Review of Doctor Sleep (2019) by Meydianarizki21 — 18 Oct 2020

.Despite some character development flaws, this is the best horror sequel since psycho 2 in 1983.

Warning: Spoilers.

This very belated sequel is the follow up to stanley kubricks the shining (1980) danny torrance (doc) is now an adult and is still coming to terms with the trauma he endured at the overlook hotel when he was five years old, his mother wendy has passed away and now he is a chronic alcoholic , he finds a job as an orderly after attending AA meetings and gets back on the straight and narrow, meanwhile theres an evil cult in the midst called the "true knot" headed by a modern day witch called rose the hat played brilliantly by rebecca ferguson, this cult feeds off gifted childrens souls after abducting and murdering them, rose the hat discovers a girl with the shining gift and been relentless tries to persue her , the girl makes a connection with the adult doc as they have the same gift, danny is then lured into protecting the girl and with there powers combined they pick off members of the cult one by one, with rose still in pursuit of the girl, knowing the dangers danny takes the girl to the abandoned overlook hotel to lure the witch into a cauldron of evil.

The movie does have certain flaws mainly character development ,we dont know much about the cult or the girl with the shine, and although ewan mcgregor is miscast in this as danny his performance is adequate, a good story with some intense horror scenes and the nostalgia at the end is quite exciting, you get see the evil spirits that graced the original in all its glory in a stunning blueprint of the overlook, the actors who play jack and wendy torrance and dick o halloran are excellent and mimic the original actors to aplomb, but the highlight is rebbecca ferguson as rose that hat, an excellent performance and probably the sexiest movie witch since michelle pfeiffer in the witches of eastwick. The shining was always going to be an hard act to follow, and stephen king didnt like the original very much so this sequel had a lot to live up to and it pulls through compared to recent stephen king adaptations and other recent horror flicks, it has originality and nostalgia if nothing else.