Review of Doctor Sleep (2019) by Jkatches — 08 Nov 2019

If you take the word "Doctor" out of the title and just left "Sleep" it would be far more fitting for how this movie will effect its audiences. This movie is a Disasterpiece. I saw an early screening on Monday and could've/should've walked out in the first 5 min. There’s a lot I could say about Doctor Sleep without giving away the plot. But the movie is not even worth the effort of a review. It’s that bad. Mike Flanagan attempts to perform a juggling act by writing the screenplay, directing, DP'ing, and editing the entire film...and boy did it show, as he drops the ball mostly in the areas of plot and performances.

Plot/Suspense: I’m not a crazy Shining fan, I am a Kubrick fan, I thought Kubrick was one of the most creative directors. And his touch on the Shining is what made it truly one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen. He built his movie through slow dread. Doctor sleep on the other hand only makes the audience dread how long the movie will be. The story is all over the place. Literally, different times and places, making it a pain for the audience to follow. Character: Kubrick's characters and themes are complex, whereas Doctor Sleeps are superficial and fall flat. They lack depth and substance. The antagonists are uninteresting, underdeveloped, with 0 arc, and worst of all not scary in the least. Setting: A scary movies greatest asset is setting. Kubricks setting is confined, secluded, in a haunted hotel, with antagonist and protagonist snowed in together, making for an extremely terrifying experience. In Doctor Sleep setting is tossed out the window. It's an open world, with 0 confinement. And when the movie reaches confined spaces it's too worried about matching the Shining to try and create something that would've surprised the audience. This movie shows that not every Stephen King novel should be adapted. It reminds me A LOT of Dreamcatcher. You could say Doctor Sleep is Dreamcatcher 2.0.