Doctor Sleep
Horror. With Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson and Kyliegh Curran. Director: Mike Flanagan. 16DHLNV.
This sequel to The Shining (1980) rides in on the wave of nostalgia for classic films, which has caused a flurry of long-delayed but excellent sequels such as Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).
The Shining was based on the Stephen King novel, but the author was never happy with director Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation as he felt too much was changed. King wrote a 2013 sequel, Doctor Sleep, and director Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) has said he tried to remain true to the book while also making it work as a continuation of Kubrick’s film.
Forty years after escaping from the haunted Overlook Hotel that drove his father mad, Dan Torrance (McGregor) is a recovering alcoholic who uses his psychic abilities – “the shining” – to comfort the dying. But then he starts getting telepathic messages from a girl, Abra (Curran), whose shining is even more powerful than his. She’s being hunted by a group of vampires led by Rose the Hat (Ferguson), who feed off the powers of psychics.
Like the other sequels mentioned, it seems Doctor Sleep is a worthy follow-up to its predecessor, even though it can’t match The Shining for pure terror. It has a 75% approval rating on reviews-aggregator site Rottentomatoes.com, where it’s described as forsaking “the elemental terror of its predecessor for a more contemplative sequel that balances poignant themes against spine-tingling chills”.
But Empire magazine’s critic Chris Hewitt is a little less impressed, giving it three stars. “Working off source material that’s very different from its predecessor, anyone expecting a straightforward Shining sequel will be disappointed. This isn’t a gruelling exercise in pure horror. It’s odder and more contemplative, but worth checking in,” he writes.