Doctor Sleep

        Based on the novel written by Stephen King, Doctor Sleep is about Dan, an alcoholic who ends up in a New Hampshire town for a fresh start. Ever since his childhood which includes a traumatic event with his father, he's had a special gift. Magic doesn't feel like the right word, but he can telepathically communicate with people and transport his conscience wherever. Instead of calling it magic, he calls it 'the shining'. Oh yeah, this movie is a sequel to The Shining. He meets a young girl whose "shine" is the most intense he's ever seen, but there's an inhuman cult called the True Knot on their way to kidnap her and feast on her shine (or 'steam' as they call it). While dealing with past issues rooted in childhood, he helps Abra, the little girl, in stopping the True Knot to make sure that people with varying amounts of 'shine' are not feasted on again.
        Let me put a disclaimer here first before I get into my thoughts. I, Derek Curtis, have never seen The Shining so this review is coming from someone who...hasn't...seen The Shining. I was going to watch it and then write this review, but I figured I should write while the sequel is still fresh in my brain.
        I sort of knew what to expect going into this film. While I don't really know the plot of the original, I have seen enough snippets to understand a lot of the homages and references. For example, the iconic green bathroom, the hole in the white door where Nicholson swung his axe and said one of the most iconic lines in film history, and of course the twins at the end of the hallway. I probably would've caught more of them if I knew the original film, but sadly I don't. These homages and references, however, walk a very fine line between paying respects and lazy writing. Mostly towards the climax of the film, these references are used for suspense and scares in similar ways to how the original film used them. Maybe they thought they were killing two birds with one stone, but it just seemed more lazy in some parts than others.
        Doctor Sleep is also longer than The Shining by about ten minutes. Does it justify this runtime? Unfortunately no. We spend a lot of time in the beginning just watching Dan put his life together while the True Knot does whatever it is evil powered cults do: recruit and hunt. You could argue for the necessity of the density in the first half, but I think a lot of it could've been shortened. Abra doesn't even become important enough for the plot to actually start until halfway through the film. Pacing, I think, is this film's biggest issue.
        Overly dense or not, Ewan McGregor as Dan is marvelous. The same goes for Rebecca Ferguson as Rose, but I enjoyed Dan's character arc more. He's not too complex, but, considering the character and its origins in the original film, it's a satisfying narrative. Watching him struggle with alcoholism was, in my opinion, one of the more successful horror aspects of this film. We see him struggle with temptation in crucial moments where taking one sip could jeopardize his mission. I writhed in my chair as I watched Dan hold a bottle of alcohol, but it makes his reluctance to give in all the more satisfying. In a way, his struggle with alcoholism almost parallels the True Knot. Temptation and the True Knot's constant hunt for Abra and Dan are, in a sense, allegorical to his inner struggle.
        On a more technical note, this is well crafted. The cinematography is beautiful which is one of the mediums where the film takes opportunities to pay homage. When you ignore the pacing issues, it's an easy story to get invested into. Granted, the film does expect you to have seen the original film. It's ideas about people with special abilities and the cult are jumped right into with no explanation, but its not entirely difficult to follow along. I was also a little surprised at how much time was spent with the True Knot. Not that I really needed to know what they're doing besides being the bad guys, but I love it when a film spends more time with the villains than usual.
        To summarize, Doctor Sleep is an interesting watch. I'll probably re-visit this once I've seen The Shining. I definitely think it serves as a nice companion piece to the original film, but the pacing and the almost unoriginal utilization of its references and homages are sort of making me dread the re-watch. I almost had the same reaction as I did with another King adaptation that came out his year: Pet Sematary. I was so bored with that entire movie right up until the last maybe 20 minutes or so. It finally picked up and became something more, but I hated the journey there. Doctor Sleep refrains from this by having an investing character. It's also beneficial that this was based on an actual sequel written by Stephen King and not some lazy cash-grab sequel you see these days. It's a very dense film and it will please some more than others. For me, I enjoyed it, but it took the first half to get there. I liked it enough to relive the journey soon so I would say this is one of the slightly better King adaptations we've had in the past couple of years. 7/10