Doctor Sleep (film)

[MinionZombie]

Looks intriguing.

[shootemindehead]

Um...they really shouldn't. It could be good. But, more than likely, it won't be. I wonder if Shelly Duvall will turn up. She needs a gig.

[bassman]

I became an instant Mike Flanagan fan with his stellar Haunting of Hill House series, so I’m totally up for this. I’ve heard a pretty good bit about Sleep from some folks, and it’s sounded pretty good. As the first teaser, I’m getting the impression that this is leaning more heavily into the Shining nostalgia for obvious reasons, but it’s not that prevalent in the actual movie. Looking forward to it! And check out Hill House on Netflix, if you haven’t!

[ProfessorChaos]

i've not read the story, but this trailer looks like it's relying waaaay too much on the scary beats from the shining....even down to the music.

[Neil]

Looks like an obvious money grab from the notoriety of "The Shining"?! Hopefully wrong!

[MinionZombie]

I'd imagine they're playing on it more in the trailer than the actual film will in-context. From a marketing standpoint it makes sense.

[bassman]

Well....It is a sequel after all, so connections to Kubrick’s film are to be expected. And of course a lot of those references will be used in advertising to grab attention. What I find interesting is that they’ve come to a middle ground where it’s the story of the novel, only set within the world of Kubrick’s film. This was discussed and supposedly given enthusiastic approval by Stephen King, who has notoriously disliked the Kubrick adaptation. Flanagan has stated this is a very different film, he’s not trying to remake the original, just a different story set thirty years later. Has nobody else here seen his Hill House series on Netflix?? It’ll alleviate fears and raise your excitement for this. Hill House is the best ghost/horror “film” in years, so if he’s bringing that same talent to Doctor Sleep, I’m thrilled!

[Neil]

Well, I really enjoyed this film... TBH, I think it might have been even better if it had instead been a stand alone film without trying to tie it into "The Shining". Some nice character & story telling sort of like The Greenmile maybe? 8/10...

[MinionZombie]

So a week or so ago I finally got to see the film. I'd not seen it in the cinema, so I just went straight to the director's cut version (three hours long!) Overall I enjoyed it. At times it does seem to rely a bit too much on Kubrick's film (e.g. lots of the music returns), but it was interesting to see how they managed to find a middle ground between the 1980 film and King's books, particularly in regards to the climax. I will say, though, that Abra was way too powerful. You've got Rose The Hat (Rebecca Fergusson rocks!) who is genuinely creepy (and she turns out to be a good match for Dan), but every time Abra encounters her this little girl is just far too powerful and therefore there was bugger all sense of peril to those scenes. Dan, on the other hand? He had much more peril surrounding him. Let's talk a few spoilers...   I was blown away that it was Henry Thomas playing Jack Torrence. I didn't recognise him at all! It was only until I viewed the extras on the disc that I found out who the actor was. Sure, it's weird seeing someone else in the part - Nicholson simply dominated that role and will forever be iconic in that role - and I thought the actress who played Wendy did a really good job. That kind of breathy softness to the voice, how she carried herself etc - all pretty damn spot on. Likewise with the actor who took on Scatman Crother's part. It was odd at first, but then I sunk into it and he did a good approximation of his speech pattern. The young Danny was possibly the weakest of the set, but he didn't do a bad job by any means. The recreation of The Overlook hotel was quite spooky, and you do get a solid sense of the dread that the place embodies, although I did find myself getting distracted at times by the volume of references. Some were subtler (e.g. Abra's house number is 1980) while others were instantly cool-but-obvious (the office where Dan gets interviewed at one point, being a copy for the office seen early in the Kubrick film). There were a few moments where I felt a little tweak in the edit would have helped - e.g. you've got that grand scene of Abra standing outside the burning Overlook hotel, but we don't linger on it long enough to really let that sink in. Her voice over cuts in too quickly and then we're rushed away via a scene dissolve. There were a few moments like that where we changed scenes a bit too briskly with a few key moments getting sapped of their potential resonance. Oh, dude, the scene where they kill the baseball kid? Holy shit. That Tremblay kid is a hell of a wee actor - visceral!

[Neil]

Not watched the Director's Cut yet, but plan to soon. General opinions seem to be if you enjoyed the cinema version, you'll enjoy the DC version more...

[MinionZombie]

Not watched the Director's Cut yet, but plan to soon. General opinions seem to be if you enjoyed the cinema version, you'll enjoy the DC version more... There's a pretty comprehensive comparison between the versions on MovieCensorship.com here: https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=664373 There are a few individual scenes not present in the original version, but the bulk seems to be made up of scene extensions (some small, some large).

[bassman]

That’s surprising, actually. Looking through that list, it doesn’t seem like there are many changes, yet when you watch the director’s cut, it almost feels like a different film. It did for me, anyway. Strange how mostly minor changes can change the feel of an entire film...

[Neil]

That’s surprising, actually. Looking through that list, it doesn’t seem like there are many changes, yet when you watch the director’s cut, it almost feels like a different film. It did for me, anyway. Strange how mostly minor changes can change the feel of an entire film... Different good? Bad? Or just different?

[bassman]

Different good? Bad? Or just different? Different good! I’ve seen the two edits only one time each, so I would need to give it another spin, but I seemed to prefer Flanagan’s edit.