Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Jacob Tremblay, Carel Strycken, Zahn McClarnon
Director: Mike Flanagan
Release date: 31st October 2019
Many years have passed since the events of 1980, in the Overlook Hotel and Danny Torrance is now an adult struggling with life. Drink and drugs have taken their toll on him since his mother’s death. He moves to Frazier, New Hampshire where he meets a guy who will change his life in many ways. He goes to AA and slowly but surely gets some sort of normality… His new friend gets him a job in a local hospital and Danny is soon given the nickname, Doctor Sleep. Eight years pass, and just when he thinks he can have some normality a new type of evil finds its way to his vicinity.
Most of us have seen the 1980 movie, “The Shining” at some point in our lives. It was and is an iconic movie of its generation. Jack Nicholson is both unsettling and scary. With Nicholson’s performance being so well respected, you’d expect that if the character of Jack Torrance were to appear in the new film, that they would perhaps have approached it in a better way. The Jack Torrance in this film is pretty slapdash and nowhere nearly as enigmatic as Jack Nicholson. The hair’s like Jack’s and there’s a very vague likeness but it’s simply not the same, and it really does the film no favours, standing out a mile.
Many of Stephen King’s books have been made into films and tv series over the years and ‘Doctor Sleep’, published in 2013 has been crying out to be made into a movie/ sequel for a long time. The novel won the ‘Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel’ in 2013.
It is a long old film but to be honest it needs to be to tell the story. As a fan of Stephen King’s books, it’s always nice when his novels are adapted for film or tv and ‘Doctor Sleep’ is a long awaited sequel to an already well established story.
Go and watch it on the big screen and prepare to be scared all over again. Just brace yourself for the inadequate Jack Nicholson lookalike…
Overall: 8.5/10
