"Doctor Sleep"

This afternoon I went to the Granada Hills Theatre to see "Doctor Sleep". Like the "It" movies, I had to see it on the big screen. Stephen King flicks can be hit and miss, but the "It"s were tremendous and "DS" got good advance reviews, so off I went, and two and a half hours later all I can say is "Wow" and "Holy Smokes" and a few other exclamatory superlatives. Because it's a new release and you may be seeing it yourself, I'm not sure how much I wanna tell you about the plot. Have you read the book? Well anyway, maybe I should say nothing at all. I'll have to think it over while I write. What I will say is that director Mike Flanagan has knocked it out of the freakin' park, and in doing so, he has also partially restored and re-envisioned "The Shining" in a way that will make Stephen King proud. King famously detested Stanley Kubrick's movie, and here I'd like to go on one of my asides to describe my own ups and downs with "The Shining".

I remember seeing it in Westwood on opening night in May 1980. The line was around the block and for me the anticipation was sky high. I'd read the advance publicity, and though I wasn't a Kubrick devotee I knew he was a master filmmaker. The thought of a Kubrick/King collaboration on SK's greatest work to date (up to 1980) was tantalizing. I remember thinking that it had the potential to be on par with "The Exorcist" as one of the greatest horror movies of all time. As the film got underway, I was ready to be pinned to my seat, and Kubrick did create a strong sense of dread with his buildup to the major action. The drive to the Overlook Hotel, for example, was very well done, as were the early interior sequences. Danny's visit to Room 237 was legendary, one of the great horrors in all of cinema.

But then Jack Nicholson stepped in and decided to ruin the movie by delivering a deliberately hammed up performance. The capper was when he uttered the inane line "Here's Johnny" after axing through the door in the penultimate scene. That Kubrick would've allowed such a performance, or even encouraged it, suggested that he didn't take the material seriously. I think he felt superior to it, and because of that he brought it down to a joke. Yes, there were moments of frightful horror, scenes of mystery and utter terror, but Nicholson ruined the movie and Kubrick let him do it. And what's more, Kubrick lit the whole thing in bright florescent light, as if he was still working on "2001". With the exception of "Barry Lyndon", he lit all his movies in that cold, office building way, and the setting of King's Overlook Hotel suffered greatly for it.

After that opening night screening I was of two minds about the picture. On the one hand, I thought it was really scary, but on the other I thought Nicholson was terrible, and even worse, that Kubrick butchered the book. And though at first I liked "The Shining", because I didn't want to admit I was disappointed, in later years - and especially after reading of Stephen King's disapproval - I came to acknowledge that it wasn't very good. It's not that it sucked, it's that it was an Enormous Letdown. Kubrick made a mockery of one of the scariest horror stories ever written by allowing a once great actor to run roughshod over his character. That's my final opinion of "The Shining".

Like Stanley Kubrick, Mike Flanagan also took liberties with King's source material. A filmmaker almost can't help but do that, because SK's books are so lengthy and crammed with detail. There are character backstories and subthemes. That's why a lot of his books have been made into miniseries, because a director often needs 6 to 8 hours to tell a King story. "It" took over five hours, in two parts, but by taking his time, director Andres Muschietti created a work of legend that was more or less true to the book, even though he, too, had to adjust the story. Flanagan does more than adjust, he reworks an entire section of "Doctor Sleep" the book, and yes, he re-imagines the written work much like Kubrick did.

The difference is that Flanagan has reverence for the material. I don't wanna tell you what he has done, but I'll say that he's created a vision of what "The Shining" could've been. Holy freaking smokes is it amazing. I need to add, as another aside, that there was a cable version of "The Shining" produced in 1997 starring Steven Weber, that even with television production values was far more effective than Kubrick's movie, which for some reason critics have come to champion in the ensuing years, when at first they derided it almost in unison. The cable version is truly grim stuff, but that's what the book is made of. There's not a speck of black humor, which is ironic considering that Weber was best known as a sitcom actor. Even so, his performance blows Jack Nicholson's off the map. Watch it and see.

At any rate, let me just say about "Doctor Sleep" that Flanagan has created an extremely eerie film, using photographic effects and atmosphere to create the horror. It's not what they call a "jumpscare" movie. Instead, he mixes elements of fantasy with night footage of the natural landscape of Georgia (passing for New Hampshire), to create a sense of otherworldly weirdness. You feel like a witness to the events in the campground, where a group calling themselves The True Knot is hiding out. There is one sequence of horrific violence that, due to the location, reminded me a little bit of the notorious scene in "The Walking Dead" in it's extremity. I hate to even make the comparison - and I quit watching "TWD" after that episode - but it's strong stuff. Unlike the makers of that show, however, Flanagan knows when to pull away, and he never lingers on the agony. Kudos must go to Rebecca Ferguson, who plays Rose the Hat, the arch-villain of the film. She's got ice in her veins, and great powers, but she's met her match in Danny (Ewan McGregor) and young Abra (Kyliegh Curran), a girl with unprecedented Shine.

Flanagan, who also wrote and edited "Doctor Sleep", has developed the characters so that they aren't simple cut-outs. You care about Danny's life story, you hope he will beat his alcoholism. But at the same time, he's trying to keep the demons of the Overlook at bay. The last thing he needs is little Abra jumping inside his head, but when she tells him what she's seen, he cannot back away. The movie works on a human level, it has pathos, so while it's one of the creepiest horror movies to ever come down the pike, it's more than that. It's got a spiritual core that feels redemptive.

There is one shot I have to mention, because I think it's one of the greatest shots I've ever seen in any movie, but especially in a horror film. Man......I really wish I could describe it to you. It's an exterior shot of a building, that's all I'll say, but when I saw it, I just sank down in my seat and thought "Holy Shit"........(oh my goodness what a shot).

"Doctor Sleep" is one of the best Stephen King movies ever made, and also a great movie on any level. I'm gonna shut up about it now, but if you like horror, run to the theatre to see it. Thanks to Mike Flanagan for reclaiming "The Shining". I hope he works with Stephen King again, Two Gigantic Thumbs Up.  /////

That's all for now. I'm back at Pearl's again, and I'll see you tonight at the Usual Time. Go Rams!

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)