Doctor Sleep (spoilers)

[Shermann]

I'm continuing my October series of movie reviews of non-recent horror movies which everybody has either already seen or has no interest in seeing.

Doctor Sleep threads the needle of being a sequel to both the book and the movie which have little in common with one another. In that regard, it does quite well. Stephen King movies often feature B-list actors and suffer for it. Ewan McGregor, however, is an A-lister and excellent as Danny Torrance (this is set decades after the events in the Overlook Hotel).

Danny and his mother appear in flashbacks set during the Overlook Hotel timeframe that are really well done.

The pen-pal scenes and the buildup are very Stephen King-like. This aspect was lacking in the original film, although it was a phenomenal example of Kubrick's imagination. The "shine vampires" feature some differences from the novel. They aren't quite as inhuman and don't live as long. They also don't really seem to have much in the way of superpowers, so it is questionable why anybody would want to join the Knot. That said, Rose the Hat is excellent.

The film ends at the Overlook Hotel, now run down. There is a dramatic scene between Danny and his father's spirit in the Gold Room. His father now identifies as Delbert Grady the bartender, mixing up three identities in a nod to the original. I was full of anticipation waiting for him to break character back to Jack, similarly to how Delbert Grady did. There was so much suspense. Would Jack take an interest in his wife and son's lives? Would he be remorseful? Would he try to help him in his situation? Would he be in need of help himself being trapped in the Overlook? Would there be redemption? Would he remain insane?

Unfortunately, all we got was him being kind of a dick trying to sabotage Danny's sobriety as the scene quickly ends. What a wasted opportunity. Oh well.

There are flashbacks from the original movie using the original footage. Why not reshoot all those scenes?

So, the ghouls from the original film made a big cameo and saved the day. There was some retconning going on as they exhibited some shine vampire steam-sucking behavior, which doesn't really make sense. But that's ok because everything gets wrapped up in a big bow.