Doctor Sleep

King shines again with the thrilling sequel Doctor Sleep

By Mia Rivera Staff Reporter IG: imiiav Forty years ago, director Stanley Kubrick took author Steven King’s novel The Shining and turned it into a movie. In 2019, director Mike Flanigan brought us its sequel Doctor Sleep. Doctor Sleep was quite the alternative to The Shining. Viewers have called The Shining a “suspenseful horror classic” which is “violent and dark.” I totally agree. Doctor Sleep had more supernatural/sci-fi elements and superpower aspects. The horror factor of The Shining kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

Small details, such as the soundtrack, sound effects, and hints in the dialogue and background of the movie, kept an ongoing suspense and made the experience all the more real. I felt connected through the fears of some of the characters, and I believe the actors delivered that very well. At the end of The Shining I saw potential, mostly in the characters. I wondered how far Danny could go with his “shine” powers. The supernatural activity that seemed to live inside Danny’s mind appears to have lived on.

In the new film, we see Danny in his early to mid-40s struggling with drugs and alcohol, mirroring his father’s alcoholism of years ago. Danny then meets a friend who helps him become sober through a rehab program. Eight years later, in his apartment, Danny gets messages scratched onto the chalkboard left in his room from the previous tenant. Danny communicates with Abra, a young girl who also has the “shine.” Abra tells Danny of True Knot a cult of entities who seem like people but live long by collecting and feeding off of the “shine” (an extrasensory gift that sees futures and/or paranormal beings), from other young children. Danny and Abra go on a terrifying journey, learning tricks to play on the “demons,” and how to control their “shine” to defeat the gruesome acts of the True Knot.

Flanagan captured a sense of fear that reflects what our own fears could be and went deeper into psychological horrors. Characters such as Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and Crow Daddy (Zahn McClaron) felt truly evil. Ewan McGregor, who played Danny, carried out a believable performance of true terror.

The recreation of certain scenes from The Shining and the original iconic roles of Shelley Duval, Danny Lloyd, Jack Nicholson and Scatman Crothers were downright incredible. The visuals strongly portrayed emotion in the characters’ and what they endured and the sound effects brought chills. Doctor Sleep remarkably conveys King’s unsettling story of the sinister events encountered by his traumatized characters. Audiences apparently agree since it has gotten mostly favorable reviews on both Imdb.com and Rotten Tomatoes. I definitely feel that it is worth the price of a movie ticket.

There’s just something about watching this movie in a dark theater with strangers. While it may not have been as scary as The Shining, its psychological terror makes it more sinister.