This movie makes a strong case for recasting over uncanny valley digital de-aging and deepfakes. People will just adjust to a new actor if their performance is strong enough. And these performances were certainly strong.
Recasting is the best way of doing it. Suspension of disbelief is a thing. And casting talented actors to kinda just, get in the same zone as the originals. It works! It works sooooo much better than deaging. Just get actors that kinda can look like them, but let them capture the spirit of the original. It's cinema, and acting. Don't need the deaging.
I have to admit, the girl that played Abra. . . Was phenomenal. The way she essentially played her character and McGregor during that scene in the van. . . It was disturbingly distinct. That alone should be worthy of a reward.
It was a scene where it was very important to make a clear distinction in behavior, otherwise it would have been confusing for the audience. She most definitely did a fine job there. First time I saw that scene it was evident to me what was happening.
So many folks I've seen react to Doctor Sleep miss the office being exactly the same as the office that Jack went to his interview in, and i'm so glad that Maple caught it. Also the guy who tells the other guy about Baseball boy's accuracy is the original Danny Torrance from "The Shining."
Read The Dark Towers series and the room being the same as the one Danny's father sat in will make so much sense. 2 sides of the same coin, the whole thing is a battle between light and dark. Sometimes the light wins other times the dark wins. In reality's where the dark wins the beam breaks and weakens the tower at the center or existence.
I remember when they announced this movie and Flanagan saying he was making a sequel for the movie and the book fans, I didn’t think it was possible and even now am extremely impressed that he pulled it off. So underrated, great movie. Please Hollywood, give this man all he needs to adapt the Dark Tower correctly.
Mike Flanagan very rarely fails, and even when he does- it is with a beautiful film that many still love. Him and his wife, if I could meet and learn from any two people it’d be them.
@@Poisonedwight I think it would have done better if he had filmed the book as it was written. Although the movie was great if you never read the books, a lot of fans were really po'd that Flanagan COMPLETELY changed the ending. Instead of giving fans a movie based on the book, this movie is a strange hybrid based on a fusion of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Dr. Sleep. In the book, The Shining, Jack died in the boiler room of the Overlook, when the furnace exploded. Kubrick's version changed that and the hotel didn't explode in the movie. For some reason that I can't understand, Flanagan gave Danny the death that Jack should have had in The Shining. I think that was totally unnecessary. Stephen King already remade The Shining in the 1990s to be true to the book. Long time Stephen King readers know that we don't always get a happy ending. The BOOK, Dr. Sleep, had one of King's best endings. The first 2/3 of this movie followed the book pretty closely - but then it went WAY off the rails, killing characters who DIDN'T die in the book, omitting the fact that Abra REALLY WAS Danny's niece (her mother was Jack's illegitimate daughter - the result of a drunken encounter with one of his students prior to the events at the Overlook), and completely cutting out Abra's grandmother's crucial role altogether. Although I loved the first 2/3 of the movie, I was VERY disappointed by the end. I wanted it to be true to the book.
Man, this movie shouldn’t be allowed to go as hard as it did. More people should watch it. king has even said that it’s his favorite adaptation. I’m so glad that y’all were into it. It rips from beginning to end. Also the recasting of the original Torrence family is incredible.
King must really not have a good eye for film if he thinks this is his best. The Shining still reigns supreme on multiple levels, even if it doesn't stick to the source material.
@@Octavian2 oh he’s definitely a biased critic, his point was more about how it captures his mood, intent, and the story beats. His issues with the Shining are because of story choices that Kubrick made
This is Mike "the Flanman" Flanagan... he's one of my faves since Occulus... And he has an eye for actors. Rebecca Fergusson as Rose the Hat is formidable.. I recommend his entire repertoire.
The scene with the baseball kid, the young actor apparently screamed so convincingly, the actors around him needed a break to collect themselves because they were so freaked out by it.
His name is Jacob Tremblay. Mike Flanagan did an interview and said that he went off script with some of the screaming and crying out it apparently freaked out some of the cast and crew. When they called cut he hopped up and ran over to high five his dad while the actors were all shook lol
I didn't realize that was the same of actor. She really stood out in The Fall of the House of Usher as well. She Definity has a real future ahead of her.
The scene in the bar with Jack is completely original for the movie. Mike Flannigan wrote it as a way to sell Stephen King on the movie, since King is famously not a fan of Kubricks Shining. The scene is perfect because it manages to continue ideas started in Kubricks movie and fuse them with the themes of alcoholism present in the novels.
