Doctor Sleep (2019)

I'm not sure if this is going to make sense, but here we go. Doctor Sleep, as a standalone horror film is really good. But as a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, it is really bad. The trick to enjoying it is to see it purely as a Mike Flanagan film, which it quintessentially is. But Doctor Sleep, in so many scenes, attaches itself to the 1980 masterpiece. This was a MASSIVE mistake. It's disrespectful to the legacy of the Shining, and it simply wasn't needed. 

What works about the movie? The acting comes to mind. Ewan McGregor is a perfect casting decision to play adult Danny Torrance. Kyleigh Curran is a knockout as Abra Stone. Together, they pair up well as a team of Shiners, as they hunt down a wild hippy cult of spirit eaters. Doctor Sleep has many thrills, scares and creepy moments. They all pay off well. The story itself is investing for the entirety of it's 152 minutes. A long run time like that can feel like a punishment if the film is completely uninteresting, and Doctor Sleep isn't for a second. The writing flows gracefully. The visual effects are chilling. This is one of the rarer instances of a commercial horror film thats firing on all cylinders. 

But (sigh) we have to go back to Kubrick. We have to, only because Doctor Sleep insists on it. From the opening minutes, Kubrick is being invoked. Some scenes are archived straight from the original film, and some, shockingly, are recreated with new actors portraying the classic roles. That is just disgraceful, and unacceptable. I hated it. It took me out of a fairly good horror movie. Why couldn't they just leave it alone? The Shining didn't need to be touched up for a 2019 audience. Some movies are just too sacred. However, I can give them credit for flawlessly reconstructing the Overlook Hotel, right down the patterns on the wall. Well done on production design. Not to mention, they found an exact duplicate of Scatman Crothers to reprise Dick Hallormann. 3 and 1/2 out of 5 STARS.