Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis
Distributor: Roadshow Films
Runtime: 152 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2019
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I must admit that, until last week, I’d never seen ‘The Shining’. When I finally sat down to watch it, despite knowing its reputation as a masterpiece of horror film making (or perhaps because of it), I found myself curiously unmoved. Though every frame all but pulsated with Kubrick’s obsessive style, the narrative – loosely adapted from Stephen King’s novel of the same name – felt sterile, its characters as unchangeable and frigid as its Overlook Hotel setting. Enter Mike Flanagan, one of the industry’s most promising new horror directors. Adapting King’s long-gestating sequel himself (published 36 years after ‘The Shining’), Flanagan has crafted an excellent horror-thriller with a surprising amount of emotion, and one that is far more accessible than its venerated predecessor.
30-plus years after his father Jack was driven insane by their months spent snowed in at the Overlook Hotel, Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor), now going by Dan, has finally shaken himself free of his father’s demons. With the support of his warm AA sponsor Billy (Cliff Curtis, accent a tad spotty), Dan has achieved eight precious years of sobriety, holding down a job as an orderly at a hospice. There, Danny uses his extrasensory abilities, or “shine”, to peacefully guide the hospice’s fading residents through their final breaths, earning him the titular moniker. These quiet moments are surprisingly beautiful and intimately observed, and McGregor weighs his performance with the decades of pain and fear that Dan has overcome to sit by their bedsides.
But Dan’s shine has not always been such a blessing; it was this ability to detect the malevolent presences swarming through the Overlook Hotel that saw young Danny so profoundly affected by their stay there. In a prologue, the former cook of the Overlook, Dick Halloran (now played by Carl Lumbly), becomes a spectral mentor to the young Danny (Roger Dale Floyd), teaching him to overcome the evil ghosts that still stalk him, locking them away in mental boxes. Dan’s former alcoholism dulled his shine, but as his growing sobriety causes his powers to return, his restored shine connects him with Abra (Kyliegh Curran), an exceptionally powerful girl who communicates with Dan via chalkboard wall in his rented studio apartment. Curran is a quite discovery in her first feature role, her Abra strong and highly capable yet still vulnerable. Abra’s powers might have made another actress feel invincible, but every time that she discovers a new side to her skillset (rendered with visually arresting CGI), Curran reminds you with a gesture or a line reading that Abra is, after all, still a young girl.
One such threat to Abra is the True Knot, a group of near-immortal beings with an array of shine powers led by beautiful enchantress Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson). Members of the True Knot gain their immortality by consuming the “steam” released when children that possess the shining experience immense pain. Rose, her right-hand man Crow Daddy (Zahn McClarnon, an actor with exceptional presence) and her other disciples hunt such children across North America, kidnapping, torturing and murdering them with impunity. Ferguson has made a habit of stealing any movie in which she appears and ‘Doctor Sleep’ is no different; given the plum villain role, she initially makes Rose playfully charming yet just a little creepy, crafting a duality that is eventually shattered when we witness the extent of her unspeakable cruelty unleashed upon one of the True Knot’s young victims (Jacob Tremblay, in a tremendously affecting cameo).
Abra’s powers land her squarely in the sights of the True Knot, and Dan rushes to her aid. Their showdown with Rose sets Dan on a collision course with the Overlook Hotel (with Kubrick’s iconic sets painstakingly recreated by the production team), where he must also confront the demons of his past and the sins of his father to save his young friend. Though I haven’t read ‘The Shining’ or ‘Doctor Sleep’, popular culture has long informed me of the many changes that Kubrick made to King’s novel (much to the author’s chagrin). For instance, at the end of King’s book, the Overlook was burnt to the ground. With both the looming spectre of Kubrick’s prominent adaptation and King’s bestselling sequel to contend with, Flanagan’s screenplay absolutely threads the needle, delivering an epic showdown between good and evil that respects both of its creative forebears.
Strikingly shot, edited, acted and scored, ‘Doctor Sleep’ is an epic horror film that builds on the work of a master filmmaker while still channelling the voice of a master author. Even at two-and-a-half hours long, I wouldn’t have wanted it any shorter. I respected ‘The Shining’, but really liked ‘Doctor Sleep’.
Callum Ryan is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting.
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