So much ofDoctor Sleepis silly, but there really is so much.
The bad guys are ghosts.
The bad guys are trailer-park telepaths devouring kidsouls for family orgies.
Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros.
The bad guy is alcoholism.
Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) flees a quarter-century hangover to a kindly New England burg called Frazier.
There is a tourist attraction in the square, a miniaturized version of the city called Teenytown.
It’s just there, and it’s wonderful.
Dan is a middle-aged trauma case, chasing away demons real and paternal with a lifetime of booze.
Much like the cat, Dan has a sixth sense.
Andi meets Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), a mysterious woman with a terrible hat.
That’s Abra, as in “cadabra.”
What fun names are!
Rose leads a whole band of superpowered nomads, including Madge Ick, Spellon Mee, and Whit Chiznwizards.
His hat is okay, still not great.
Their whole crew has turned nigh-immortal from devouring the souls of children who have the shining.
Or maybe not souls.
It’s precisely how Juul works.
Right, and yes: There are shinings, plural!
(I like the book fine, but it wouldn’t crack my King Top 25.)
Now, writer-director Mike Flanagan has turned his ownDoctor Sleepadaptation into an attempt to reconcile the twinShinings.
He recreates some of Kubrick’s famous visuals.
The soundtrack integrates elements of the nails-tickling-your-grave musical score by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Etkin.
Flanagan already made one Stephen King film, 2017’sGerald’s Game.
He’s the rare American horror director who remembers that the world has more colors than dark gray.
And he overpopulatesDoctor Sleepwith juicy supporting turns.
Lind is great in a role that seems crucial and then simply isn’t.
ButDoctor Sleepis a mess.
It’s way too long, clashing somber sobriety with loony cheap thrills.
TheShininghomages turn shameless and cheap.
The jumpscares are more funny than scary.
Dan is a problem.
McGregor used to be such a livewire performer, but he’s frozen stolid here.
But the language of pop therapy can make for deadly dialogue.
Meanwhile, Ferguson, so great in the recentMission: Impossibles, is trying 10 kinds of something.
Rose lives in an RV overdecorated in a style I can only describe as “rugpunk.”
Rose is occasionally fun without ever being scary.
Maybe Flanagan’s pinpoint recreations will astound you.
All the homage left me cold.
And not even so scary, when you’ve seen it all before.
Conversely, I’ve never seen a gang of psionic cultists vape infanticide stream as a life-extending aphrodisiac.
So there are still new ideas.C+
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