Reel Review Roundup

Doctor Sleep (MA)

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran

Directed by: Mike Flanagan

Four and a half stars

Review by Julian Wright

Forty years after his terrifying experience at the Overlook Hotel, psychically gifted Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) is a vagrant alcoholic, getting into bar fights and having messy nights fairly frequently.

He has suppressed his abilities, having learnt at an early age how to lock up in his mind the malevolent spectres that continued to haunt him even after he and his mother Wendy (Alex Essoe) moved to Florida.

While finally turning over a new leaf, Danny is drawn into battle with a group of people, the True Knot lead by sexy, hippie styled Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), who prey and feed on the fear of people who share his gift (shining) – especially young kids.

When the group sets its psychic sights on particularly gifted Abra (Kyliegh Curran), who Danny has bonded with over their shared abilities, he must get back in touch with his shining and face his own demons while protecting his young friend.

Adapted from the belated Stephen King novel, directed and edited by Mike Flanagan (the 2010s answer to John Carpenter and Wes Craven with an impressive body of thrillers to his name) Doctor Sleep is a worthy follow up to classic The Shining.

Flanagan creates a follow-up that recreates the same atmosphere of dread as its predecessor and most importantly feels like it exists in the same universe, despite the time jump, new cast, characters and deeper exploration of the shining.

Much of what we see (much action takes place in the minds of the gifted characters) must have been tricky to translate to the screen and could have devolved into hilarious hokeyness, but Flanagan handles the expanded concepts with confidence and visual restraint and precision.

He offers nods to Stanley Kubrick’s style in his work, with echoes of music and camera movement from The Shining, but Flanagan has entirely different material to bring to life, so it never feels like a cheap rip-off.

While he has already proven his skills in frightening audiences’ multiple times already, the multi-talented director tackles his meatiest film yet, balancing a range of themes while still tightening the screws.

This is a lengthy film at 2.5 hours, but Flanagan’s ability to sustain a sense of dread, unease and danger throughout, and building to a satisfying climax, is impressive.

It also incredibly well acted – McGregor terrific as usual and Ferguson flexes new acting muscles, but Curran is particularly strong as the confident, world-weary young kid who has seen some horrific things.

There is plenty of meat on the bones of this creepy exploration of addiction, responsibility, mortality and redemption. Doctor Sleep is a horror film you can really take a shine to.

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