PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I’ve been a fan of Stephen King since junior high when I found a battered copy of Christine in my school library. I own most of his books and have read a pretty good chunk of them. A couple of years ago, I was gifted a copy of King’s The Shining by PopHorror’s own Tori Danielle Romero and fell in love with it. As soon as I finished, I ordered the sequel Doctor Sleep. I devoured it in a few days, and it became a favorite of mine. When the feature film adaption of Doctor Sleep was announced, I was cautiously optimistic. On October 30th, I was able to see an advance screening. Here are my thoughts.
Doctor Sleep is the latest Stephen King adaptation from writer/director Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game 2017 – read our review here). The film stars Ewan McGregor (Star Wars franchise), Rebecca Ferguson (The Girl on the Train 2016), Carl Lumbly (A Cure For Wellness 2016 – read our review here), Zahn McClarnon (Westworld TV Series), Emily Alyn Lind (The Babysitter 2017 – read our review here), Bruce Greenwood (Gerald’s Game 2017), Kyliegh Curran, Jocelin Donahue (The House of the Devil 2009), Starry Eyes’ Alex Essoe (read our review here), Cliff Curtis (The Meg 2018 – read our review here), Zackary Momoh (Harriet 2019), and Jacob Tremblay (The Predator 2018 – read our review here).
Synopsis:
Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra (Kyliegh Curran), a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the ‘shine.’ Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her followers, The True Knot, who, in their quest for immortality, feed off the shine of innocents. Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abra’s innocence and fearless embrace of her shine compel Dan to call upon his own powers as never before—at once facing his fears and reawakening the ghosts of the past.
When I first sat down to watch Doctor Sleep, I wasn’t sure I would like it. A lot of that had to do with Ewan McGregor’s performance. It’s not that he’s bad. Quite the contrary, he’s excellent. It’s just that, at the start of the film, Dan Torrance is a real bastard and is pretty apathetic about it. Once he starts to change and become a better person, I was fully invested in his performance and could finally root for him. His talk with a dying patient really hit home for me and made me extremely emotional.
Kyliegh Curran is a genuine star in the making. Her performance as Abra is strong and confident with just the right amount of vulnerability. Mark my words; this girl is going to be huge. Rebecca Ferguson is amazing as Rose The Hat. She’s beautiful, enigmatic, and a ferocious killer. It was also cool to see Starry Eyes’ Alex Essoe in a big budget movie like this. She absolutely kills it as Wendy Torrance. I’ve been a fan of Carl Lumbly since Alias, and he was superb as Dick Halloran. His final speech to Danny honestly gave me chills; it was so damn good.
Doctor Sleep is visually stunning, with multiple sequences taking place in characters’ heads and breaking the laws of physics. The violence and deaths tend to come quickly, and when they do, they are pretty brutal. Good luck getting the image of a character’s suicide out of your head. Somehow even more disturbing is the image of the True Knot “cycling” when they die. It’s utterly nightmarish.
The film adaptation of Doctor Sleep is relatively faithful to the book, at least till the final act, where I feel it greatly improved upon the climax of the book by thematically tying into the plot of The Shining and providing a much more compelling, though heartbreaking, ending.
Final Thoughts
Doctor Sleep is a film that provides brutal violence, strong visuals and emotional resonance in equal measure. The film features an excellent cast that truly brings the characters to life, making you love or hate them… or sometimes both. Doctor Sleep is easily, for me, one of the best Stephen King adaptations in years. Highly recommended.
