Docteur Sleep

This is easily one of the better film adaptations of a Stephen King novel, and also one of the better films I've seen this year. Yet again, professional film critics have proven they mostly have no idea about the cinema of the fantastic (fantasy, SF, and horror). If you're a fan of the genre, you'll love this film - ignore the critics.

Finally got to see my most anticipated film of the year and I'm happy to tell you it's everything I wished for and more. Flanagan has done an amazing job adapting the book from Stephen King and giving lovers of the Kubrick film adaptation of "The Shining" (1980) a cinematic sequel. Now i read the book and while I enjoyed it for the most part, I found parts of it underwhelming. I feel in this film adaptation, Flanagan takes elements from the novel and manages to make them more darker and serious which in turn really helped address some issues I had with the book. He does make some serious changes though and while I embraced them I'm not sure how others who read the book will feel about them. "The Shining" (1980) to me and I'm sure a lot of you, is a masterpiece in filmmaking. I for one prefer it over the novel and with this film, it most certainly feels like a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's version and a love letter to that film. The last 30 mins or so are absolutely amazing and kudos to Flanagan for pulling it off. Ewan McGregor does a great job as an adult Danny Torrance and Rebecca Ferguson captivates as Rose the Hat. The film sets a great tone with some stunning visuals and the score completely grabs you. How much you enjoy this film really depends on what you want out of it. There's practically no gore here and no cheap jump scares. What you'll get though is expert filmmaking from someone who you can tell really loves the source material he's pulling it all in from. Everything struck a balance for me that I was tremendously pleased with, top horror film of the year.

As far as Stephen King adaptations go, Mike Flanagan's DOCTOR SLEEP undoubtedly has to count among the small - but distinct - group of excellent ones. For a director to achieve this is a rare feat - as any Stephen King fan can sadly attest to after dozens of mediocre to downright terrible adaptations over the last four decades - and what's even more impressive is that it marks the second time Flanagan managed to pull this off, since he already knocked it out of the park with his Netflix adaptation of King's previously considered to be unfilmable novel GERALD'S GAME.

Now the reason why those two films work so well is actually quite simple: like Frank Darabont and Rob Reiner before him, Flanagan gets that the most intriguing aspect of King's stories is not the horror. He's the rare director adapting a story by the writer who gets that it's not the supernatural, not the gory thrills or creeping chills that make those books so immersive and so well loved (though of course those are elements that we King fans also greatly enjoy): it's the meticulous worldbuilding and the deeply human characters.

King's novels - and Dr. Sleep is no exception - are so immersive because they're usually less about the horror itself and much more about the journeys he sets his characters on in confronting that horror, the world they inhabit and the people they meet along the way - and the strong bonds and friendships they forge. So in order for the adaptations to work on screen, it's crucial to retain the warmth and the humanity the writer infuses his protagonists with. The director's cut of DOCTOR SLEEP (which is the only cut I've seen), perfectly captures that aspect of King's writing. It has that special "King tone" - for lack of a better word - which so rarely survives the Hollywood treatment of his works.

My only - minor - gripe is that Flanagan focused his considerable talent on what I consider to be a somewhat mediocre book. If latter-day King is what he had to choose from, I wish he had picked BAG OF BONES or DUMA KEY instead, as his storytelling instincts would have been perfectly suited for both of those (admittedly also flawed) novels. There's some great stuff in there that could make for fantastic, haunting, beautifully Gothic genre films if a writer/director with Flanagan's old-school approach to storytelling and deeply humanist sensibilities were to tackle it.

But never mind my nitpicking; DOCTOR SLEEP is a treat for King fans as well as genre fans in general, and it's a shame it wasn't a bigger success at the box office. The movie is beautifully photographed, the cast - especially Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran and Zahn McClarnon - are wonderful, and the deliberate pacing works perfectly for the story. So let's give it up for Mike Flanagan (who's apparently already busy adapting King's Lovecraftian novel REVIVAL); in the absence of Rob Reiner and Frank Darabont, he's perhaps the greatest hope for us King fans.

If you are going into this film expecting it to be a straight up sequel to the Kubrick film with the same horror tone, you'll be disappointed, however if you have an open mind, this movie is very well directed and acted and the story is very compelling. This is more of a fantasy thriller than a horror film and I really like that about this film. It also does quite a bit of homage to the 1980 film, but takes it into a new and interesting direction with a deep underlying theme direct from Steven King.

Now if you were not aware of the Original (don't be condescending if possible, not everyone can know all the movies), this is a good reason to (re)visit it - no pun intended! It will stay with you once seen and it will set the field for this sequel, which some might feel comes way too late, but than again, when should it have come out? The timing is quite good I'd say.

I'd also say that the movie is quite good. I know some will disagree and will not like this at all for various reasons. Try not to expect a copy of the Shining. This is paying tribute, by also being differently when it comes to certain scares, to the story and more.

I have not read the source material this is based on, but it does a good job for those who've seen the Shining and treads the story with enough respect. There are holes in the story and flaws in the telling - but overall this is entertaining and scary enough to be more than just a decent viewing