The Shining is both one of Stephen King's most popular books, and one of the most lauded horror movies of all time, even if the two don't have as much in common as you might think. In 2013 Stephen King returned to the life of Danny Torrance, with the novel Doctor Sleep, and now it too has been adapted into a film. Will fans of both the original novel and the original film be equally pleased?
For the most part, it sounds like the answer is a resounding yes. CinemaBlend's own Eric Eisenberg was one of the people lucky enough to have seen Doctor Sleep recently, and he believes the film works well at melding both the previous book and film into a legitimately great movie.
Eric isn't the only one who thinks that the new Doctor Sleep movie works well as a follow up to both the book and movie. Jacob Hall with Slashfilm says the movie is even more than that. Not only does it find a way to bring Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick together, but it does so while also being clearly a movie that is also the work of Mike Flanagan, the accomplished director of previous Stephen King adaptation Gerald's Game as well as the well regarded Hush.
The Shining is one of the more interesting works of fiction to be adapted into a film because, while Stephen King's book and Stanley Kubrick's movie are both considered seminal works of their respective genres, King has very famously had little good to say about the movie. King's novel is, of course, a sequel to his own book, but the movie version will include aspects of both, apparently quite well.
For that reason, any audience that is looking for a more straightforward interpretation of the book, might be disappointed by this adaptation.
The work of Stephen King has been going through something a of a resurgence in the last couple of years. Like many of the recent adaptations, like the aforementioned Gerald's Game and the first chapter of IT, have been embraced, 2019 hasn't been the best year for the author's work. However fans don't need to worry about Doctor Sleep following that path, as it's being called the best adaptation of his work this year.
That's not to say that every critic is entirely over the moon about Doctor Sleep. There are those who think the movie doesn't actually bring Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick together quite perfectly, and that the movie is better at doing one thing than the other.
The praise for Rebecca Ferguson's performance is shared by many of the critics who have seen the film, so it appears there's a lot to look forward to there.
Overall, it looks like Doctor Sleep is everything the doctor ordered. The rest of us will get to see it when the film hits screens November 8.
