DOCTOR SLEEP: The Eyes of Kubrick and the Heart of King
Doctor Sleep uses the aesthetics of Stanley Kubrick to tell an undeniably Stephen King story. (SPOILERS)
By: Josh McCormack
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is concerned about a lot of things, but human emotion is very low on the list.
An examination of a man losing his mind with a plethora of hidden meanings (according to hardcore theorists), Kubrick's film is ripe with subject matter that has been endlessly mined by film scholars for almost four decades. But in Kubrick's The Shining the focus is more put on the insane antics of Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance and the frightening ghosts that haunt him rather than the wife and son's trauma he inflicts.
This isn't a criticism, just to be clear. Kubrick's film is delightfully cold-hearted and for a filmmaker as aesthetically focused as he, The Shining wouldn't work any other way or be nearly as iconic if Kubrick had approached it any other way.
Stephen King on the other hand is a writer who fills his stories with a dose of hope even in the midst of obscene terror. His novel The Shining is not so much structurally different from Kubrick's adaption as much as it is tonally. In King's original version the wife and son, Wendy and Danny Torrance, are just as much at the forefront as Jack. And seeing the story from their point of view as the most important man in their lives descends into madness and alcoholism at the hand of malevolent spirits is a tragic one.
Two horror classics. One a psychological tale with a dark comedic edge and the other a tragic tale of alcoholism and a family falling apart. King always said it best when saying that the most accurate representation of the differences in tone for both versions of The Shining comes from their respective endings. In King's story the Overlook Hotel burns and in Kubrick's film the hotel freezes.
An examination of a man losing his mind with a plethora of hidden meanings (according to hardcore theorists), Kubrick's film is ripe with subject matter that has been endlessly mined by film scholars for almost four decades. But in Kubrick's The Shining the focus is more put on the insane antics of Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance and the frightening ghosts that haunt him rather than the wife and son's trauma he inflicts.
This isn't a criticism, just to be clear. Kubrick's film is delightfully cold-hearted and for a filmmaker as aesthetically focused as he, The Shining wouldn't work any other way or be nearly as iconic if Kubrick had approached it any other way.
Stephen King on the other hand is a writer who fills his stories with a dose of hope even in the midst of obscene terror. His novel The Shining is not so much structurally different from Kubrick's adaption as much as it is tonally. In King's original version the wife and son, Wendy and Danny Torrance, are just as much at the forefront as Jack. And seeing the story from their point of view as the most important man in their lives descends into madness and alcoholism at the hand of malevolent spirits is a tragic one.
Two horror classics. One a psychological tale with a dark comedic edge and the other a tragic tale of alcoholism and a family falling apart. King always said it best when saying that the most accurate representation of the differences in tone for both versions of The Shining comes from their respective endings. In King's story the Overlook Hotel burns and in Kubrick's film the hotel freezes.
The two stories, after decades being at odds with each other, are forced to come together for the first time in Mike Flanagan's new film Doctor Sleep, an adaption of King's mostly enticing, but often frustrating 2013 sequel to The Shining of the same name. The film also acts as a cohesion of different elements from both the original text and film adaption of The Shining. And guess what? It works splendidly.
While Flanagan's visual influence most certainly stems from the cinematic eye of Kubrick, the story's heart comes directly from King. With the themes of alcoholism and sacrifice being worn on its sleeve, the film, while honoring Kubrick, is one that he could never make.
Doctor Sleep is one of the most faithful and understanding adaptions of King's writings made in years. It embraces some of the more fantastical story beats (i.e. an entire psychic battle in a metaphorical "mind library") and is more fascinated with characters' trauma than practically any horror set piece.
The Kubrick elements that the story plays with were certainly less intriguing to me than some other audience members and work more as the icing on the cake (I know many critics feel the same, with some even saying it's the film's biggest detriment), but even then Flanagan manages to use this to his advantage, making the relationship between the film versions of Danny and Jack now have a far more emotional weight. This stems from a fantastic sequence wherein Danny comes face to face with his father at the familiar Overlook bar (this is the sequence that I'm assuming got Stephen King on board during the initial pitch). In this sequence they acknowledge their past from the original film while also making slight nods to the original Shining novel (i.e. Jack calling Dan "pup"; "Take your medicine") and with this one sequence, both versions of the story are honored in a way that made Stephen King happy and would surely put a smile on Stanley Kubrick's face.
The film ends with Danny sacrificing himself in the boiler room as well, allowing our new protagonist to live and "shine on". It's a completely different ending compared to the anticlimactic conclusion of the Doctor Sleep novel, but one that allows the original 1980 film to exist and for King to still get the conclusion for the Overlook Hotel he always wanted to see on the big screen.
There are plenty of fantastic elements that make Doctor Sleep worth seeing in spite of some of the mixed reactions it has gotten from critics, including Ewan McGregor's fantastic performance as Danny Torrance and Rebecca Ferguson's sensual and frightening turn as the vampiric villain, Rose the Hat. And even some of the genuinely jaw-dropping horror sequences from the brutal murder of the little leaguer to the fantastic images of both a young Danny Torrance and Abra Stone facing down the iconic rotting woman in the bathroom like lone gunslingers.
But of course the biggest draw to horror fans will be seeing how Mike Flanagan makes his own movie while marrying the mentalities of two very different storytellers who famously had been at odds with one another. And on that merit alone, Doctor Sleep is an absolute triumph.
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