Not a Review Necessarily: I've just wanted to write about Doctor Sleep since the day I saw it!

Last year, while audiences (especially myself) were anxiously awaiting the release of It: Chapter 2, after the success of It: Chapter 1 based on the novel by Stephen King, another King movie sequel came out of nowhere to the surprise of horror fans. 
The movie Doctor Sleep, a direct sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie The Shining, is based on King's 2013 book of the same name - a sequel to his book.

It was a great movie to tide audiences (and me) over during the summer of 2019 until the release of It which came out in theaters last September. 

I've wanted to write about this particular movie for sometime, but held back due to my personal rule to review only (more or less) obscure horror titles. But then I figured...what the hell? I just won't include it in my "official" count of 1,000 horror movies. 

When Doctor Sleep was released, I don't think a lot of people were aware this was even being produced. I know I didn't. A trailer just suddenly popped up one day and, "oh...they're making a movie of Doctor Sleep." 

Social media circles were abuzz with anticipation as to whether Stephen King would give his own seal  of approval, so to say, since it's well known he's no fan of Kubrick's The Shining.

This dislike is a large reason why King wrote the 1997 miniseries The Shining, which is generally panned by many critics. However, the series is more faithful to the source material, while Kubrick's movie is considered a true horror movie classic. 

With Doctor Sleep, which is not only a sequel to The Shining, it's a sequel to Kubrick's Shining, King is one of the writers for the movie. Obviously he would approve. He didn't work on Kubrick's movie back in 1980. So, when he gave his thumbs-up for Doctor Sleep, King fans were overjoyed. But why wouldn't he give a thumbs up to something he wrote?

And his thumb prints are definitely on this movie. It has the look of Kubrick but the scenes are Stephen King, with action and King-esque creepy, scary, and uncomfortable elements. 

Kubrick tends to draw out the suspense and horror. It gradually intensifies. King shows you what's happening. He wants you to see the horror, the abnormality that hinders a character's normal life. He wants it to bother you, and make you imagine yourself in that predicament. 

King's style of horror is like discovering a jar filled with whatever rancid stuff makes you gag and heave. Your life would be so much better without knowing that jar didn't exist. 

Anyways, there's a lot I like about Doctor Sleep. 

The story sees a grown Danny Torrence (Ewan McGregor) who, like his father before him, has hit the bottle hard while the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel still pursue him. 

As a boy shortly after the events of The Shining, he was visited by the spirit of Dick Hallorann, the former head chef of the Overlook Hotel, who gave him instructions on how to lock the ghosts up who are still apart of his life. He explains to Danny that the spirits are hungry now that the Overlook is abandoned, and they want to feed on his "shine." Danny has kept them locked up in his subconscious all his life. And he's hidden his gift well into his adulthood.

Meanwhile, a group of individuals calling themselves "the True Knot" caravan throughout the country looking to feed off those who shine as well. The stronger a person shines, the more steam, or essence, they possess. And the only way for the True Knot to obtain a person's steam is to slowly kill them. 

They're like vampires, attracted to those that shine through psychic sensory and clairvoyant tactics, sucking the essence, or "steam," out of their shining victims. The steam extends their life span considerably, and the less they obtain, the hungrier they get. If they go to long without steam, they'll die.  

The group is lead by a woman called "Rose the Hat", played incredibly well by Rebecca Ferguson, who's worried about the steam supply running low. People who shine are becoming scarce. And while Danny has locked away his gift, he's unaware of the existence of the True Knot.

Meanwhile, a young girl named Abra discovers she has an immense gift of shining - stronger than anyone. She can telepathically sense the horrible things the True Knot are doing to others. At first she keeps herself hidden from their ability to sense her out. But that changes. Abra also begins mentally communicating with Danny like a newly found pen-pal though the two have never met. They interact through a chalk board in Danny's apartment.

