Our movie today is the long awaited sequel to Stephen King’s “The Shining.” I can’t believe it’s nearly forty years since “The Shining” premiered in 1980, and I can’t ever imagine forgetting “redrum”.
If you have never seen ‘The Shining” (is that possible?) you must see it prior to seeing today’s movie. Our movie begins in Florida, 1980, shortly after Danny Torrance and his mother, Wendy, escape from the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. Danny is still haunted by the ghosts of the Overlook and has not spoken a word since the “incident.” Using his shining skills, Dick Halloran (remember Dick was killed in the Shining), instructs him to construct imaginary boxes and lock away the ghosts. Once he does this, he regains his speech.
In the same year, we are introduced to a semi-immortal cult “The True Knot” who are stalking children who possess the shining. The cult is after “the steam” which is exhaled when a person with the shining expierences extreme pain and/or death. Young children have the purest form of “steam” and are sensed and stalked by the The Knot. Apparently pain further purifies the steam even more. As the child exhales “steam” the cult surrounds the dying child, inhaling it which is crucial to their longevity. Rose the Hat, is the leader of the True Knot.
Moving forward to 2011, Dan Torrance is a mess, an alcoholic and drug addict, still struggling with the gifts of his shining. Again he is visited by Dick, who basically gives him the, ‘I’m disappointed in you and get your crap together” speech. Dan gathers his meager belongings and gets on a bus, not really sure where he’s going. He gets off in a quintessential Norman Rockwell New Hampshire town, and is immediately befriended by Billy Freeman, who knows an addict when he sees one. Billy, in recovery himself, arranges housing for Dan and both attend AA meeting together. It’s thru the AA meetings, that Dan is offered a job at a local hospice as an orderly. When asked if working in a hospice is something he could handle, Dan replies no problem because “the world is one big hospice with fresh air”
It is at the hospice that Dan earns the title “Doctor Sleep.” He uses his shining abilities to comfort the dying patients, and help them into eternal sleep. It sounds creepy but it’s done well.
We jump forward to 2019, Dan is eight years sober and living a good life, which includes communicating with a young girl who also shines. The prior tenant in Dan’s apartment painted one of the walls with blackboard paint. He awakens to find “Good Morning” written on the wall, which he replies via chalk. “Isn’t it time to go to school.” Abra, the young girl finds comfort in communicating with Dan, knowing she is not the only person with “gifts.” Abra, explores her abilities, and sees the brutal murder of a young shining boy by the True Knot. However, while
opening her mind to the murder (this is called being a “looker”) she opens herself to the Knot. Rose, the strongest of the Knot is intrigued with the strength she senses in the “looker” and makes finding her a priority.
Abra is torn after seeing the boy’s murder, and wants to find the people responsible. She decides to ditch school, get on a bus and speak with Dan. Dan and Abra had never met in person, and he is a bit speechless when the young teenager shows up and is adamant to speak with him. She calls him Uncle Dan, so their speaking won’t seem inappropriate. He warns her that what she is doing, projecting into our people’s lives is risky and she should stop, it would only bring harm to herself. Later that night, Dan is again visited by Dick, who urges him to protect Abra, just as Dick protected Dan.
Abra tells Dan, Rose tracked her to her bedroom where they had a “psychic” fight of sorts, where Abra’s abilities trapped Rose momentarily. Sensing the strength Abra contains, only drives Rose to possess her “steam” even more. People who possess the shining are either food to the cult, or turned into new members. When asked if they should turn her, Rose, perhaps afraid of losing control of the group, is adamant that she is food.
If there was any doubt, hearing that Rose tracked Abra, Dan knows he needs to find the cult, which means find the dead boys body. Buried with the body, is the boy’s baseball glove, which Abra’s vision showed worn by one of the killers. Using the glove as a conduit, Abra would be able to visualize the group and find their location.
Dan knows he can’t do this alone, so he enlists his friend Billy. Dan tells Billy everything, the shining, Abra, The True Knot, the murdering of children and steam. Billy, what a good soul, goes along with it and the road trip begins. I really liked Billy, but you know what happens to friends in this type of movie. SAD! Doctor Sleep, is one of the few sequels that does justice to the original. It comes full circle, which means returning to the Overlook Hotel and his father, Jack Torrance. The murdered twins, the bartender, and the infamous fire axe are all present, but not at all in a cheesy gratuitous way.
Bringing the storyline from the current to it’s 1980 beginnings is done tastefully and with respect to the original director Stanley Kubrick. It’s at first disturbing to see, just how damaged adult Dan Torrance is at the beginning of the movie. Without the support of his mother (yes we find out what happened to her) Dan is drinking, snorting and fighting to keep the shining silent. The shining has been an evil burden, and he’s out of control. So, to see him clean and sober and then mentor Abra, and show her the shining can be controlled and used for good is a nice thing. It’s also good to see Abra finally having the confidence to confide in her mother the truth about her gifts and to feel her
mother’s support.
Yes, Doctor Sleep is categorized as a horror movie, and I guess that comes from the visual gory death of a child, and the deaths of the semi-immortal members of the True Knot. But it’s really a thriller that makes you think about what we do with our lives and if we made a difference. Ewan McGregor does a great job as Dan, but Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat and Kyliegh Curran as Abra just own this movie. The fierceness of young Abra is just inspiring to watch.
The movie is a bit long at 152 minutes, and I thought why did they spend time developing a minor character, Snake Bite Andi, from the Knot. But then I realized, by highlighting Andi, they were showing both sides of possessing the shining. Andi wasn’t food (“steam”) but she was one of them, the evil manipulation of shining.
Sleep Doctor is rated A minus, absolutely worth a full ticket price. It’s also like the original, “The Shining”, you just can’t see it just once. It’s worth repeated viewing. It would be interesting to see a sequel dedicated to Abra, another generation of “shining.”
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