Dr. Sleep

Dr. Sleep 

2019

Director- Mike Flanagan

Cast- Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis, Carl Lumbly, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Alex Essoe, Carel Struycken, Henry Thomas

           

   OK, fair warning, I have not read the book that this film is based on, so I have no idea how it compares. Also, fair warning, this movie is a direct sequel to the movie The Shining, so if you haven’t seen The Shining, there is no point in seeing this film until you do. You’d likely be scratching your head a lot. Given that The Shining is almost 40 years old, it’s entirely likely that many people, even many horror fans, haven’t seen it. So, I won’t summarize The Shining. If you’ve seen it, then there is no need, and if you haven’t, I don’t want to spoil it for you.

        

   

   Dr. Sleep takes elements from The Shining and extrapolates them. First, it asks the questions, if someone did have the “gifts” that Danny Torence had in The Shining, what would it be like to grow up with that, especially after suffering the trauma he had. Danny, as an adult, has plunged down a black hole of alcoholism (following in his dad’s footsteps) in an effort to shut out the visions that his gifts provide. He has also become a loner and a little cynical. He ends up in a small town and is befriended by a recovering alcoholic that helps him start his life over. Meanwhile, through the years, Danny maintains a long distance relationship with a sort of psychic pen pal, a little girl named Abra that communicates with him telepathically.

    The second question it asks is what if other people had these gifts and they were evil. That brings us to Rose the Hat (wonderfully played by Rebecca Fergeson) and her crew of supernaturally powered sociopaths. They track down and murder other people with special gifts, sucking off their energy so that they can live forever. They are vampires in every sense of the word. Rose becomes aware of Abra’s existence, and Danny must leave the new life that he has made for himself to save Abra from Rose.

        

  

    There are appearances of characters from the first film; Wendy, little Danny, Jack Torence, the creepy twins, and Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers in The Shining). This is done with actors playing the parts and that was fine with me. I’m not a fan of trying to CGI older actors to look young or dead actors to look alive. It never looks right. It never fools your eye.

            

    Ewan McGregor turns in a fine performance as always and the movies ingénue,  Kyliegh Curran, adequately handles the heavy lifting required of a big role for a young actor. Of course, the villains are the real attraction, right? Carel Struycken (Lurch from the Addams Family movies and Star Trek: The Next Generation) is Grandpa Flick, an ancient psychic vampire who seems to be the groups spiritual leader. Crow Daddy (Zahn McClarnon) is Rose’s right hand man and a cold killer in his own right. Snakebite Andi (Emily Alyn Lind) is the youngest member of the gang, a 15 year old Lolita that takes quickly to the life of a vampire.

   

Rose the Hat , though, steals the show. I think an actor can go their whole career and not get a role like this, and Rebecca Ferguson takes full advantage of it. Rose is an attractive, charismatic bohemian, the kind of free spirit you would have seen in a coffee shop in the 90s or brewing an herbal mint tea. Beneath that though is an utterly callous murderer that gladly tortures and kills children in order to preserve her own youth. I don’t want to be presumptuous, but Rose might be in my top 10 all-time villains list. Maybe that’s a knee jerk reaction, but she is that good.

If you are expecting another The Shining, you will be sorely disappointed. Nobody can beat Kubrick and that movie was an example of all of the right pieces coming together at the right time. It’s not reproducible. However, if you want a worthy sequel that continues the story, preserving the tone of the original while making its own mark, then I think Dr. Sleep will leave you satisfied (but pee before you go in, at 2 and a half hours, you get your money’s worth).

 

UPDATE- I’ve haven’t updated one of my reviews before, I guess there was no need. But I thought this was worth it. Three months after seeing the movie in the theatre, I’ve had the chance to see the director’s cut on Blu-ray. It’s 30 minutes longer making the movie a 3 hour epic. The additions don’t change the direction or feel of the movie but do enhance the enjoyment. There are a few extra short scenes but most of the additions are to already existing scenes. Some scenes run a few seconds longer, some a few minutes.

            

     As for my opinion of the film, it’s still much the same as it was 3 months ago. I still think Rose is one of the best villains in horror movie history. I think what makes this movie so enjoyable is that it respects the viewers intelligence. It doesn’t spell out the supernatural phenomenon, believing that you will be smart enough to figure out what is happening and why.

       Since you’ll be watching this at home now, you don’t have to worry about peeing before you start the film, but make sure you have some snacks, because you’re not going to want to stop watching once you start.