DOCTOR SLEEP

★★★★★

Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly), the Overlook Hotel’s avuncular chef, teaches Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) to use his extrasensory powers to imprison angry spectres inside locked boxes in his mind.

Initially, Danny drinks to dull the pain but finds sobriety and friendship in the New Hampshire town of Frazier, supported by neighbour and AA sponsor Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis).

Nightmares of the past resurface when a teenager called Abra (Kyliegh Curran) makes contact.

She has unwittingly tapped into her “shine” to witness the ritualistic murder of a boy (Jacob Tremblay) at the hands of The True Knot cult.

Abra’s extraordinary abilities mark her as a prime target for the group’s leader, Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), and chief lieutenant, Crow Daddy (Zahn McClarnon).

Adapted from Stephen King’s 2013 novel, Doctor Sleep is a suspenseful sequel to The Shining that revisits the psychologically damaged survivors of the Overlook Hotel.

Writer-director Mike Flanagan replicates Kubrick’s style beautifully to tighten a knot of tension in our stomachs.

And McGregor plumbs dark recesses to movingly expose fissures in his recovering alcoholic’s facade.

Ferguson is chilling as a protective and vengeful matriarch, who believes in the morality of her group’s murderous actions, setting up a barnstorming showdown in the familiar and chilly surroundings of the Colorado Rockies.

Ewan McGregor as Danny Torrance in Stephen King adaptation, Doctor Sleep