Doctor Sleep serves as the sequel to the iconic creepy movie, The Shining. It begins with the little boy Danny, played by Ewan McGregor, growing up and dealing with his childhood terrors of the Overlook Hotel and leads a life of an alcoholic. Years later, he moves to New Hampshire to create a better, alcohol-free, life for himself. Danny then realizes that he isn’t the only one with the gift of “shining” after he comes in contact with a teenage girl who is in need of his help to defeat dark forces called the True Knot who capture, torture, and murder “shiners” and feed off of their power or “steam.”
The acting was the best part about the movie as the actors/actresses portrayed horror and intensity well, but were still able to pull sympathy from the audience. The complexity of characters created a whole new layer to the story that made it impossible to look away from the screen.
However, the music, while composed flawlessly, was awkwardly placed in most parts of the movie. High intensity music was played in scenes where a character was simply walking down the street but in scenes exploding with fights or eerie ghosts, the music was quiet and lowered the suspense factor.
The only major flaw with this movie was the effort it made to connect to The Shining. Instead of creating new ghosts, the only ghosts that were shown were the ones introduced at the end of the original movie. The ending fight contained almost cringy similarities to the ending of the first movie when it could’ve had the potential to scare audience with a new twist on an old classic.
Overall, Doctor Sleep was an interesting movie with twists and turns, keeping the audience on their toes. With great acting, exceptional special effects, and character complexity, the movie deserves 4 stars.