DOCTOR SLEEP

Returning to old haunts

- Will Salmon

RELEASED OUT NOW!

2019 | 18 | Blu-ray (4K/standard)/ DVD/download

Director Mike Flanagan

Cast Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Zahn McClarnon

You’ve got to admire Mike Flanagan’s chutzpah – it’s a brave director that tries to take on Stanley Kubrick.

Doctor Sleep is both an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2013 novel – itself a sequel to The Shining – and a sequel to Kubrick’s 1980 film version of the original book. That’s not quite as obvious a route to take as you may imagine. King famously hated Kubrick’s vision of his book, and there’s a definite clash of tones in this fascinating, frustrating, intermittently brilliant film.

When we first meet Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor), he’s at rock bottom, struggling with the literal and metaphorical ghosts of his past. The spirits of the Overlook Hotel still haunt him, as does the trauma of his father’s alcoholism. He’s heading that way himself until a kindly stranger, Billy (Cliff Curtis), helps him put his life in order.