I believe The Shining should be viewed with its sequel, Doctor Sleep.
What can’t be said about The Shining? Ironically, the book and the movie have kept generations sleepless.
In 2013, King added a sequel to The Shining: Doctor Sleep. In 2019, horror auteur, Mike Flanagan, wrote and directed a film adaptation of Doctor Sleep.
The movie was received poorly at the box office and was considered a ‘failure.’ It has found life in the secondary market.
I’ve seen Doctor Sleep twice. I liked it initially, but I wanted the movie to be different. I expected Doctor Sleep to be The Shining.
I hate that was what I expected.
I hate sequels that repeatedly return to the well by copying the original. I’ll watch Back to the Future again, thanks.
Mike Flanagan’s profile has risen since Doctor Sleep. He has written and directed a series of successful shows for Netflix: The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club. I’ve watched them all.
They’re filled with horror but have heart. Mike’s character work is superb, and he excels in long-form storytelling.
I listened to this podcast recently, where Flanagan discusses Doctor Sleep in depth. It made me curious to view the Director’s cut - after rewatching Kubrick’s Shining. Flanagan goes in depth about The Shining and Doctor Sleep.
I’ll explain some things about The Shining for those who don't know. It is best known as a novel by Stephen King and adapted by Stanley Kubrick. Stephen King is a prolific horror author and worldwide best-seller. Stanley Kubrick is known as one of the finest filmmakers of his generation. Stephen famously hated Stanley’s adaptation of his novel.
Why?
Jack Torrance.
In King’s novel, Jack battles with alcoholism. The Overlook Hotel, where he has taken a job over the winter, is evil and wants him to murder his family.
In King’s novel, Jack fights against the Overlook. His battle is a metaphor for King’s battle with alcohol and drugs. Jack dies battling the Overlook, leading his wife and child out of the hotel, and sacrificing himself for them.
In Kubrick’s film, Jack succumbs to the Overlook. He becomes a murder machine with no redemption and dies of cold exposure after becoming lost in a hedge maze. King hated the ending and disavowed the film.
Kubrick’s The Shining is considered one of the best horror films ever.
So, we come to Flanagan, hired to adapt Doctor Sleep. Which version of The Shining do you write the sequel to? King had the approval of Doctor Sleep’s script.
So, you appease him, right?
In the interview, Flanagan states that Kubrick’s The Shining has a visual language that most people associate with the property.
That’s a problem for Flanagan.
Flanagan has a relationship with King. He has adapted another King book, Gerald’s Game, for Netflix.
It's a great movie about a woman handcuffed to a bed with her husband's corpse after he has a heart attack during sex. It’s dark. A great low-budget film.
Let’s take a second to talk about Kubrick’s film.
The film is a visual feast. Visually, Kubrick’s sets are associated with a primary or secondary colour. You have green rooms, blue rooms, red rooms and gold rooms. Your eyes never rest.
Kubrick uses ‘oners,’ or long, unbroken shots that follow characters throughout the hotel. The hotel feels like a maze, twisting and turning as we follow them.
Kubrick famously bullied Shelley Duvall with hundreds of takes, and had the crew ostracise her. Her performance as Wendy Callahan is fantastic but fueled by trauma and fear. Coupled with the outstanding performances by her co-leads, Danny Lloyd and Jack Nicholson, The Shining has an unmatched feel.
It feels disturbing, even unhinged, at its best moments.
The book is one of the only books that has frightened me. King writes a downward spiral into madness so convincingly.
Kubrick managed to capture that quality in film.
King wrote Doctor Sleep as his profile rocketed due to the popularity of the IT movies, another of his novels.
The studio greenlit Doctor Sleep quickly. As a sequel to one of the greatest horror movies ever, it should be a slam dunk, right?
Doctor Sleep is a novel that numbers 133k words.
That’s twice as long as any novel I’ve written. It’s a lot of material to adapt.
The Shining has a word count of 165k words.
Plus, a movie that doesn’t follow the ending of the original book. He has to adapt a novel while being informed by two sources—a significant feat.
Does he succeed? I think he does.
Back to the expectations of the audience.
I was expecting Doctor Sleep to be The Shining. I imagine many people felt the same way when it arrived.
In the podcast, Flanagan states that his Doctor Sleep made King able to reconcile with Kubrick’s Shining.
That’s a strong statement. It made me want to rewatch Doctor Sleep.
This weekend, my wife (The Shining is one of her favourite movies) and I sat down and watched five and a half hours of movies.
I’ve seen The Shining 4x, but this was my first time watching the 144-minute version. It’s a bleak movie. If you read my blog last week, you know that’s right up my alley.
Buy a copy of The Shining
Kubrick’s movie is murder, mayhem, and a feast for the eyes. I’m such a visual person. I love colour, set dressing, and costuming. This movie is full of that.
Spoiler: Jack Torrance dies at the end. He succumbs to his alcoholic, violent nature. It’s bleak.
Then, the three-hour director’s cut of Doctor Sleep.
Buy a copy of Doctor Sleep
Doctor Sleep starts with the theme of The Shining and an overhead shot, bringing to mind the opening of Kubrick’s movie.