Rose the Hat eventually picks up on Alba's incredible amount of  shining, and quickly goes after her. The amount of shine Abra possesses is too enticing, and the True Knot are growing hungrier. But Alba is much stronger in her ability to shine than Rose or anyone else in the True Knot.

The group doesn't hesitate to go clear across the country to find Abra. 

First off, I appreciate the cast of new actors playing the characters as seen in Kubrick's movie. Since the original movie is nearly 40 years old, recasting the same actors was out of the question. Rather than resorting to the synthetic media platform, or what is commonly referred to as "deep-fake" video (replacing someone's likeness with previously recorded footage), different actors took on the roles.  

While Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson played Wendy and Jack Torrence in the original film, Alex Essoe and Henry Thomas (E.T.) fill the roles for Doctor Sleep. Scatman Crothers played Dick Hallorann in the original. In the sequel, he's played by Carl Lumbly. It helps make Doctor Sleep its own movie with its own style separate enough from Kubrick's film. It works out fine that way. 

Essoe, by the way, plays Wendy impressively. Though her scenes are few, she still has Wendy's mannerisms and exasperated voice similar to Shelley Duvall's performance. It's really well done.

Her performance reminds me of Lizzy Caplan playing Annie Wilkes in season two of Castle Rock on Hulu.

Wilke's is the main antagonist in King's novel Misery. She was played by Kathy Bates in the 1990 movie - a role which Bates deservedly won an Academy Award for best actress. In the Castle Rock series, Caplan nails her portrayal of a younger Annie Wilkes using of Bates's mannerisms and inflections from Misery. 

But the best performance in Doctor Sleep goes to Rebecca Ferguson. Her portrayal of Rose the Hat is superb. If an actor can make an audience rightly despise a character, and real feel that tension and discomfort by their depiction of an antagonist lacking empathy for their suffering victims, then I think that's a performance well played. That's precisely what she does. You just want to see her get what's coming to her at the end. You love to hate her. 

Her appearance is ordinary and innocent. Nothing stands out except the fact she always wears a hat. She looks like the cute neighbor girl from across the street you grew up with. But she's willing to kill a person for their essence so she can continue living. 

The one scene that really shows how far and how evil the True Knot, and Rose specifically, are involves their sensing the shine in a young boy named Bradley (Jacob Trembley) whom they abduct just after his little league game.

What follows is one of the most uncomfortable scenes in any genre I have ever seen. They torture him to obtain his steam. And the audience has to sit through the entire ordeal. 

All I can say is kudos to young Trembley for pulling off one serious,  tormenting scene involving a child. What he as an actor must have done to prepare for that scene deserves an award in itself. It was intense and too real.

Director Mike Flanagan had a really difficult task on his hands with Doctor Sleep. He had to appease both fans of Kubrick's movie as well as Stephen King fans. Since I mentioned King is no fan of Kubrick's film, I'm willing to bet there's a lot of King fans who feel the same way about Kubrick's movie. It deviates quite a bit from the source material. To me, that's not necessarily a big deal. But to others, it is. 

And on top of that, like any director should, Flanagan had to make the movie/ story his own. I think, for all practical purposes, he managed to pull it off so nicely.

The movie doesn't feel like a Kubrick movie, though there are some similarities in camera work, primarily with extended steadicam shots and aerial footage.

The pace of the story is fantastic. As soon as the movie begins, the audience is glued for the entire two and a half hours. It just keeps going, with hardly a pause in its stride. And Kubrick's movie doesn't really pop out until the final act at the abandoned Overlook. When the looming, dilapidated hotel appears on screen, with the famous theme music similar to the Dies Irae melody playing, my little fanboy heart jumped. 
When it comes to movies in general, the first factor I consider in whether or not a movie is good is its entertainment value. Did this entertain me? Then I go from there. There's no doubt in my mind that Doctor Sleep fits itself nicely among my top favorite Stephen King movies along with, of course, The Shining as well as The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, It: Chapter One, and Misery.