Ewan McGregor takes on the role of Danny Torrance, the tricycle riding child with psychic powers and the unnerving way of pronouncing Redrum. The story of Doctor Sleep serves as a direct sequel to The Shining (both the 1977 novel and the 1980 film) and is set several decades after the events of the first film.
The film is most noted for the impressively maniacal performance of Jack Nicholson as Torrance and manages to bridge the gap between supernatural and psychological scares to become one of the best horror thrillers of all time. To answer this question, we need to dig into how Doctor Sleep links with the iconic previous film and how it compares for both story and scares.įor those who’ve never seen the original film, The Shining charts the slow descent into madness of writer-cum-hotel caretaker Jack Torrance as he becomes increasingly haunted by the ghosts of his own alcohol addiction and the hotel until he snaps and attempts to kill his wife and son (who happens to have psychic powers that allow him to see the ghosts too). Pictures (as often happens with King adaptations) took up releasing duties and expectations were high after the success of other recent King films like It (both Chapter One and Chapter Two) and the reimagined Pet Semetary.īut with criticism of its long runtime and slow pacing and a relatively weak worldwide gross of $72 million, the film was considered disappointing and plans for further films in the franchise (including a prequal entitled Hallorann, focusing on the character of Dick Hallorann from The Shining) were shelved indefinitely.īut what caused Doctor Sleep to fail and why didn’t a film with so much pedigree in terms of writing and acting talent find it so hard to resonate with an audience at a time when the horror genre was in a mini resurgence?
Stephen King had written his sequel to The Shining in 2013 and despite having little in the way of love for the Kubrik directed original, the story could work as a continuation of both the film and his original novel. Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep came with a fair amount of fanfare when it was released in 2019 being the sequel to one of the most seminal horror films (and books) of all time.
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