Film Review: Doctor Sleep (2019)

The prospect of a sequel to a grand cinematic classic is, with very few exceptions, met with profound scepticism by hardcore cinephiles and the general audience alike. This instinctive aversion is born from bitter experience; the history of cinema is littered with unsuccessful, often cynical exploitations of revered originals by studios eager to milk a beloved property. The announcement of a follow-up to Stanley Kubrick’s legendary horror masterpiece The Shining (1980) was therefore viewed with particular dread. Yet, against the odds, Doctor Sleep—the 2019 film written and directed by Mike Flanagan—manages to be a surprising and largely successful piece of work. While it predictably fails to surpass its immortal predecessor, and while a fundamental lack of originality remains its most significant flaw, it is a thoughtful, atmospheric, and often gripping horror drama that deserves far more credit than it initially received.

The film’s very legitimacy stems primarily from its direct connection to Stephen King’s original literary universe. King, arguably America’s most successful living literary author, was famously and vocally displeased with Kubrick’s adaptation, which took substantial liberties with his 1977 novel. Apart from a more faithful 1997 television miniseries, King’s own canonical continuation arrived in 2013 with the novel Doctor Sleep, a direct sequel to his 1977 book. Flanagan’s film is an adaptation of this sequel, granting it an authorial blessing that Kubrick’s film never had. This connection to King’s text provided Flanagan with a unique, if daunting, mandate: to bridge the chasm between King’s populist, character-driven supernatural horror and Kubrick’s cold, enigmatic, and visually iconic auteurist vision.

Doctor Sleep is structurally divided into four chapters. It opens in the 1980s, with a young Danny Torrance (Roger Dale Floyd) and his mother Wendy (Alex Essoe) attempting to rebuild their lives in Florida after the traumatic events at the Overlook Hotel. Danny remains haunted by the hotel’s predatory ghosts, who covet his potent psychic “shine.” He is guided by the benevolent spirit of the late chef Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly), who teaches him to mentally trap these apparitions in “boxes,” a coping mechanism that forms the psychological core of the adult Danny’s character. The narrative then jumps three decades to 2011, introducing a broken, alcoholic Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor). Drifting into a small New Hampshire town, he is befriended by Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis), who secures him a job at a hospice and guides him towards Alcoholics Anonymous. Over eight years, Dan finds sobriety and purpose, using his shine to comfort the dying, earning the nickname “Doctor Sleep.”

His peaceful existence converges with two other powerful psychics: Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), a prodigiously gifted teenage telepath from the same town, and Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), the charismatic leader of The True Knot. This nomadic, cult-like coven are psychic vampires who feed on “steam”—the torturously extracted essence emitted by those with the shine as they die. After The Knot murder a young boy, Bradley Trevor (Jacob Tremblay), Abra psychically witnesses the atrocity, inadvertently drawing Rose’s predatory attention. Recognising Abra’s immense power, Rose targets her for consumption, forcing Abra to seek out Dan as a mentor and protector. Their ensuing conflict culminates in a final, inevitable showdown at the now-derelict Overlook Hotel, where Dan must literally and figuratively confront the ghosts of his past.

Flanagan, a horror specialist renowned for his work on series like The Haunting of Hill House, was hired to rewrite an initial adaptation by Akiva Goldsman. He approached the project with the explicit and near-impossible goal of reconciling King’s literary vision with Kubrick’s cinematic one. That he succeeds even partially is a testament to his skill as a craftsman and his clear reverence for both source materials. Doctor Sleep is most notable for using Kubrick’s film as its primary stylistic and iconographic template. Composer The Newton Brothers weave recognisable motifs from Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind’s original score into their soundtrack, while Flanagan and his production team meticulously reconstruct the Overlook Hotel sets for the film’s finale. This is not a lazy pastiche but a painstaking recreation, evoking Kubrick’s perfectionist touch with every shot is meticulously composed and perfectly framed.

Wisely, Flanagan avoids the modern temptation of using stock footage or digital trickery to de-age or insert actors. Instead, his casting is a deliberate exercise in evocative resemblance. Roger Dale Floyd, Alex Essoe, Carl Lumbly, and Henry Thomas (who plays a spectral version of Jack Torrance) are cast for their physical and tonal likeness to Danny Lloyd, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers, and Jack Nicholson. This approach creates a powerful, uncanny sense of continuity, grounding the film’s more fantastical elements in a tangible cinematic history. It stands in stark contrast to, for example, the CGI-driven homage to The Shining in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, which was a brief, playful digital recreation. Flanagan’s method is one of physical, almost archaeological, restoration.

