Doctor Sleep

Doctor Sleep had an almost impossible job. It had to follow The Shining, work as a Stephen King adaptation and somehow deal with the fact that Stanley Kubrick's film and King's original novel do not exactly agree with each other. Mike Flanagan somehow finds a way through all of that without making the whole film feel like two and a half hours of references.

Ewan McGregor works really well as the adult Danny because he looks like somebody who has actually been carrying this trauma around for decades. The early version of Danny is rough. He drinks, makes awful decisions and is clearly trying to erase the shine along with everything else in his head. His recovery gives the film a proper journey rather than simply bringing back the kid from The Shining because people recognise the name.

The addiction side is probably one of the strongest things in the film. Danny is fighting the same thing that swallowed his father, but he eventually chooses to move away from it. Rose goes the other way. She is completely ruled by her need for steam and lets that addiction narrow her world until Abra is the only thing she can think about.

Rebecca Ferguson is unreal as Rose the Hat. She is charming enough that you understand how people could follow her, but there is something wrong behind the smile from the first scene. Once she starts losing control she becomes even more frightening. The costume, the hat and the way Ferguson carries herself turn what could have been a very silly supernatural vampire into one of the best parts of the film.

The baseball boy scene is still horrible. Not 'fun horror movie' horrible either. It is genuinely upsetting because the scene makes you wait through the fear, bargaining and pain instead of cutting away as soon as you understand what is happening. It tells you exactly what the True Knot are without needing a speech about how evil they are.

That is also why I wish we got more of the True Knot. The idea that each member has their own ability and their own place in this strange family is really interesting, but most of them never get enough time to become more than faces around Rose. This is one part where the length almost works against the film because it is already long and still feels like there is another story sitting just outside the frame.

Kyliegh Curran's Abra is a good counter to Danny because she is not frightened of her gift in the same way he was. There are moments where the performance is a little flat, but the character itself works and her mind battle with Rose gives us some of the film's best supernatural imagery.

Going back to the Overlook could have felt like shameless nostalgia. Instead it feels earned. Flanagan recreates Kubrick's hotel with an absurd amount of care, but he also uses it to give Danny an ending connected to both versions of The Shining. The bar scene, the locked away ghosts and that final fight all feel like Danny finally walking straight into the thing he has spent his whole life avoiding.

I still do not love that Danny has to die. He spends his life dealing with trauma, gets sober, helps people and finally faces his father and the Overlook, only to lose his life there. It works for the film, but emotionally I wanted him to get more than that.