‘Doctor Sleep' Is Just A Shadow Of ‘The Shining'

Our glimpses of Jack Torrance are fleeting in Michael Flanagan’s “The Shining” sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” but Stanley Kubrick’s colossal 1980 horror film is seldom out of mind, or out of frame.

Here, again, is Johnny.

Our glimpses of Jack Torrance are fleeting in Michael Flanagan’s “The Shining” sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” but Stanley Kubrick’s colossal 1980 horror film is seldom out of mind, or out of frame. Even that axe is back. Adapted from Stephen King’s 2013 book, “Doctor Sleep” shifts the story to the tricycle-riding tyke of “The Shining,” Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor), now grown and dealing, understandably, with a few residual psychological issues from his childhood stay at the Overlook Hotel.

Yes, Hollywood’s insatiable search for new iterations for old intellectual property has wound its way, like the Torrances’ car meandering up the mountain road, to the House of Kubrick. It’s so overwhelmingly a misguided mission that you want to shout, “Don’t go in there!” And yet “Doctor Sleep” careens right ahead, recreating Kubrick shots, casting lookalikes to replay his scenes, refilling the elevator with blood and vainly trying to recapture some of the eerie majesty of “The Shining.”

Maybe I’m wrong but I suspect even those who don’t deeply appreciate Kubrick’s movies will feel a little icky about such a classic being reengineered, its hallowed halls reanimated like a defunct amusement park. It’s one thing to get endless “Star Wars” movies, but we might be venturing into even more shameless territory by leeching sequels to masterworks like “The Shining.” Should we also brace for “2001: Return of the Monolith” and “Barry Lyndon: Back in Business?”