Movie Review: ‘Doctor Sleep’ stands up to its predecessor

Courtesy of IMDB

By Catherine Engstrom-Hadley
Staff Writer

Grade: B+

See it if: You loved “The Shining,” you like horror

Skip it: You crave a jump-scare horror movie

Stephen King’s ability to reflect on human weakness and strength is best shown through the genre of horror. Most know of the titular “The Shining,” a movie that has shaped the genre of horror for decades.

Taking on the sequel is no easy task, but Mike Flanagan did a great job expanding Danny’s (Ewan McGregor) world. Danny, now going by Dan, struggles with his traumatic childhood. He is connected with a teenager named Abra (Kyleigh Curran) who also has the extrasensory gift of the “shine,” too. Together they form an alliance to battle the True Knot, a cult whose members feed off people with the shine to become immortal.

Taking a much warmer tone than its predecessor, “Doctor Sleep” has similar themes compared to Flanagan’s recent work for Netflix “Haunting of Hill House,” an amazing series on shared family traumas. In ”Doctor Sleep,” Rebecca Ferguson plays Rose the Hat, an immortal psychic vampire and leader of the True Knot. As a character that could easily be written off as hokey, Ferguson’s performance added a lot to the character, using her charm and charisma to lure kids with the shine to their death.

While “Doctor Sleep” isn’t a chore to watch, the runtime is a little long. Doing a book justice sometimes can mean too much plot and not enough time to cram it all into one movie. When asked about “The Shining’s” adaptation to film in an interview with Indiewire, King said “It’s like a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it.” Although many horror fans would disagree with that description, Flanagan is able to maintain King’s vision much better than Stanley Kubrick did.

The movie ends in a fever pitch, all coming together for one perfect moment. We get to revisit the Overlook hotel, in scenes meticulously created to represent and pay respect to Kubrick’s work in “The Shining.” “Dr. Sleep” manages to step out of the shadow that “The Shining” casts, creating its own space in the world of horror.