Movies based on Stephan King’s novels are like 4D: the chances of winning are slim.
In fact, right off my head, I can only think of IT as the only winner: the rest of the movies are either average or downright bad.
I mean, did anyone watch Cell? I did, and I’ve been regretting it since then.
But giving credit where it’s due, the older movies seem to work. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the movies in the 70s and 80s have better approval rating: for example, the old Carrie (1976) has 92% approval rating, The Shining (1980) has 85% approval rating and The Dead Zone has 91%.
Doctor Sleep is a direct sequel to the 1980’s The Shining, which is such a classic that the phrase “Here’s Johnny!” is still used regularly today.
So, with such a big shoes to fill, can Doctor Sleep, who’s completely unrelated to Doctor Strange, remove the Stephan King curse and finally produce another IT?
Let’s find out.
Doctor Sleep, a Sequel After 29 Years
The novel The Shining was published in 1977, and its sequel, Doctor Sleep, was published in 2013. In other words, you can only blame the legendary horror writer for the long hiatus.
But plot wise, it makes sense—29 years have passed, and young Danny Torrance has grown up to be haunted again.
With the link, people will understandably compare The Shining with Doctor Sleep, but that’s akin comparing apples with oranges.
For a start, the world has changed: horror movies in the past used excessive jump scares and glory footages, but now, filmmakers have to be creative to bring out a scream, for a movie that relies just on jump scares and blood aren’t going to cut it.
Just take a look at the two trailers and you’ll get the gist:
The Shining:
Doctor Sleep:
So, in 2019, how does Doctor Sleep fare as a movie by itself?
Fortunately, it shines.
Ghosts, “Magic”, Jump Scares & Everything Else
It’s easy to classify this movie as a horror movie, given its association with the novelist, but I beg to differ.
It’s a movie about magic (a gift), cult, “vampires” and anything that scares the shit out of an adult.
The plot starts off with an adult Danny Torrance, who’s now known as “Doctor Sleep” simply because he’s using his “shining” ability to talk to comfort dying patients in a hospice. For the uninitiated, the shining ability is kind of like telekinesis, in which the person can use it to read both humans’ and ghosts’ thoughts and experiences.
Everything’s good until they discover some vampire-like cult with an attractive leader, and from then on, it became an adventure horror movie.
Though the move runs at a whopping 152 minutes (more than 2.5 hours!), the film manages to marry both the horror and action-adventure aspects together seamless, smoothing out a pace that’s not a single minute boring.
It also blends in elements of the 1980 movie in impeccably, though it’s more for nostalgia’s sake since everything that happened in 1980 has been spelled out for you early in the movie.
Is it worth your 2.5 hours?
Hell yeah, though you might not like it if you’re a true horror purist fan. If not, this is worth every second.
Rating: 4/5
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