Still Shining: Flanagan makes another King adaptation work in riveting "Doctor Sleep"

Doctor Sleep (2019)

151 min.

Screened on November 4, 2019 at Landmark's Ritz Five in Philadelphia, PA

Release Date: November 8, 2019 (Wide)

The pressure must have been daunting when writer-director Mike Flanagan (2017’s “Gerald’s Game”) was hired to make “Doctor Sleep,” an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2013 novel, itself a sequel to King’s 1977 novel “The Shining” and Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 1980 film adaptation (which the author notoriously found to be too cold and emotionally uninvolving). With this film, Flanagan pulls off another successful King adaptation that succeeds as a haunting, thoughtful redemption tale and horror-infused fantasy paying reverence to author and filmmaker. He goes one step further with "Doctor Sleep," not rendering the story hokey, even if it involves astral projection and a vampiric gang who sucks the steam out of people, but executing a 151-minute film that's riveting and genuinely creepy at times.

Ewan McGregor is sympathetic and compelling as Dan "Doc" Torrance, who’s all grown up but still reeling from his trauma as a boy riding his Big Wheel along the hexagonal-carpeted halls of the haunted Overlook Hotel. Being born with “the shine,” Dan has been taught by old mentor Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly subbing for the late Scatman Crothers) to lock away the terrifying entities in his mind. Inherited by his father Jack, Dan has fallen to the drink and tries to start over in a New Hampshire town, where he gets a job as a hospital orderly helping the elderly pass away peacefully. After Dan begins to share a telepathic friendship with fellow shiner Abra Stone (newcomer Kyliegh Curran), he discovers that Abra can enter the mind of gypsy-like Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), who, along with her True Knot cult of psychic vampires, can only survive with the steam of other children gifted with the shine. Can Dan confront this new threat and demons from his past as well?

Mike Flanagan directs the hell out of “Doctor Sleep,” resisting jump scares for a more mature vision. He refuses to pull any punches, like in one brutal scene involving the communal murder of a young baseball player (Jacob Tremblay). Key iconography of “The Shining” is thrillingly recreated for the 1980-set prologue involving the decaying hag from Room 237, and many more visual nods show up in the film’s third act at the Overlook. Even on a smaller scale, the scenes of Dan becoming Doctor Sleep, where he sits with patients on their death beds with a cat named Azzy, are lovely and tender. Cinematographer Michael Fimognari beautifully creates an eerie, mournful atmosphere with texture and richness, and the Newton Brothers’ moody score infuses a chilling heartbeat.

Besides McGregor and Kyliegh Curran, who’s a complete natural, Rebecca Ferguson is extraordinary as Rose the Hat, using her magnetism to seduce and kill; Emily Alyn Lind (2017’s “The Babysitter”) stands out as Snakebite Andi, the latest member of The True Knot with her own m.o.; and Cliff Curtis lends likable support as Billy Freeman, Dan’s biggest support system. In lieu of using the not-quite-there de-aging technology, Flanagan wisely chooses to recast certain actors (for one, Alex Essoe uncannily channels Shelley Duvall’s Wendy Torrance without her performance coming across as a parody or a mere impersonation). Like any screen adaptation of a book, viewers will have different takes on the choices Flanagan had to make in terms of changes and omissions, but as a film, “Doctor Sleep” does, in fact, shine as a warmer and more humanistic companion piece to a film that gave us nightmares over twins and a blood-gushing elevator.

Grade: B +