5 years ago, Stephen King’s most iconic thriller received an unexpectedly successful sequel

When writer and director Mike Flanagan Doctor Sleep – adaptation of Stephen King’s 2013 novel – released five years ago to deafening reception indifference at the box office And critical reaction mixed to positive. But re-watching confirms that this is one of the best King adaptations in recent memory, partly because Flanagan managed to pull off a trick that seemed impossible.

King’s book is a sequel to one of his classic 1977 books. Shine. Flanagan’s film is not only an adaptation, but also a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film version.. Considered one of the iconic horror films. Shine was famously fired by Kingwho didn’t care about Cold interpretation of Kubrick (in fact, he disliked it so much that he wrote and produced his own television miniseries in 1997).

Kubrick’s film differs from King’s in many ways. Doctor Sleep follows the continuity of King’s original story. Flanagan’s challenge was to adapt it for the screen and place it in Kubrick’s universe, whose iconography is much more firmly entrenched in pop culture. And Flanagan did it brilliantly, making a film that was not only faithful to King’s book in many ways, but also respected both Kings equally. And Kubrick Radiant.

Doctor Sleep The story follows Danny Torrance, a young boy whose powerful psychic abilities (his “glow”) activate the malignant entities that inhabited the Overlook Hotel during that fateful winter when Danny’s father, Jack, worked there as a caretaker. As an adult, Dan (Ewan McGregor) became a drifter, drowning himself in alcohol to dull his powers while being haunted by his own demons and the ghosts of the Overlook.

Finally sober and back on his feet in a small town in New Hampshire, Dan discovers that he is psychically connected to Abra (Kylie Curran), a little girl whose “glow” is even stronger than his. But her power also attracts the attention of a clan of psychic vampires known as the True Knot, who feed on the “steam” produced by people who glow during torture. Their queen, Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), becomes obsessed with capturing Abra, leading to a fight between Rose and Knot on one side and Dan and Abra on the other.

In addition to the usual screen wrappingDoctor Sleep remains largely faithful to King’s book. But while King staged the final battle between Rose, Dan and Abra on the now empty site where the Overlook once stood (King blew it up at the end ShineFlanagan’s film takes place in a long-abandoned hotel left next to Kubrick’s film, with Flanagan recreating Kubrick’s set and the spirits living there.

This is how Flanagan combined with Kubrick’s images. Shiningwhich he admitted he could not pass (“When I read Doctor Sleepall the images in my head were images of Kubrick,” he said Entertainment Weekly), with ending Doctor Sleepas well as giving Dan a chance to redeem himself and his father by blowing up the hotel’s boiler, indirectly restoring King’s end. Shine. He also defeats Rose and saves Abra, although Dan survives in the novel, sacrificing himself in the film.

Flanagan merger Doctor Sleep with both versions Shine redeems the more ambiguous – some will say it’s disappointing – the ending of Kubrick’s film. There’s also closure for Dan Torrance, who, in Flanagan’s biggest and least successful gambit, interacts with the ghosts of his mother and father, played here by Alex Esso and Henry Thomas.

The film also touches on a deep emotional issue in both novels: the alcoholism that Dan apparently inherited from his father. Although Kubrick’s film pays lip service to this, it is an important aspect of King’s books (King, a recovering alcoholic, based Jack Torrance’s struggles on his own) and an important element of Flanagan’s film. And here Flanagan connects the literary and the cinematic. Shining together, retroactively deepening the tragic on-screen relationship between Dan and Jack.

One viewer was particularly pleased with the results. “(Flanagan) managed to take my novel Doctor Sleepsequel, and somehow seamlessly weld it into Kubrick’s version. Shinefilm, Stephen King said electronic warfare. “So yeah, I really liked it.” Mike Flanagan somehow managed to “reconcile this chasm of distances.” as he put itbetween two versions Shine in a sequel worthy of all the source material, which is a significant triumph for a film that involves psychic vampires.