It quickly veers into new territory.
A sinister group eats the soul (steam) of a little girl.
Cut to: The Overlook Hotel. The patterned carpet from The Shining. Danny Torrence outside of Room 237. The old lady. Familiar territory. Except, Danny is a new actor.
Cut to: Post Overlook Hotel. A ghost from the Overlook has followed Little Danny Torrence to Florida with his mother and sits in their bathtub.
The ghost of Dick Halloran, who introduced Danny to The Shining (his powers), tells him how to capture her in a box - effectively compartmentalizing them.
It is a powerful metaphor for taking trauma and locking it away.
Cut to: Danny as an adult (Ewan McGregor). He is an alcoholic. He leaves the prone woman he spent the night with alone with a baby - after taking the remains of her wallet. We later learn that she and her baby died from Danny’s neglect. He’s in a dark spot in his life. Danny has followed in his father’s footsteps, paying the price with a heavy conscience.
It says a lot about the burden of intergenerational trauma.
Here the movie pivots again, and it pivots hard.
We’re introduced to Abra Stone, a magical girl with enormous Shine. She frightens her parents, but they adore her.
She is the heir apparent to Danny, a new generation of Shining.
Back to the sinister group from the onset, The True Knot, as they recruit a new member. They move around the country, killing children with any semblance of The Shining, which they call ‘steam.’ They have traded their humanity for a long life.
There are multiple balls to keep in the air, and Flanagan does an excellent job juggling them.
But, in contrast to Kubrick’s Shining, his style feels generic. It feels ‘grounded’ and less surreal than Kubrick’s movie: even with his incorporating supernatural elements. They come across as superheroic. Mind powers are on display. They fly through the psychic spaces and speak to one another over distances.
There is a lot to absorb. Whereas The Shining feels intimate, constrained to the Overlook Hotel, Doctor Sleep feels cosmic in scope.
Cut to: Danny sobers up, attends AA, and gets a job.
He befriends Abra.
And importantly: we learn that Danny’s mother, Wendy, was afraid to look him in the eyes - fearful of the man he might become - his father.
Eight years pass.
Danny becomes Doctor Sleep, a man who works at a hospice and, with the help of a supernatural cat, becomes someone who helps people die. He uses his Shine in a way that benefits humanity.
The movie transitions into a supernatural thriller/action movie.
Cut to: Abra makes contact with The True Knot. They want to eat her. She wants to stop them and recruits Danny to help. There are mind battles - deaths and discoveries. Major players die. Abra is traumatized by the death of her father.
The leader of the baddies, Rose the Hat, hunts Abra.
This portion of the movie is all Flanagan - and he handles King’s ideas well. There are various narratives: Abra’s, Danny’s and Rose’s.
Abra and Danny’s relationship shadows Danny’s relationship with Dick. He becomes her mentor.
Rose is a dark mirror for Danny - what he might have become if he succumbs to his baser needs - a creature that exists to consume others, essentially, a mirror image of his father.
At the two-hour mark, we return to Kubrick territory - for the climax.
Rose has become incredibly powerful. To fight her, Abra and Danny lure her to the Overlook Hotel. Danny plans to awaken the hotel with the ghosts he’s kept in his head for decades.
I love using your trauma as the power to fight for a new generation’s survival. It is an idea filled with hope - the darkest moments are combated with hope and survival.
If you don’t buy into this idea - I can see the movie losing people here.
But, there is a perverse joy of finding ourselves at the Overlook.
After two hours, we return to the hotel where Danny’s father failed.
It feels right.
Danny tours the hotel, ‘awakening’ it.
He ends up at the hotel’s gold room, where his father’s trapped soul offers him a drink at the bar.
This scene is magnificent. Having Danny refuse his father’s legacy is powerful, heady stuff. This is what this movie was built to deliver - the refutation of a father’s legacy - the breaking of the chain of trauma.
It is beautiful - and so worth the journey.
But, first, he has to confront the Overlook and succumb to his basest desires.
He ends up facing Rose, and overwhelming her with the ghosts in his head, but in doing so, is possessed by the hotel.
He winds up with an axe, chasing Abra around the hotel. He succumbs to his father’s legacy to rescue her.
Good thing he set the boilers to explode.
This is a direct nod to King’s ending for The Shining novel. He had Jack sacrifice himself to save his family. Here, Flanagan has Danny sacrifice himself to save Abra.
In his final moment - Danny’s mother arrives and looks him in the eyes.
Finally, his mother sees Danny as he is, instead of as his father.
It is a very Flanagan moment - and it hit me like a Mack truck. It is a beautiful moment of cinema.
Danny becomes a spirit that helps Abra live with her trauma. The circle has been completed.
It is a fitting ending and is filled with hope while managing to be dark and twisted.
Flanagan manages the heavy load by providing a fitting conclusion to King and Kubrick’s stories.
Watch these movies together. One after the other. They complement each other and leave you with hope.
I agree with Stephen King on this, Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep adds to the narrative of The Shining
.
Hope you’re well,
Martin J.