I'm po'd at King for allowing Flanagan to butcher Dr. Sleep. Sure, if you've never read either book, the movie is enjoyable. I don't see why Flanagan had to bring Kubrick's version of The Shining (which Steve hated so much that he redid it as a miniseries in the 90s) into a movie based on a different book. He COMPLETELY screwed up the final 1/3 of the movie which isn't based on Dr. Sleep at all. King FINALLY gives a book a great ending, and then he lets Flanagan kill off people who did not die in the book. The whole bit inside the Overlook never happened. Abra's grandmother was never mentioned. The fact that Abra was really Danny's niece was never explained. I loved the movie until it went completely off the rails in the final 1/3.
So the novel version of the Shining was about Stephen King's struggles with addiction. Jack Torrance was a stand in for King. Jack in the book was an alcoholic and a victim of child abuse who genuinely loved his family and was brute forcing his recovery without any outside assistance like AA. In the book the Overlook gaslit Jack by using his childhood trauma and addiction struggles to set him against his family. He never would have harmed his family without the Overlook. The reason King hates the movie is that Kubrick took this character who represented all of King's personal struggles and turned him into a ticking time bomb that would have gone off regardless of the location. Furthermore, the book ends with Jack blowing up the Overlook and the end of the Doctor Sleep book takes place on a campground that was built on top of where the Overlook once stood. The book version of Doctor Sleep continues the theme of addiction and has an extra massive twist that I won't spoil here but gives an extra strong connection to the first book. Mike Flanagan had to sell King on the fact that he understood King's novels and could incorporate the theme of addiction from both books while still being a sequel to Kubrick's film.
I would have liked it more if he had just made "Dr. Sleep" and left Kubrick out of this movie. The BOOK, "Dr. Sleep," was (IMO) one of Steve's happiest endings. I felt completely robbed when Flanagan changed the whole ending to pay homage to Kubrick's version of "The Shining" - which I never liked (although I loved the book and liked the 1997 miniseries).
@@firstinthedance the problem with just making doctor sleep is that we didn't have an accurate big screen depiction of the shining so it would have thrown a lot of the general audience off because a lot of people only know the kubrick movie
Rose the Hat is such a great villain. They really set her up with some terrifying sequences involving children that make you want to hate her, but she has such real evil energy that it is hard to turn away from her character.
the only problem i have with her as the villain is she gets outplayed completely through the whole movie in basically every encounter other than snakebite addie and the baseball boy
@@williamrosmer8381Yep. As a villain in concept, she's great. In execution in the film, she's such a weak antagonist and basically does nothing to the protagonists.
@@williamrosmer8381 I suppose in a way that's what makes it more terrifying. She's not some comic book villain, she's quite literally just Danny if Danny lacked a moral code and found a way to use the Shining to live forever. She's fallible, but she's still strongly motivated because her survival is at stake.
omg i might be totally nerding here in the comments but i just HAVE to mention one thing, and i think it's worth it since Maple noticed the office being the same as in The Shinning movie. i was blown away by this movie bc i watched after finishing reading the shinning and i was kinda disappointed with the kubrick movie as an adaptation (as a stand alone is a MARVELOUS movie, don't get me wrong!!) bc he kinda took away some fundamental aspects of the story (in my opinion). so the scene when Danny is beating the guy in the bar he says "take your medicine", and it's the same thing Jack tells him in the bar at the Overlook later. and it seems kinda out of context or at least not that impactful enough bc this line doesn't have the same place in Kubrick's movie. but in the book story is actually something JACK'S FATHER said to him when he beat him up, when Jack was a child. and then it's the same thing Jack says to Danny when he's chasing him in the Overlook. and then it's the same thing Danny says when he's fighting/beating ppl. and i think thats one of the major things Flanagan got it right in this movie, not only in this but also in the office scene! in the dr. sleep book it's not the same office but danny contemplates about the fact that his father was once in his position: with his life very much ruined by alcohol and violence and having to negotiate with a man that could give him a change or not, how his future could be defined in that conversation, in that office. and since they don't put characters thoughts on this movie, the production/direction team went ahead and PLACED THEM IN THE SAME FUCKING ROOM to make this connection. i guess this is the key thing Flanagan's work had that Kubrick's didn't, the proper focus on the generational traumas (being violence and alcohol), which is honestly a massive chunk of the book. sure the hotel is a key element too (i would even say a key character!!), but i guess