Summary
Adapting a book that’s a sequel to both a modern classic novel and an iconic film is a mammoth task, and this one comes pretty close to accomplishing both.
The adaptation of Stephen King’s 2003 novel Doctor Sleep was always going to be a beast with many heads. For every staunch acolyte of King’s original novel The Shining, there’s an equally vocal fanbase for Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film, a masterpiece in its own right – even if King has famously rejected it over the years.
Director and screenwriter Mike Flanagan, an accomplished horror filmmaker with one other King film (Gerald’s Game) under his belt, tries to reconcile all three sources in DOCTOR SLEEP. It’s intended to be a sequel to Kubrick’s film, an adaptation of King’s novel which itself is a sequel to the very different source material.
Set in the aftermath of his father’s terror at The Overlook Hotel, young Danny Torrance is still haunted by the ghosts of that encounter. Years later, the adult Dan (Ewan McGregor) has effectively drowned out his ‘shine’ with alcohol. Yet an encounter of a more terrestrial kind convinces him to leave town and start down the road to sobriety. After connecting with a powerful young shiner called Abra (Kyliegh Curran), he soon learns she is being pursued by the True Knot, a cabal of long-lived shine stealers led by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson).
To Flanagan’s credit, his attempt to achieve a kind of fidelity or authenticity makes this one of the best adaptations of King’s horror work to date. At least for the first two acts. Buoyed by recent success of It and its sequel, Flanagan faithfully follows King’s roadmap across the first two hours of this epic release. While he recasts and recreates key moments of Kubrick’s film, he has also been careful to retain the thematic threads dealing with addiction, grief, and personal ownership of trauma.
For this is the core of DOCTOR SLEEP: the sins of the father revisiting the son and (at least in print) King’s very personal story of overcoming addiction. Recovery is still an important element in Flanagan’s film, and this gives the narrative its emotional core, especially thanks to an excellent performance from Cliff Curtis as Dan’s friend and sponsor Billy. Similarly, the character of Dick Halloran (who had very different fates in The Shining on page and screen) acts as a kind of conscience, cleverly woven back into the film universe as a spirit guide. You may even forget that the excellent Carl Lumbly (TV’s Supergirl) is not the late Scatman Crothers.
In fact, everyone is excellent – especially Ferguson as she shimmies across the scene like a New Age guru/deadly cult leader, punctuated by some moments of necessarily shocking violence. Her crew, including Zahn McClarnon and Emily Alyn Lind, ensure that their arc is grounded and not the jarring dose of the supernatural that a collection of shine vampires could be. Flanagan expertly cuts between this group, Abra, and Dan to build up a mysterious tension that he maintains for much of the movie.
Where the final act falters is in abandoning the catharsis of King’s emotional denouement and most of the original text in favour of pure fanservice. Recreating iconic moments from Kubick’s The Shining, from elevators of blood to creepy twins, one couldn’t help but wonder if we’d wandered back into Ready Player One. It quite literally feels as though we’ve stepped out of one film and into another, as it recasts an important role and does a disservice to both King and Kubrick in one fell swoop.
Even so, DOCTOR SLEEP is an almost flawless adaptation, right up until the moment where it goes off on its own pony ride. For fans of King, there’s a lot of Easter eggs to find in there as well, from the obvious placement of the number ‘19’ to the concept of ka from The Dark Tower mythology. If you like King as much as Kubrick, chances are you’ll dig this on at least some level. You’re a fan. You’ve always been a fan. I ought to know. I’ve always been here.
2019 | US | DIRECTOR: Mike Flanagan | WRITERS: Mike Flanagan (Based on the novel by Stephen King and the film by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson) | CAST: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Cliff Curtis, Kyliegh Curran, Carl Lumbly | DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 152 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 7 November 2019 (AUS)
