Doctor Sleep Review

Doctor Sleep
Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast Headliners: Ewan McGregor, Kyliegh Curran,Rebecca Ferguson, Cliff Curtis, many minds and ghosts
Original Release Date: November 8th, 2019

   Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining is one of the most iconic films of all time. Author's note that it was a firsthand watch in full in the past few weeks but it holds up incredibly, amazingly well. How can anyone possibly follow it up and why. Well Stephen King himself stepped up to the plate with a 2013 novel Doctor Sleep. Now it's become a film but is it really The Shining 2 . It's a mix of very much being one, too much at being one, and it's own frontier.
Some (seldom little!) usage of the old theme song takes audiences back to the 80s where a young Danny Torrance is being raised  in Florida by his mother Wendy after the horrific events of the Overlook. They're played by Roger Dale Floyd  and Alex Essoe rather than their originals... part of several old characters who show up again who never quite match the original but at least go for an attempt at looking like them such as a dcent Shelly Duvall or a slightly mediocre Jack Nicholson. This includes Danny being haunted by ghostly visions whether the evil old woman (what a 2019 of those) or the helpful Halloran(Carl Lumbly). He learns to master his mental powers a little more which is more what this film is about than horror.
In present day in multiple jumps of time Danny is now a drunken loser of an adult(Ewan McGregor) who is still haunted but by much more realistic demons. He finds himself on the east coast befriending Billy Freeman(Cliff Curtis) in a small town.  Elsewhere a young girl named Abra Stone(Kyliegh Curran) makes contact with him with her own telekinetic powers. They attract the attention of a murderous cult of energy-vampires the True Knot led by Rose the Hat(Rebecca Ferguson). Various adventures, deaths, close calls, and magical revelations occur in the saga of shining-mind versus shining-mind.
That's an important thing to know of this film as mentioned. It's definitely spooky with some jump scares and an overall dark ambiance (thank director Mike Flanagan for that as the influence of The Haunting Of Hill House is felt in mood and ghostly reveals). However it truly dives deeper into the lore of these mind powers. There's some fascinating sequences of mental astro projection almost like Doctor Strange or Inception or something as these gifted individuals compete with each other. Some pulse pounding and or creepy music by the Newton Brothers aids this fantastical atmosphere. There's even such contrast features as a gun fight but it ends up working. 
The new cast is decent if nothing mind-blowing like the original. McGregor's adult “Dan” is of course hard to compare to the child version but that lets him be something new. He's a bit typical but carries his tortured addicted mental state with his capacity for heroism with some slight humor at times. Curran's Abra makes for a great pair with him and she has some solid young potential. Curtis's Billy has some generic kindness and this appears through most the other  family / neighbor characters like other King works. 
Ferguson's Rose is the most solid of all with a bit of an ancient Celtic accent hinting at her true origin. Her vampire partners, henchmen, and lovers have this unique Cajun-esque odd sensibiility to them that makes them distinct. Her number two and lover Crow Daddy(Zahn McClarnon) and newcomer Snakebate Andi(Emily Alyn Lind) makes some particular fierce impact. 
All of this could be a movie on its own and it really is a loose connection to the original. However of course they try to include some connections to the Overlook Hotel (as there was in the original novel). This time elements of the Doctor Sleep novel , the Shining novel's alternate ending, ad the mini-series remake are all mixed into having an excuse to go back to that snowy mountain. This part of the film is what truly is like “shining 2” and it's interesting to see other characters react to it. Some impressive efforts are made to re-create certain sets and visuals although some of this has shaky CGI. The lore doesn't quite make sense and some truly questionable choices happen in the climax but it manages to be both silly and deliver on what viewers of the first film would want to see for a sense of closure. 

It's a long movie, almost too much at times, with some room possibly having been gotten from cutting down on some character development. There's a few mistakes made but the emotion, scares, and atmosphere do a decent job of bringing back the legend. It's an epic mind saga when it does it right. 8 out of 10