I enjoyed DOCTOR SLEEP.
THE SHINING was the first horror novel I read in fourth grade, and it was the bright yellow Kubrick-movie tie-in paperback with 8 pages of black and white film stills and that pointillist logo. I love a lot of what Stephen King writes but not everything, but I'm a total The Shining nerd and the Kubrick film informed how I imagined the story in my brain and taught me early what the difference between a book and film is when interpreted intelligently.
When people say DOCTOR SLEEP is the "sequel" to THE SHINING it's with scare quotes. The book is about a 40-something Danny Torrance who mutes his inherent psychic powers via the same alcoholism that consumed his father who attempted to murder him and his mother while confined for the winter caretaking a hotel when he was five years old. King's eventual follow-up was very much not a "sequel" to THE SHINING so much as a completely new supernatural story where the influence of the Overlook Hotel eventually does intrude as Dan stops suppressing his Shine with alcohol, using the powers for good (becoming Doctor Sleep) and mentoring another fledgling child who is in danger of being hunted and consumed because people who shine are tasty. Dan opening himself up to shine again opens up the door for him to experience and reflect on the Overlook events again, but King had destroyed the place in his novel, and the finale took place on an empty lot.
Mike Flanagan fixes this by incorporating the best elements of Kubrick's imagery - including the surviving Overlook Hotel so the story now has a proper functioning setting for its third act. Flanagan is also a THE SHINING fanboy nerd and only one time goes a little too far, including a scene where every recognizable character from the lore is gathered around like it's the splash screen of a Nintendo Smash Brothers video game. But knowing that he appreciates the source material this much and made such a good movie which incorporates King, Kubrick, his own directorial sensibility, and is intelligently and selectively faithful to a very good book with its own flaws justifies one slip that's just a matter of mostly editing. This movie is longer than Kubrick's film, but keeps up the pace with a well-tuned plot arc and the awesome Overlook Hotel to raise the stakes in the last reel.
This needs to be seen in a theater with a KILLER sound system that they turn up loud. The sound design and editing and music is amazing. There are moments in this with the silent wonder of Kubrick's 2001 where you can feel subsonic low tones making your seat hum.
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