Yet, for all its Kubrickian homage, Doctor Sleep is also determined to be a Stephen King story. Flanagan diligently incorporates King’s favoured milieu of blue-collar Americana, painting a dread-filled atmosphere across a vast, country-sized canvas. He retains the cold, precise directorial style but populates it with a strikingly original set of antagonists. The True Knot are a fascinating creation—a hippie-like coven of immortal vagrants, presented as a kind of demented Manson Family. They are not merely monsters; they are a potent allegory. In an era of generational strife, they can easily be interpreted as a commentary on youth-obsessed Baby Boomers, eternally stuck in the past and selfishly sucking the life force—the future—from younger generations to sustain their own prolonged existence. This sociological subtext gives the film a resonance that pure supernatural horror often lacks.

Flanagan’s direction is assured, particularly in sequences depicting psychic phenomena. Rose’s nocturnal, astral-projection hunt for Abra is a standout—a chilling game of cat-and-mouse conducted across vast distances in a shimmering, non-corporeal realm. The film also does not shy away from the explicit content inherent in its premise. The violence is brutal and unflinching, most notoriously in the murder of Bradley Trevor, and there is a matter-of-factness to occasional nudity that feels more European than typical Hollywood horror. This commitment to the grim reality of its world is commendable.

Where the film stumbles, however, is in its human core. Rebecca Ferguson is an absolute revelation as Rose the Hat, delivering a complex, charismatic, and near-iconic performance. She is a villain who is deeply disturbing precisely because she is so relatable—joyful, sensual, and fiercely protective of her “family,” even as she commits unspeakable atrocities. She effortlessly outshines everyone else on screen. By comparison, Ewan McGregor’s Dan Torrance is competent but bland, a passive reactor rather than a dynamic protagonist. Kyliegh Curran’s Abra is similarly adequate but lacks the depth to make her preternatural wisdom truly compelling. The more intriguing work comes from the supporting cast within The Knot. Carel Struycken (The Giant from Twin Peaks) brings a haunting, silent gravitas as the ancient Grandpa Flick. Zahn McClarnon is magnetic as Crow Daddy, Rose’s fiercely loyal second-in-command, and Emily Alyn Lind is wonderfully creepy as Snakebite Andi, a teenage psychopath seduced by the promise of eternal youth.

The film’s pacing has been a point of contention for many critics. With a theatrical cut already substantial at 152 minutes, and the Director’s Cut stretching to a daunting three hours, Doctor Sleep often feels less like a feature film and more like a compressed miniseries. Yet, as history has shown—from the 1990 It miniseries to Flanagan’s own Netflix successes—this longer format is often better suited to adapting King’s textured character work. The extended runtime allows for quieter moments of recovery and connection, though it also exposes narrative loose ends. Subplots, such as Dan’s, ultimately tragic, one night stand with a drug-addicted woman, feel underdeveloped and abruptly discarded. Flanagan proves he can handle visceral action in a short, brutal gunfight scene, but the film’s heart lies in its slow-burn psychological dread, which not all viewers will have the patience for.

Ultimately, Doctor Sleep was an ambitious film that became a commercial flop. This can be attributed to a perfect storm of ill-timed release in November 2019 (just months before the pandemic shuttered cinemas), its excessive length deterring casual viewers, and a fundamental hostility from a segment of Kubrick purists for whom any tampering with the master’s work is sacrilege. The film was, in many ways, marketed to the very audience most predisposed to reject it.

Doctor Sleep is a very good film that labours under an impossible burden. It is a thoughtful, well-crafted, and often profoundly chilling sequel that performs a remarkable high-wire act, paying dutiful homage to Kubrick’s icy aesthetic while channelling King’s warm, humanistic horror. Its ensemble cast, led by the magnificent Rebecca Ferguson, brings King’s grotesque creations to vivid life, and Flanagan’s direction is confident and atmospheric. Yet, for all its qualities, it cannot escape its ultimately derivative nature. It is a commentary on, and an extension of, a classic, but it never transcends its source to become a classic in its own right.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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