Doctor Sleep Director's Cut

2020 Warner Bros. Pictures
Written and Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, and Cliff Curtis
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 180 Minutes

The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

Danny Torrance has The Shining, a power which gives him clairvoyance and telepathy. When Danny was a child, his father took on a job as the winter caretaker for a remote Colorado mountain hotel called The Overlook. Danny and his mother and father find they're not actually alone at The Overlook, which appears to be home to some force of malevolent evil. This force corrupts Danny's father, causing him to give in to his alcoholism and anger. It covets and wants to consume Danny for his power. In the end, Danny and his mother escape, but his father isn't so lucky. Unfortunately, this experience haunts the rest of Danny's childhood, as The Overlook's demons follow him, still wishing to take him. Danny learns to capture these demons with the power of his mind, but he can't overcome the constant stress his own powers cause him. 

As Danny grows older, he numbs the pain with alcohol, becoming an addict, just like his father, until he hits rock bottom. Determined not to become his father, Danny spends his few remaining dollars on a bus ride to a remote Maine town. There, he finds an advocate and employer in Billy Freeman, kicks the booze, and eventually takes on a job as a hospice orderly, where his powers allow him to peacefully guide his dying patients to the afterlife. All seems to be right in the world, except for one thing--unbeknownst to Danny, an evil, ancient group, known as the "True Knot" has been traveling the world, murdering and consuming The Shining from children who are gifted just like Danny, so that the True Knot can live for seemingly forever. This group, led by an ageless woman called Rose the Hat, comes to Danny's attention from their nearest target, Abra Stone. Young Abra has powers that dwarf Danny's own. Abra, feeling alone and terrified, lets out a psychic call to anyone who can hear...and it turns out Danny, several towns over, is the only one with the right kind of ears.

Doctor Sleep writer and director, Mike Flanagan had an unenviable job. He not only had to adapt Stephen King's just okay novel Doctor Sleep, but delicately navigate the major differences between the novel and cinematic Doctor Sleep predecessor, The Shining. While Flanagan wanted to honor King, who loathes the Stanley Kubrick cinematic adaptation that so heavily changed his original novel, he also wanted to recognize the events of Kubrick's The Shining, which have been heavily embedded into public consciousness. While I can't speak to the original cut of Doctor Sleep, I'm happy to say, Flanagan's Doctor Sleep Director's Cut successfully unites both versions of The Shining's realm.

Flanagan, most known for the atmospheric horror series, The Haunting of Hill House, as well as a successful Netflix adaptation of King's Gerald's Game, brings superior visual sensibilities to the table. Doctor Sleep's early scenes, which lean more heavily into outright horror, are macabrely beautiful. As the movie's world opens up, and Doctor Sleep becomes more of a supernatural drama, Flanagan's visuals evoke a comforting nostalgia. For the climax, Flanagan is somehow able to both recapture the feel of Kubrick's work and maintain his own style. However, Flanagan's biggest miracle is the way he unites the differences in Kubrick's and King's interpretations.

Flanagan's script also does some great improvement upon King's work in Doctor Sleep. Flanagan not only finds ways to give Danny closure with his father, something the novel only touches lightly, but creates a more satisfying overall climax. However, some of the book's major flaws are still here. Just like in the book, Abra is shown to be more powerful than the whole of The True Knot very early on. With Danny on her side, as well, there's little doubt that Abra will prevail, despite the fact that Flanagan does a better job of selling Rose's menace. There's also still a bit of a disjointed feel, with The Knot not really interacting with our protagonists until late in the work. While Flanagan's attempts are admirable, this still sometimes feels like two different narratives. He also does nothing to fulfill a major setup King left incomplete:

The audience is introduced to a character who becomes The True Knot's newest convert. It seems like this character is being fleshed out to be Abra's parallel, while Danny seems as if he will parallel Rose. However, after a lengthy introduction to this character, she comes to nothing, just like in the book--a disappointing waste. She does serve to introduce more of The Knot's customs, acting as a brief audience surrogate, but she could and should have been so much more.

Overall, though, Flanagan's Doctor Sleep Director's Cut is an admirable adaptation, more fully exploring themes of addiction than its source material, and featuring a standout performance from Ewan McGregor as the adult Danny. McGregor wouldn't seem the first choice for this role, but he puts in multifaceted work, and actually makes Danny more relatable than his novel analogue. Kiwi, Cliff Curtis, also does great work as the empathetic Freeman, who wants to help Danny, but is also harboring his own pain. I generally expect Rebecca Ferguson to be great, and she's a solid Rose, though her accent fluctuates a bit (perhaps intentionally). Meanwhile, young Kyliegh Curran is a little stiff as Abra, though she gets better as the film goes on, and Abra takes a more active role. 

A three hour film can generally travel in two directions: to a land of boredom or to a place you want to stay forever. I could most definitely live in Doctor Sleep Director's Cut. Flanagan has created a wondrous, sometimes frightening, yet comfortingly familiar world, and not once did I check my watch. In fact, I was sad that the film had to end. I didn't want to leave.