Doctor Sleep
Doctor Sleepmay not be bring in a cleanup at the box office , but it ’s one of the best - refresh repugnance movies of the class . Directed by Mike Flanagan ( The Haunting of Hill House ) , the movie has the awkward task of being a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’sThe Shining . Ewan McGregor star as the adult Danny Torrance , who is drawn back into a world of ghost and freak when a lady friend with the shining is place by a baleful group of immortal beings who want to feed on her .
Stephen King published the novelDoctor Sleepin 2013 , 36 years afterThe Shiningwas in the first place published . The film adaption is explicitly a continuation to Kubrick ’s edition ofThe Shining- which King famously detest . In an audience withRolling Stone , King explained that the book interpretation ofJack Torranceis at least trying to be estimable , whereas Jack Nicholson ’s version is " crazy from the first scene . " He also matt-up that the movie was misogynous , with Shelly Duvall ’s Wendy Torrance " presented as this sort of cry dishcloth . " Yet despite the mellow regard in which Flanagan’sDoctor Sleepholds the original pic , King has say that he loves the sequel : " Everything that I ever dislike about the Kubrick version of The Shining is redeemed for me here . "
Related : Every Shining Character Who Returns In Doctor Sleep
King is n’t the only one who ’s a fan ofDoctor Sleep , as the movie has obtain glow followup from some critics - but others are unquestionably unimpressed by it . The flick currently holds a grudge of 74 % onRotten Tomatoes , and even within the recapitulation themselves the praise and criticism are decidedly mixed , with few critics outright hating the movie . Here ’s what some of the negative reviews have to say :
CNN :
Add Doctor Sleep … to the leaning of motion-picture show and idiot box version base on the author ’s body of work that strike at first , before flaming out down the stretch … The film devolves into a form - of protracted court to Kubrick ’s movie , strike in its familiar visual imagery , but in term of the bombastic story , an overlong mess .
Associated Press :
None of this is remotely desirable of The Shining . The most entertaining thing here is trying to think how Kubrick would have reacted to the entire feeling of “ fan service . ” It ’s a frightfully regular approach to moviemaking today that should , at the very least , have the sense not to mess with Kubrick . All sequels and no originals make us all dense boys .
New York Times :
Doctor Sleep is a not a Stephen - King - scares - the - pants - off - you kind of movie . It ’s a Stephen - King - invites - you - to - ponder - the - nature - of - evil kind of movie … There are some bad sections — the gratuitously sadistic rendering of a Knot victim ’s fate — and some not - bad ones . Nothing that will keep you alert at night , but you credibly wo n’t fall asleep in the middle either .
A.V. Club :
Writer - theater director Mike Flanagan opted to near Doctor Sleep as both an adaptation of the book and a direct subsequence to the 1980 movie . The leave celluloid tolerate from a bit of an indistinguishability crisis . Compounding the already considerable disconnect between King ’s two stories , Doctor Sleep ca n’t always seem to decide if it wants to be its own thing or a kind of throwback fetish object , a tribute to the cult of Kubrick .
Thegeneral consensus among referee , both those who liked and disliked the picture show , is thatDoctor Sleepworks best in the first two acts , when it ’s endeavor to be its own affair , whereas the last act falls into the dark ofThe Shiningand turns into rooter service . The part ofDoctor Sleepthat find original - place - bending astral projection scenes , Rebecca Ferguson ’s hippie vampire villainRose the Hat , and Dan Torrance restfully ruminating on how he became an souse to feel nigher to his father - play to Flanagan ’s strength as a storyteller . These reviewers feel that , despite its reverence forThe Shining , Doctor Sleepis strong enough to stand on its own feet :
Vulture :
Doctor Sleep is full of unerasable imagery — bodies made bloody , an endless hedge maze dappled with snow , a woman glide across the night sky frivol away through with stars . And its pleasures do n’t end there : A grade by the Newton Brothers thumps like an errant heartbeat . The actors sparkle with chemistry . At fourth dimension , its esthetical and thematic interest snap into post and the film sings at a mournful register as it chart the generational psychic trauma and addiction of Dan Torrance
BBC :
Credible in its characterisation , rich in mythological item , and touchingly sincere in its treatment of potomania and harm , the film is impressive in all sorts of way . But its not bad achievement is that it makes The polishing seem like a prequel – a tantalising glimpse of a rich and more substantial story .
Little White Lies :
It ’s no The polishing , but maybe that is just another way of saying that it is something unlike . After all , once we have confront our dissonant feelings about the past , we all , like Dan , need to move on . This finely - craft , often affect film point not necessarily to another sequel , but to a future where the Overlook and its eery resident have been freeze in time and locked away , forever and ever and ever …
More : Doctor Sleep ’s Ending Explained ( In Detail )
