Doctor Sleep movie review - Aussieboyreviews

IS DOCTOR SLEEP A NIGHTMARISHLY TERRIFYING SEQUEL TO THE SHINING?

Being a sequel to Stephen King’s The Shining, you can’t expect this sequel to beat one of the greatest movies of all time. But Doctor Sleep is still a fairly scary and well-crafted horror movie, despite how long and slow it is.

Storyline

While Danny Torrance struggles to overcome his traumatic past, he finds a little girl sharing his gift of the shine. Thereafter, he goes on a quest to protect her from the bloodthirsty True Knot.

Movie Images

Movie details

Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Carl Lumbly, Jacob Tremblay
Writer: Mike Flanagan
Release Date (Australia): 7 November 2019
Runtime: 152 minutes/2h 32m
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Thriller
Country: USA
Language: English

CONTENT GUIDE (WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)

Themes (MA15+)

The film contains horror themes including disturbing sequences in which children and adults are attacked and tortured by ghosts and people with supernatural abilities.

Violence (MA15+)

The film contains disturbing sequences in which children and adults are attacked and tortured with blood detail and multiple depictions of shootings that feature blood sprays.

Coarse Language (M)

The film contains use of the words “f**k”, “s**t”, “bitch”, “ass” and “damn”.

Drug Use (M)

A woman is depicted snorting cocaine.

Nudity (M)

The film includes scenes of full frontal female nudity.

Sex (PG)

A man wakes up in bed next to a nude woman, having implicitly had sex.

mpaa rating

R (for disturbing and violent content, some bloody images, language, nudity and drug use)

Aussie boy's thoughts

You can’t have high expectations for a sequel to beat one of the greatest films of all time, but Doctor Sleep’s horror-fantasy concept just doesn’t match correctly with The Shining. Alike the 1980 classic with mind-blowing performances and fantastic camerawork, Mike Flanagan’s execution leaves fans with a long psychologically paced horror sequel with plenty of scares.

The Shining had this very moving and entertaining pace that was perfectly blended in with an intriguing concept of isolation insanity, told in Stephen King’s novel. Doctor Sleep is a fantasy-horror movie, completely unalike its predecessor, with appealing antagonists with special abilities. Rose the Hat and the rest of her cult have scary but very fantasy motives. As a result, it’s not the right fitting story to accompany The Shining.

There’s several things throughout this movie you can point out like the originality of the cult and the film crossing the line whilst killing children in brutal fashion, but the slow and extended tale it copies from The Shining doesn’t have that same spark or compelling movement. It’s slow, occasionally boring and unfortunately doesn’t work out. However, Doctor Sleep’s performances are talented and there’s still some very freaky moments, despite that they’re not as effective or well done as the predecessor’s are.

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