Why you shouldn’t put Doctor Sleep to rest just yet

Be forewarned: this post contains SPOILERS for Doctor Sleep

Well-crafted, insidious and anchored by strong performances, Doctor Sleep commands your undivided attention from unsettling beginning to satisfying end. I was too engaged to steal even a single glance at my social media feeds during its 2.5-hour duration.

It’s surprising that the adaptation of Stephen King’s 2013 novel, his sequel to The Shining, has performed so underwhelmingly at the box office return, making only $57 million worldwide to date. Business Insider believes the movie performed poorly because it was marketed to younger audiences as a sequel to The Shining, even though they’re fairly disinterested in or ignorant of the original. There were even those who thought it was a remake of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film. Another potential factor is that Doctor Sleep, a supernatural horror drama, wasn’t released during the Halloween period.

However, when the King of Horror himself comes to a movie’s defense and gives his stamp of approval, box office numbers should take a back seat. Notorious for disliking Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining (nothing shows scorn quite like creating your own mini-series adaptation after the fact), King revealed to Entertainment Weekly that Doctor Sleep actually brought him around on that film. After the so-so returns for Doctor Sleep became known, King stuck up for the movie on Twitter.

In a nutshell, Kubrick’s version of The Shining is set in the snow-laden Colorado Rockies at the not-so-subtly haunted Overlook Hotel. The winter caretaker is Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a recovering alcoholic with writer’s block and an unhealthy love for sharp objects. Over the course of the movie, he descends into madness thanks to a combination of isolation, falling off the proverbial wagon and spectral coaxing. He tries to kill his nauseatingly timid wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd), who possesses a non-returnable psychic gift called “the shining,” which makes him a beacon for ghostly attention. Mother and son eventually escape the ax-wielding psychopath, who performs a convincing impersonation of a frozen icicle as his final act on earth. That’s good viewing, folks!

Doctor Sleep asks the question, “How do trauma and loss affect one later on in life?” It explores the aftermath of the traumatic events at the hotel and grapples with the ghosts that still literally and figuratively haunt Danny, who now goes by Dan (Ewan McGregor).

Thanks to his ghost pal, Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly), Dan has learned the nifty trick of containing the spirits, like the relentless rotting lady in the bathtub, in “boxes” that he’s built and housed in his mind. However, in adulthood, we see him lead an alcohol-fueled existence like his late father, in his case as a means to repress his “shine.”

Finally, he settles down in a small New Hampshire town in an attempt to turn his life around. With the support and friendship from a man named Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis), he opts for sobriety and finds employment at a hospice. He earns the nickname “Doctor Sleep” for using his abilities to provide comfort to the terminally ill in their final moments.

Enter Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), a young girl with extraordinarily powerful abilities who forms a psychic connection with Dan. She sets him on a course that forces him to encounter and face his demons.

KYLIEGH CURRAN as Abra Stone in the Warner Bros. Pictures’ supernatural thriller “STEPHEN KING’S DOCTOR SLEEP,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Abra has the misfortune of psychically tuning in to what is undoubtedly the most disturbing scene in the movie: the chilling torture and murder of a young boy, Bradley (Jacob Tremblay). She tracks Dan down and asks for his help in locating the boy’s body and stopping the people who killed him, a nomadic group of near-immortal psychics called the True Knot. Their leader is the beautiful but sinister Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson). This group lures psychically gifted children and feasts on their psychic essence, or “steam.” This prolongs their long, murderous lives and keeps them young. The more painfully the children die, the “sweeter” their steam is.

Having sensed Abra and the magnitude of her power, Rose and company make it their mission to find her and harvest her steam, which they believe will sustain them for a long period of time. Dan’s knee-jerk response is to forget about everything and help Abra hide her shine in order to stay safe. But after a final conversation with Hallorann, he steadily becomes her ally, protector and ultimately, her savior.

Fittingly, the story reaches its climax at the Overlook Hotel, where a spectacular supernatural confrontation takes place. It’s also the setting for Doctor Sleep’s most important, memorable callback, which was so cleverly executed, I’d rather not spoil it here.

Director Mike Flanagan has already amassed an impressive body of work, including movies like Gerald’s Game and Hush as well as shows like The Haunting of Hill House. Here, he took on the daunting task of reconciling King’s 1977 novel, Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation and the 2013 sequel novel. He has created a dark, thrilling cinematic offering with lots of atmosphere and thematic depth.

Doctor Sleep pays homage to two creative geniuses and sets hardcore fans’ nostalgic hearts aflutter by recreating well-known scenes and recasting familiar faces from The Shining. It can be enjoyed not only as a sequel, but as a stand-alone movie. Doctor Sleep takes place in a world where otherworldly occurrences are commonplace, but it’s the human element — the experience of and reaction to tragedy — that’s so powerful. This will resonate with any audience.

One of King’s greatest criticisms of Kubrick’s Shining movie was the lack of an emotional connection to the Torrance family. Describing it to The Paris Review in 2006 as “too cold”, he lamented the treatment of the characters, saying that Jack had no arc and that the portrayal of Wendy was “insulting to women”.

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With its host of distinctive, complex characters, that accusation can’t be leveled at Doctor Sleep. McGregor’s portrayal of the struggling Danny is relatable to anyone who has experienced loss, trauma, and who has turned to addiction as a coping mechanism. His is also a story about redemption — he chooses a different, selfless path that ends with him no longer being haunted by his greatest ghost: the sins of his father. In many ways, he’s now a father figure to young Abra, who represents who he was as a boy, when he needed his father’s support. Dan steps out from his father’s shadow and comes through for her in ways his father didn’t for him. McGregor convincingly plays a man who teeters on the edge of despair before being driven by a newfound purpose to save someone he cares about.

Rose the Hat is a superlative villain, in large part because you don’t see her deplorable intentions coming at first. Sure, there’s a sense of menace that hovers around her like a sinister swarm of flies, but she’s beautiful, galvanizing, disarming and charismatic. She gives the impression of wanting to be your friend, right up until the moment she kidnaps and murders you without a hint of remorse. She also possesses a resolute focus. When Abra becomes her target, a lingering sense of foreboding settles on the film and stays there. Rose’s only remotely human quality is that she genuinely seems to care about her homicidal little clan. Rebecca Ferguson’s portrayal is equal parts unnerving and enthralling.

And then there’s the brave, feisty Abra Stone, whose youth should not be equated with naivety, nor should it mark her as a helpless victim. While Dan serves as her protector, she’s inherently resilient and courageous in the face of pure evil, and even gives Rose a satisfying run for her money in a thrilling display of psychic power. Kyliegh Curran did a superb job of making Abra’s childlike hope and innocence feel completely authentic without compromising or diluting her tenacity.

Doctor Sleep is dark yet strangely optimistic. It’s storytelling at its entertaining best, with Stephen King getting the final word:

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