Movie Review: "Doctor Sleep" (2019)

It’s a first, but I honestly don’t know where to begin. I never find myself at a loss for words after watching a film, but director Mike Flanagan continues to impress me with his acumen in the genre in general and with Stephen King in particular. I suppose it was bound to happen eventually- the man whose work has been an institution for so long (since 1974) that he’s a part of the very English language and cultural lexicon finds the person who fully understands him and interprets him near-perfectly.

There’s the rub, though- Flanagan had to balance the wishes of both The Master of the Macabre and the estate of (arguably) cinema’s most visionary, legendary, and signature director at the same time. When I first heard about the book being made into a film, I honestly thought it would be a total fucking disaster. I can’t lie. I do love the book- it’s a sublime follow-up to the novel that is EASILY King’s best book. The Shining is perhaps his most “literary” and personal book, a tale of alcoholism and inheritance that penetrates the very soul. Sure, it’s a great haunted hotel story, but that’s far from what makes it great.

Still, King adaptations are notoriously tricky. For every Pet Sematary there’s a Tommyknockers. For every Creepshow there’s a Cell. You get the idea. The point is that when you combine King’s notorious hatred of the Stanley Kubrick film (“…like a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside of it.”) with the mere fact that it’s a sequel to a story from 1977 written in 2013, you’re looking at the film equivalent of climbing Mount Everest in your underwear while eating a popsicle on LSD.

Goddamn, that’s one good popsicle.

Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor; Trainspotting; Star Wars Ep. 1-3) is all grown up. He’s now a fully adult alcoholic, standing in the shadow of his father’s legacy and running from the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel. After a nasty incident that clearly marks rock bottom, he finds himself living in New Hampshire and attending A.A. meetings. He’s also started a “pen pal” relationship with a young girl whose Shine is a thousand times more powerful than his own named Abra Stone (powerhouse newcomer Kyliegh Curran) via blackboard. Abra’s prodigious power draws the attention of Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson; Mission: Impossible series). Rose is the leader of the True Knot, a clan of psychic vampires that feed off of the energy of those who “shine”. The True Knot are slowly dying due to the dilution of what they call “steam” (essentially the essence of psychic power) and the lack of special people in the modern technological age. Abra represents their last hope for a big meal, but they don’t know about the boy who grew up in the unholy evil of the Overlook Hotel, and they don’t know how powerful the place really is.

I’ll start with the casting, and it really couldn’t be more perfect. Ewan McGregor is the essence of the haunted alcoholic. His mannerisms are so close to the Jack Torrance from the book (not the movie) that it’s eerie. We all know what he can do as an actor, but Doctor Sleep should go down as one of his absolute best roles. He utterly destroys it in a role that requires nuance and range; it’s one of the deepest characters King has ever written (next to Roland Deschain & Randall Flagg). Newcomer Kyliegh Curran drips with raw talent. And Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat? I know it’s been said already, but her role and performance will go down in history as a true milestone. She’s equal parts haunting, scary as fuck, seductive, and hypnotic. I can’t recall the last time I was that enthralled by a villain, honestly. She’s nothing short of breathtaking.

The coolest trick of Doctor Sleep is how you go into it knowing you’re going to be wowed by the scenes at the Overlook Hotel (and you certainly are), but you come out of it blown away by how great the non-Overlook stuff is. The story of Dan Torrance’s transformation from alcoholic revenant to reliably decent human being is inspiring and shows Flanagan’s flair for the King story. He understands that what makes Stephen King and his entire universe an integral part of the American experience is the ability to tell a story with characters you genuinely care about and relate to (even in the face of insanely weird shit). Watching Dan Torrance walk the elderly into the afterlife with the help of Azzie the Cat is moving stuff. Furthermore, his relationship with both Abra and his A.A. sponsor, Billy (Cliff Curtis; Fear the Walking Dead ) feels 100% natural without any need for a suspension of disbelief.

Then there’s the True Knot. Oh, dear sweet Baby Jesus…what a job that’s done here. Besides Rebecca Ferguson and her animalistic power, you get the sheer joy of a PERFECTLY cast Snakebit Andi (Emily Alyn Lind; Revenge), Crow Daddy (Zahn McClarnon; Into the West), and Grampa Flick (Twin Peaks legend Carel Struycken). It’s a “who’s who?” of insanely nasty villains with just enough humanity to keep the characters semi-grounded. Their feeding scenes and the ballsiness of child brutality will go down as (at the very least) noteworthy in film history. It’s heady stuff; be warned.

In the face of the sheer magnitude of the importance and the literary and cinematic source material, it’s impressive to say that the new stuff is that good. Then you get into the blending of the two, and I’m officially lost for words. To see the doors of Kubrick’s Overlook Hotel reopened is a sight to behold. The recreation is picture perfect. Honestly, it’s enough to satisfy you from a purely cinematic standpoint. Stephen King himself admits that while Kubrick’s version of his novel is light years away from the book, it’s a damn effective horror film. Many would argue that it’s THE horror film for multiple generations.

Everything about the original film is there- Mrs. Massey in the bathtub of Room 237, Horace Derwent, Grady the Caretaker, Lloyd the Bartender, The Twins, even Jack Torrance himself! It feels like coming home to the darkest part of your mind. It’s simply goddamn beautiful. When you consider that they physically recreated virtually every scene, every location, every emotion in a day and age where you can just computer animate that shit? My God. It’s the definition of fan service without servitude and bloody brilliant! When you cap it all of with an ending that marries the King novel and the Kubrick movie in a way that is so simple that you wonder why it hadn’t been done before, you get a near perfect movie that is not only easily the best horror film of the year but the best film of the year PERIOD.

Yeah, I just said that. Prove me wrong.

Grade:

5.0 out of 5.0 stars