DOCTOR SLEEP Review – Rated R

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DOCTOR SLEEP Review

Starring:

Ewan McGregor- Danny Torrance

Kyliegh Curran- Abra Stone

Rebecca Ferguson- Rose the Hat

McGregor “shines” as Danny Torrance in “Doctor Sleep”, the sequel and ending to the great horror film “The Shining”.

Director Mike Flanagan (Ouija: Origin of Evil) has penned and directed Doctor Sleep, a screenplay to close out the story of Danny Torrance and his mother Wendy (Alex Essoe) following the events at the Overlook (The Shining). Ewan McGregor is an adult Danny Torrance that is still haunted by the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel and tries to negate his special ability aka “Shine” in bottles of booze and strange women.

Dan Torrance now in his mid-30’s still remembers the days after they escapes the Overlook hotel with his mother. In a flashback, young Danny refuse to talk, except to the ghost of his friend Hallorann (Carl Lumbly) who was killed by his father at the hotel. Hallorann shows Danny a special box and has him study it so he can recreate it in his mind. Danny uses the box to capture the Overlook spirits. Once the ghosts are gone Danny opens up and talks to his mother.

Dan tired of drifting from town to town, settles in a New Hampshire town and makes a friend Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis) who sets him up in an apartment and a job at a hospice clinic. Dan notices the clinics cat visits a patient’s room when they are in there final hours. Torrance also keeps them company and helps ease them into the afterlife with his “Shine”. This earns him the nickname Doctor Sleep. Back at Dan’s apartment, one of the walls in the room is slate lie a chalkboard. Dan starts getting mysterious messages from another person who also “shines”.

There are folks crossing America with another type of ability called the True Knot. The True Knot, a pack of “Steam punks” led by Rose the Hat that hunt down children with “shine” and torture them and kill them in order to extract the power (in form of steam) from them. The stream gives Rose and the group a strange blue gleam in their eyes and pro-longed life. Rose and Crow Daddy track down a boy in Iowa with the “shine” and as they take his steam another powerful presence is watching them. Rose tells Crow Daddy how strong the girl was and they must find them.

Dan starts to get mysterious messages on his room wall and he begins to communicate with them. The other person sending the messages is Abra Stone, a young girl with a strong “shine”. Abra gets in Dan’s head to tell him about the boy in Iowa and the True Knot group killing people like them. Danny chooses to help Abra and protect her from Rose the Hat and her gang. Helping Abra will come at a cost and take Dan Torrance to a familiar location to battle Rose.

Doctor Sleep is a legit thriller that allows Ewan McGregor to shine as Dan Torrance and give fans closure to the classic film “The Shining”. Rebecca Ferguson is excellent as the creepy killer and Kyliegh Curran is amazing as the strong child with the special power. My only issues with Doctor Sleep are with the long running time (2 hrs. 31 mins) and the lookalikes used for the Overlook ghosts.

Flick analysis grade: 4/5 stars