‘Doctor Sleep’: Special, Starving, and Shining
FYI: This is a spoiler-free review.
ALSO: Although I’m a massive Stephen King fan, The Shining and Doctor Sleep are two of his works I’ve never read. So this review will be referencing their film adaptations only.
To understand what Director Mike Flanagan accomplished with his adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, we need to cozy up to some context.
As one of the most prolific writers of modern history, Stephen King’s approach to storytelling is so distinct and organic that it’s inescapable in modern horror and suspense works. It bleeds through in new horror literature, and it feels weirdly cozy in visual homages like Stranger Things. For many fans of horror and writers of every genre — myself included—his work is the example by which we learned to create and imagine.
Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic signature was just as pivotal. His visuals are all-encompassing, oppressive, and absolutely meant to be 30 feet tall. Everyone knows them when they see them, regardless of whether or not they’ve watched his films. This is especially true of the imagery of The Shining. It was everything audiences weren’t yet used to in horror: stark, atmospheric, symbolic as hell, and occasionally shocking in a way that was also confusing.
