Stephen King's Doctor Sleep

This was unexpectedly good. It was not Oscar-winning good, but it was a thoroughly entertaining horror-thriller. Kudos to writer/director Mike Flanagen for being faithful to Stephen King's tone and the source materials, and paying sincere homage to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, but yet still successfully adapting the story to be in continuity with both film and novels, and therefore suitable for the big screen. Most importantly, Flanagan eschewed the typical Hollywood jump scares and screeching strings for a tense, taut and highly atmospheric film that brought its chills through the music, the direction and the acting. This was a well-acted film. Ewan McGregor was convincing in his trauma and Rebecca Ferguson made for a delicious villain. At 152 minutes, the film occasionally felt long, and with Flanagan's history with The Haunting on Hill House, it was hard not to imagine that this film would have benefited as a 4-5 part mini-series. That would have allowed the story to breath a little better and the characters and mythology to be developed deeper.

Flanagan did a good job in balancing the continuity from both Kubrick's film and King's novels, taking the concept from the novel and streamlining it for mass consumption. King's books always had the tendency to meander and Flanagan managed to retain the concept and create a tense horror-thriller.

This film had its horror moments, but none were of the jump scare varieties. It was  just a pervasive sense of creep and dread throughout, with great direction and cinematography by Michael Fimognari. Lots of lingering shots, long shots, twistya and camera angles. The music by The Newton Brothers also helped, focusing on bass and beats to drum in the dread.

McGregor was an unexpected choice to lead this film, but he nailed it. He is an underrated actor who is almost always reliable despite the film he is in. And in this case, he got the paternalistic aspect down pat. His arc was a bit more rushed and would have benefited if this story was a mini-series, but nonetheless, he ably carried the film and Danny Torrance's trauma.

Ferguson was a delight, and it did seem like she was having fun in her role. She was deliciously evil and bordering on campy. Her styling, reminiscent of The Babadook meets Amy Sherman-Palladino, was distinctive and unnecessary which really made it sort of in-jokey. It was only a pity that her big climatic scene did not let her chew on the scenery more.

New actress, Kyliegh Curran, was good but unfortunately this was not much of a breakout role for her. Although the potential is there.

Adaptations of King's works have always had a spotty history and in general there were more misses than hits, in both television and film (and even his novels). However, Doctor Sleep fell firmly in the latter (as was the source novel), and was both a worthy sequel to Kubrick's The Shining and a good film in its own right.