by Bailey Rankin, Student Reporter
Doctor Sleep is the film adaptation of Stephen Kings’ novel of the same and sequel to “The Shining”. The film follows an adult Danny Torrence, played by Ewan McGregor, as he tries to deal with his psychic abilities and the traumatic ordeal he and his mother went through at the Overlook Hotel at the hands of his father.
Dan struggles to cope with this trauma and turns to a life of alcohol and addiction, but a harsh wakeup call inspires him to turn his life around. As time goes on, Dan recovers and builds a life for himself, but a young girl named Abra Stone, played by Kyliegh Curran in her feature film debut, who has physic abilities as well, contacts him. After keeping a low profile for years, Dan now has to decide whether or not to help Abra, who is in danger of being abducted by the True Knot, a group of psychic vampires, or continue his life as “normaly” as he can.
Doctor Sleep is a slow burn of a movie, building the plot points through the first two hours and paying off within the last 30 minutes. Yes, that is typically what happens in movies, but there were certain points in the film where you think “Oh this happened, now it’s time for the showdown”, but then the showdown doesn’t come for another hour and 15 minutes.
Mike Flanagan, who wrote, directed and edited the film, made a valiant effort to stay true to the 2013 novel, something that Stanley Kubric completely disregarded while making The Shining back in 1980. Having not read the book, I imagine that the storyline has a better flow with the 531 pages that enable the story to develop naturally, instead of condensing all of the important information and plot points that are necessary to understand into a two hour and thirty-one minute film.
Although created by the king of horror novels, the “Doctor Sleep” film has supernatural elements and a few jump scares, but besides that, the movie focuses heavily on themes such as trauma, addiction, recovery and chosen family. The cinematography screams Mike Flanagan and there are some scene compositions that almost copy his other works.
While “Doctor Sleep” is not a bad film, its saving grace is the performance from Kyliegh Curran. Her portrayal of Abra Stone is incredible. She plays the headstrong, independent, smart and cunning character to a T.
Mike Flanagan tried his best with this film, and although he did not “redrum” it, it is a mediocre film at best.