DOCTOR SLEEP
Release Date: November 14th 2019
It’s no secret that I am a Steven King Fan, and The Shining (1980) directed by Stanley Kubrick (Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd), has been a household and one of my favorites, for as long as I can recall. I think my admiration for Jack Nicholson began with his role in that movie. Who better with his crazy pointy eyebrows could play the role of a man going mad isolated in a hotel during winter? So, when we found out that a movie was being filmed for the follow up book by Steven King, “Doctor Sleep” we were just crawling out of our skin to see it, and no, had not read the book, I chose not to until after seeing the movie.
So, let’s get to it.
First off, nice cast! Ewan McGregor as adult Danny Torrance. Not a large list of horror films under his belt, but McGregor has amazing diversity! And who else, well… I love to play the “this actor/actress is from this movie” game all the time – “Rose Hat” (Rebecca Ferguson also the character Miranda in “Life” - a really good creature feature from 2017), female protagonists / villains are fantastic when they’re played by strong actresses, I’d fall into her gaze and get trapped for sure with those captivating eyes and her alluring voice! “Barry the Chunk” (Robert Longstreet - also Mr. Dudley in the creepy- jump-out-of-your-seat TV series “The Haunting of Hill House”, as is the actor for a young Hugh Crane Henry Thomas), who fills the role of Jack Torrance/Lloyd at the Stanley hotel serving up drinks to Danny.
Kyliegh Curran, currently has only a handful of movies in her roster, plays the young Abra who has incredible “shine” to her, which is what attracts the villains to search for her, to collect her ‘steam’, as they refer to it.
Being the fan of the King book and the original Kubrick film, I was 1. Nervous as hell that this would be a disappointing follow up to The Shining, 2. Worried about the film having flashbacks and having to fill the roles of the original actors/actresses that were in the original movie (my concern being that they’d never be able to pull it off), 3. Super-duper excite about returning to that world… what happened to the remainder of the Torrance family after the Overlook experience.
IMMEDIATELY, in the opening sequence gave me the chills, hearing the iconic music that defines the original Shining movie put the biggest smile on my face… and there was hope!
Having not read the book, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of the story, only what I could speculate from the previews. But I’ll say that when we stepped out of that theatre, I had that overly satisfied feeling like after I eat cherry pie or after I’ve sat soaking in the sun on a chilly Colorado winter day type of satisfaction. Just pure satisfaction.
I felt that the cast was all strong, there isn’t one character in the movie that had weak acting, and that will carry you seamlessly through a movie. The actors and actress that was selected to play the roles of the young Danny, Jack, Wendy, and Dick were so good that it was almost… creepy.
(SPOILERS!!!)
There were nods to the Kubrick move all through this film, making us super fans gitty - when the adult Dan Torrance is sitting in an office that looks just like the office his father sat in while interviewing for the caretaker’s job at the Overlook I about came out of my seat.
We get introduced to adult Danny, the “True Knot” (the ‘bad guys’), Abra, and the character building gives you a real good sense for each of the characters. The story line is strong and clear and, you follow easily along even if you’ve not read the book.
The actors and actresses were strong, there were no cheesy graphics, the spooks/evil looked great, and then, we are back at the Overlook Hotel….. WOAH. There was so much dedication and attention put into recreating the Overlook from Kubrick’s film that I was grinning ear to ear. The corridors were right, the Colorado Lounge looked the same, the caretaker’s bedroom was meticulously recreated, down to the hole that Jack left in the bathroom door from his Axe. And, the bar in the Pink and Gold ballroom glowed just as ominously as in The Shining.
And the ending, the part a lot of horror movies muck up, was highly satisfying, and I won’t say more so I’m not spoiling anything there.
So, I think you can gather that I liked it…. oh, who am I kidding, I really, really, really liked it.
I highly recommend seeing the movie, which now is available for streaming, I think that it appeases the Steven King novel fans as well as Kubrick’s The Shining film, happily…. “great party, isn’t it?”
Comments