Review: Doctor Sleep

-
I used to call it the shining...

About forty years after his run in at the Overlook Hotel Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) now goes by Dan and is a recovering alcoholic laying low in New Hampshire. He has telepathic conversations with another person like him, Abra.(Kyliegh Curran) When Abra witnesses Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her group of shine stealing cultists known as the True Knot murder a young boy (Jacob Tremblay) she begs Dan to help her. 

I'm not sure if many people would venture into Doctor Sleep without having seen The Shining, but just in case you haven't, you really need to have seen The Shining to make sense of this film. I've never read the book this is based off of myself, but with how much information is in this film, they must have done a decent job adapting it.

I really liked Ewan and Kyliegh in these roles. It's sad to see Dan grow up to be so troubled, but I'm glad we also got to see him getting his life back together. Abra was also a nice addition. I also really liked Zahn McClarnon, who plays Crow, one of Rose's fellow True Knot members. The cinematography is gorgeous and the film is very creepy. Especially when Tremblay's character comes in for his short scene. Holy shit does he make you uncomfortable. I had a legitimately hard time watching him.

My biggest complaint about this film is its length. You really feel the 2 and a half hour run time. I felt like it could've been edited down quite a bit. It gets especially annoying when we get to the final act and are taken on a Shining greatest hits journey. I just wish they had trimmed it down because it did not need to feel this long, but again, maybe if you've read the book, you will enjoy all the things they kept.

Overall, I think this is a fine sequel and a very well done horror thriller. Even though it's long, it's not unbearable.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B-

Memorable Quote: "Alright, bitch child. Alright." - Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson)

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 18, 2019 at 11:52 AM

    I love The Shining and I do want to see this film since I like Ewan McGregor. Do they mention what happened to his mom? Does he revisit the hotel? I am thinking yes but could be wrong

    ReplyDelete
  2. thevoid99November 18, 2019 at 3:22 PM

    I'll wait for it on TV though my only interest is that it's sort of based on The Shining as that's a film that I still love to re-watch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 18, 2019 at 3:43 PM

      There's a lot of Shining reference that I'm sure you'll enjoy then!

      Delete
  3. s.November 19, 2019 at 10:51 AM

    It's such a shame that movie is flopping in the box office, it was the best made King adaptation this year

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 20, 2019 at 6:24 AM

      It's that run time, people who are iffy on a movie aren't going to go if it's 2 and a half hours. You have to want to see something that long.

      Delete
  4. ChrisNovember 20, 2019 at 5:08 AM

    At least Stephen King wrote Doctor Sleep so wasn’t a fanfiction sequel. Despite the overlong running time, pleased to hear the film is bearable!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 20, 2019 at 6:24 AM

      That's true, especially with how much he hated The Shining.

      Delete
  5. keith71_98November 20, 2019 at 8:15 AM

    I was shocked by how much I loved this movie. As I was writing my review I kept thinking of things that really stood out to me. As for the running time, I actually appreciated it more than I expected to and felt most of it added some meaningful and interesting character development. I do get where horror fans may not go for it though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 20, 2019 at 8:58 AM

      I think had I read the book I would've appreciated the run time more as well. I just really felt it.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more