SLEEPY SEQUEL SHINES

MOVIE
Doctor Sleep
Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson
Director Mike Flanagan
Review Ray Chan


HERE’S something you may not know: reviewers are often given production notes for the movies they’re casting judgement on.
    Of course, they’re handy for providing the names of the actors, directors, screenplay writers and characters in the story, but many times they also play an essential part in helping said reviewers understand what the hell is going on in particularly obfuscating films.
    So thank goodness for the explanatory information about Doctor Sleep, the sequel to the 1977 adaptation of The Shining, famously directed by Stanley Kubrick yet dissed by its author Stephen King.
    As the plot starts to unravel, I imagine it’s not easy for viewers to get a grip on events, as the protagonists and antagonists are established without a clear indication of how they are connected.
    In fact, if you watched the original more than 40 years ago, you probably don’t even recall the finer details of what transpired; so pity the confusing experience of first-time audiences.
    You really need to know The Shining to fully appreciate this follow-up, which focuses on Dan Torrance, a 30-something alcoholic who remains traumatised by the sinister events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel when he was a child.
    In particular, new viewers may not recognise the many references to the original story, whether it’s the appearance of recurring ghosts, fellow Shiners, or the infamous Redrum cue.
    Mind you, once the setup is complete and there’s a fair inkling of the movie’s premise, you’re taken on a long (the film lasts two and a half hours) journey into suspense and horror that’s ultimately more satisfying than the first 45 minutes appear to indicate.
    Briefly recapping, at the end of the first chapter, the caretaker of the hotel in the Colorado Rockies – Dan’s father Jack (memorably played by Jack Nicholson) – ended up frozen solid in the snow.
    His wife Wendy and young son Danny, both of whom he had tried to murder after losing his mind, survived. The title referred to the little boy, whose extra-sensory ability to ‘shine’ enabled him to read minds and connect with ghosts.
    So now we fast forward to 2011, when Dan gets a job at a hospice where he uses his psychic abilities to comfort dying patients, who give him the nickname "Doctor Sleep".
    Meanwhile, a psychopath known as Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her macabre mob of devoted followers have deduced that they can become immortal by murdering children gifted with the Shine, and feeding on the psychic steam exhaled at the moment of death.
    After killing several such youngsters, Rose and her thorns are especially interested in a teenage girl named Abra (Kyliegh Curran), who they have discovered possesses a more powerful dose of the ability than anyone.
    She makes telepathic contact with Dan, and together they try to overcome the psychic vampires, a struggle which leads them to the long-abandoned Overlook, where Dan hopes to harness the powers of its mystic inhabitants.
    The result is a more supernatural offering than Kubrick’s picture, which was arguably a psychological thriller focusing on Jack’s descent into homicidal madness as the main event.
    It has to be said that the movie also stands out for the accomplished performances of the three main actors.
    Newcomer Curran – precocious, pleasing and powerful – is terrific as the kid coping with her new-found talent and using it for good.
    Ferguson, meanwhile, exudes pure evil and is intensely watchable, seductive in one scene and frighteningly violent in the next.
    And McGregor, ever so stoic but with a hint of expression here and there, is convincing as a man struggling to deal with childhood grief.
    Right from conception, the film had faced the challenge of balancing both King’s novel and Kubrick’s adaptation.
    But director Mike Flanagan shows he understands the elements of both and it’s a testament to his skills that the sequel has already received kudos from King.
    Improving on the source material but remaining respectful to the themes the writer explored in his novel, Flanagan utilises echoes from Kubrick’s landmark classic (a deluge of blood, the twins, the woman in room 327, and even flashbacks to Jack’s manic rampage) to further the story at the centre of the horror, with Danny and Abra’s growing friendship the key element around which everything revolves.
    Interestingly, the conclusion of the adventure doesn't exactly match the novel's version. But it does set up the possibility of a third instalment, whether scripted by King or someone else.
    If this movie's standard is an indication of what we can expect, then let the legacy shine on.



#doctorsleep