sleep, a film that is the sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
Warner Bros.
Flanagan is no stranger to adapting the words of King, his Gerald’s Game (which is available on Netflix now) makes for great viewing, but being the director to follow Kubrick’s classic chiller is no small challenge. When this writer interviews genre filmmakers they often cite Kubrick’s The Shining as their favourite film, horror or otherwise.
Set years after the events of The Shining, Doctor Sleep re-joins the now grown-up Danny ‘Dan’ Torrance (Ewan McGregor). He has put the events of his childhood behind him (to the best of his ability anyway) but soon comes face-to-face with them once more after he meets a young girl with similar psychic powers. The girl has become the new target for a cult known as ‘The True Knot’, a group of people who prey on children with powers, in a bid to achieve immortality.
Although most of the action takes place many years after The Shining, Doctor Sleep begins in 1980 and cuts between Danny and his mother Wendy in the aftermath of what went down at the Overlook Hotel, as well as an introduction to the True Knot. This scene beautifully sets-up Rebecca Ferguson’s Rose the Hat character as she charms a ‘magic’ girl before devouring her along with her clan. It’s only once this has been set-up that we jump forwards in time. First we stop off in the year 2011 and meet a very drunk and self-destructive Dan Torrance. The film spends a good chunk of time here before once more jumping forwards in time, this time by eight years, and it’s here that the remainder of the movie unfolds. Whilst initially they feel at odds with one another, these early snapshots of the characters, their circumstances and locations, eventually start to pay off.
Flanagan has a lot to prove following one of the most lauded cinema auteurs of history, but he’s certainly up to the task. Doctor Sleep is rather different in terms of story, tone, and style, but Flanagan still retains that Kubrick essence whilst maintaining the voice of King’s fiction. Visually the film offers the eyes a rich feast of colours, mainly those within the autumnal colour palette with a strong kinship towards nature. We get lots of roads, fields and woodlands before we even get a flicker of a snowflake. It’s a clever move of Flanagan to distance himself from the aesthetic of the first film as it sets it apart and stops the viewer constantly comparing the two movies. Once we make that inevitable return to Colorado though, Flanagan does a fine job of mirroring Kubrick’s style. There’s just the right amount of homage and respect paid, but not so much that the movie feels like a hollow copy.
The score also works hard to differentiate itself from what the viewer knows. Little of the film is accompanied by score, the main exception being that of a swelling heartbeat rhythm that accompanies Rose the Hat wherever she goes. As with the visuals, keeping the audio track separate serves to let Doctor Sleep stand out on its own merits. It also makes the chills all the more intense when we do hear that familiar iconic theme begin to play.
It’s been a while since Ewan McGregor has had a role worthy of him and in Dan Torrance he’s finally been gifted a part that he can properly sink his teeth into. Given the span in years, he has the opportunity to play Dan at various points in his life and as such explore the darkness, trauma and resilience of the character. His young counterpart, Kyliegh Curran does a fantastic job as new-to-the-Shine Abra Stone. Doctor Sleep is only her second credit and she displays a vast amount of talent, and surely has a bright future ahead of her.
A special mention needs to go to the wonderful Alex Essoe. Essoe is an actor we at THN have been following since her breathtaking turn in Starry Eyes, and it’s brilliant to finally see her in a big studio movie. Here she steps into Shelley Duvall’s shoes as the iconic Wendy Torrance. It’s not a huge role, but Essoe channels the essence of Duvall’s performance in the original perfectly. The star of the film though has to be Rebecca Ferguson who lights-up the screen whenever she appears as her character Rose the Hat. Ferguson clearly relishes the opportunity to play the baddie and her turn is dark, hypnotising, and chilling. There’s an unsettling quiet calm and grace to Rose that makes her all the more dangerous.
A modern King triumph that not only stands up to what has gone before, but builds upon it too. Doctor Sleep is a very different movie to The Shining, but has enough of its predecessor’s DNA rooted within to make it a worthy sequel.
Doctor Sleep is in cinemas now.
