Film Review: Doctor Sleep
A Dark Fantasy Caught Between Homage and FacSimile
After the back-to-back successeses on Netflix with Gerald’s Game and The Haunting of Hill House, renowned horror master Mike Flanagan attempts to snag his whale. An adaptation of the Stephen King novel and a full-on sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Doctor Sleep is ambitious, thrilling, and beautifully realized…but ultimately a mixed bag. There’s much to love, but the film still lies in the shadow of Kubrick’s mad genius. Mild spoilers ahead…
The byproduct of obsessive control and a near-tyrannical demand of its cast and crew, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining has reached a form of filmmaking apotheosis; with its arresting cinematography, staggering vision, and truly remarkable performances, Kubrick’s film largely enjoys its lofty status as not only a paragon of classic horror, but one of the best films of the 20th century. However, there has always been one loud voice of dissent amongst The Shining’s near universal acclaim: Stephen King himself. The celebrated novelist once described the film as a “big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside of it,” simultaneously praising the work’s craftsmanship whilst also taking umbrage at Kubrick’s perceived mischaracterization of the Jack Torrance character, immortalized by Jack Nicholson in the film. In 2013, King published Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining that mostly leaves The Overlook Hotel behind to focus on an adult Danny Torrance and his struggles with his “shining” related demons, both literal and psychological. Now, horror maestro Mike Flanagan is attempting to reconcile King’s sequel with Kubrick’s haunting vision in an adaptation of Doctor Sleep that directly follows the 1980 film. Is it successful? It’s hard to say…
I’ve been a fan of Mike Flanagan ever since his debut with Absentia, a shoestring budget creature feature that flew under radar back in 2011. Since then, his filmography has only grown more confident, and with the successes of Gerald’s Game and The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix, it’s safe to say that Flanagan has solidified himself as a new master of horror. But Doctor Sleep is a different beast altogether; what can only be described as an unfathomably courageous leap in directing a sequel to a Kubrick film, Flanagan’s adaptation begets a dark fantasy that straddles the line between loving homage and slavish facsimile.
“…Flanagan’s adaptation begets a dark fantasy that straddles the line between loving homage and slavish facsimile.”
Like its source material, Doctor Sleep revolves around an adult Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) as he struggles with alcoholism (like his father Jack), his psychic “shining” abilities, and the traumatic events of The Overlook Hotel all those years ago. With a little help from a ghostly Dick Hollorann (Carl Lumbly with an uncanny embodiment of the late Scatman Crothers), Danny has since learned to use his “shine” to lock away the ravenous ghosts that have followed him out of The Overlook. Eventually finding respite working at a hospice, the grown-up Danny is known as Doctor Sleep to the residents, using his abilities to help the dying come to terms with their passing. However, his peaceful existence is interrupted when he makes psychic contact with another person with the ability to “shine,” a teenage girl by the name of Abra (Kyliegh Curran). Abra has attracted the attention of a cult of starving psychic vampires known as the True Knot; led by the charismatic beatnik Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson, giving the film’s best performance), these hungry predators sniff out those with the ability to “shine” and murder them to steal their life-force.
There’s a fascinating dichotomy at work with Doctor Sleep that doesn’t quite coalesce. More dark fantasy than outright horror, Danny and Abra’s entanglement with the True Knot is largely compelling. Working more like a superhero film than anything else - with two super-powered groups facing off against each other - this thread is confidently carried by the dangerous charms of Ferguson’s Rose the Hat; however, the goofy good time offered by soul-vaping vampires contrasts sharply with the elements pulled from Kubrick’s The Shining. Even with the booming trombones of “Dies Irae” and the film’s meticulous recreations, Doctor Sleep never reaches the creeping, surreal, and deliberate dread of The Shining, nor does it reconcile its two visions efficiently.
Flanagan’s deference to Kubrick’s film is one that toggles between awe-inspiring homage and dissonant distraction. From new actors inhabiting old roles (Alex Essoe stepping in for Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance is particularly fantastic) to the stunning reconstruction of The Overlook set, Doctor Sleep’s slavish recreations are undoubtedly impressive and trigger an almost Pavlovian nostalgic pleasure, but they also draw distracting comparisons to the 1980 film. The horrors of room 237 and the Grady twins, The Overlook’s labyrinthine architecture, and the essences of Jack and Wendy Torrance are all reconstituted in a painstaking production, but it all lies consistently in The Shining’s shadow without really feeling like a part of Doctor Sleep’s overarching narrative.
As a reconciliation between Kubrick and King, Doctor Sleep doesn’t quite work, but as a dark horror fantasy, there’s a lot to love. Mike Flanagan is a horror storyteller that fundamentally understands the true nature of terror: Ghosts and ghouls are frightening, but the most difficult demons to overcome are our personal ones. Doctor Sleep is no different, but its most compelling narrative struggles to breathe beneath the surface of its swing-for-the-fences approach and its imitative tether to nostalgia.
