Doctor Sleep is a Love Letter to Stephen King, The Shining, and Horror

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Stephen King movie adaptations and I have had a tumultuous relationship at best. I like many of them - Misery gave Kathy Bates the opportunity to demonstrate her incredible acting skills (but muddled the creeping terror of the book by introducing a friendly bumbling cop for us to keep up with), Thinner was terrible, the 2019 Pet Sematary remake was painful to sit through, It Chapter Two tricked the audience into watching the same sequence of events over and over again, nobody watched (or liked) The Dark Tower, and Netflix's In the Tall Grass tried its best. Of course there are the classics like Stand By Me, The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, and 1408 (I'm kidding, I just have a soft spot for that one in particular).

Then there's The Shining.

I want to acknowledge something briefly, before I delve into praising this work of art. Stanley Kubrick abused Shelley Duvall horrifically to force her into a deteriorating mental state. She was not willingly experimenting with method acting. Duvall was forced into isolation for long periods of time while Jack Nicholson was in another room signing autographs and meeting fans. The fact that Kubrick arranged these circumstances to get his actors in character is a little confusing, considering I don't think the character Jack Torrance ever signed autographs for a line of adoring fans.

That being said, The Shining is different. It's slow and creeping psychological horror, and you have to watch it a few times and pay close attention for it to really make sense. Typewriters change brands and colors, chairs shift in the background, the pattern on the carpet shifts between frames, and the three members of the Torrance family descend into madness as the Overlook Hotel attempts to claim them as its own. Stephen King hated The Shining for the sexist way the character Wendy Torrance was written as little more than a frightened shrieking dishwasher in the film, and deliberate changes that Kubrick may have intended as a middle finger to the audience. So, you can imagine my surprise when Stephen King announced he loved Doctor Sleep.

I had mixed expectations for Doctor Sleep as someone who regards The Shining as one of my favorite films of all time. I didn't want to raise my expectations too high, and knowing the state of big budget horror releases today I kept in mind the jump-scare fest Doctor Sleep may be. Imagine my pleasant surprise when it has the same low rumbling droning soundtrack, when Ewan McGregor acts like the perfect blend of Wendy and Jack Torrance from the original film, and when the film's jump-scares are only limited to important frightening scenes where they make sense. Doctor Sleep handles the original aesthetic of The Shining with a great deal of care and tenderness, but it also keeps Stephen King's tone close to its heart.

I read a lot, and I watch a lot of movies. Doctor Sleep is the first movie that manages to capture the exact same sensations and feelings throughout reading Stephen King's writing that previous films haven't (though The Shining may have come close). The visuals, the dialogue, the slow and cautious pacing, all make it feel like the perfect film adaptation of not just the story of Stephen King's work but the deep emotions his writing invokes. Doctor Sleep is many things, and nostalgia fodder is admittedly one of them (which could be the sole reason I love this movie as much as I do and can't wait to see it again), but it's also just a fantastic movie which really serves to honor the work of the original writer.

Doctor Sleep is in theaters now.

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