Doctor Sleep review
Director: Mike Flanagan
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran
Release Date: 31 October 2019
Faced with a seemly impossible task of making a sequel to a genuine horror classic but armed only with a very average novel.
Doctor Sleep is every bit as uneven as you would think.
It feels like it was made by two completely different people who had no idea what film the other was making. Some moments are genuinely unsettling.
That is then offset by weird shifts in tone and humour.
It's in a weird space where it isn't something that you could watch without seeing the original.
But it isn't something that's a complete love letter to The Shining.
The genius of Kubrick’s The Shining is he took what he wanted from the book and ignored the rest.
Director Mike Flanagan, of the fantastic Haunting of Hill House, tries to make this a sequel to both the film and the book.
Which are two very different things.
It is like trying to make a Batman sequel that crosses over with The Dark Knight and Batman Forever it’s impossible to nail a consistent tone.
Ewan McGregor is as switched on as he has been in years but is still outshone in more ways than one by Kyliegh Curran as his young protégé.
Rebecca Ferguson accent changes are as terrifying as anything in The Overlook Hotel.
Some nods to The Shining are done really well and others have the subtlety of a baboon and come across like a fan-fiction sequel.
It has some truly great moments, one with a young Danny confronting his demons early on is fantastic and there is one scene that is terrifyingly vicious.
It's worth a watch for fans of The Shining but those with no grasp of the original may be left as cold as Jack Torrance.
2.5 out of 5
Words: Andy McCarroll
To hear more from Andy tune into We Love Movies every Sunday at 12pm.