taking away the elements >before the hotel< or Jack's final state takes away why this story is so hunting. the scary part is not just the hotel and the ghosts and the madness, it has a social commentary so big and important about how generational trauma, alcohol and violence can change and, at some point maybe, ruin your entire life and the lives of those around you. the book has so many flashbacks and comments about Jack's life and you can see how he's not simply a bad man. in the book you can feel how huntingly sad it's the way he's losing it bc he does love his wife and he does love his son, and he doesn't wanna hurt them. they have heart warming scenes together in the hotel already, moments of happiness as a family and a period when the three of them think everything will end up fine finally, after this family crisis, but then all of it ends up being taken away from the three of them. the broken arm is actually Jack's hunting for real, in the first third of the book he's constantly thinking about how he lost control and hurt his son. and it's terrifying to see how he's losing and how the signs (to wendy and danny) are basically alcoholism signs in the hotel even without the alcohol consumption. the hotel uses this aspect of his life and the violence as a tool to try and get Danny. (and this is also an interesting thing in this movie because it shows how it wasn't just Jack and the hotel, Jack was actually a way to get to Danny because of his shinning and that's also why Halloran was never comfortable working there!) to finish this whole ass essay, they also show the generational thing in Danny and Abra's dynamic. how the hotel uses him to try to get Abra and then how he becomes, to her, the same thing Halloran was to him: a guiding figure that cares for her and in some ways takes care of how the shinning could at some point endanger her. (sorry for the long ass comment....... KWKDKDK) i loved your reaction!!!
This is such a great film. I think it is one of Ewan McGregor's best performances, and all the performances were wonderful - particularly the girl who played Abra. It perfectly blended the novel(s) and the Kubrick film.
Making a modern day sequel to a legendary classic is a difficult task that almost never gets executed well.. but this film manages to pull it off excellently. I'm sure the source material helps quite a bit, but either way it's a real shame this movie is not more widely appreciated.
Honestly, artistically, it's hard to top The Shining, but this is a much better film. And the book is better than all of the movies and other book. I watched and read them all in a couple of weeks last year. My ranking is 1. Dr. Sleep book 2. Dr. Sleep movie 3. The Shining book 4. The Shining movie. And that's saying something, because I LOVE Kubrick's Shining.
In the book Jack Torrence actually has some of Danny's role in this. Jack is the one that overloads the boiler in the original shining book, and in Doctor Sleep his ghost helps them defeat Rose in the ruins of the hotel.
Y’all should react to more Mike Flanagan stuff on here. Haunting Of Hill House is one of the best shows of the past 10 years, and Fall of the House of Usher was really good too. Not to mention his other films!
The juxtaposition between how Rose the Hat treats the new member of the True Knot cult, by lying to her about the changing process compared to the boy they abducted, how she doesn't lie about what they're going to do to him, says a lot. That's because in the novel the True Knot are depicted as being another species, like vampires of a sort, and this humanoid form is just a veneer. Rose looks much more monstrous and demonic underneath. The film, however, ties thematically to the Kubrick film by instead showing how they're just people who shine but use the ability for malevolent and selfish reasons and this robs them of their humanity over hundreds of years. In the novel, the True Knot refer to mortal humans as "rubes" who are merely lesser beings, or as livestock. I love how this movie not only calls back the first movie and the novel but other King novels as well, especially his Dark Tower series and its use of the rose as a symbol.
This is NOT a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" . It may be a sequel to Stephen King's "The Shining ", but absolutely and utterly NOT a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's
One day a fan asked Stephen King "What ever happened to Danny Torrence from The Shining?" That prompted King to write Dr Sleep and love that Mike Flanagan directed the movie!
i wanted them to see it while the Shining was still fresh in their memory since there's so many references. i dont know if maple woulda recognized the office for instance if they waited a year to see it.
Recently finished the book and just watched the movie, fantastic! Took me a while to finish the book but when I first started to read it I had barely reached 2yrs sobriety, this book and film hit me hard. Last Halloween reached 3yrs sobriety 💜🖤 now onto another king book that I'll take forever to start and finish reading😅
I felt this film was 2 ideas jammed into one movie. Like they didnt really know which direction to take it by the middle of the film. Not a bad movie but certainly not worthy of being a sequel to one of the best horror movies of all time.
A man tries. He provides. But is surrounded by mouths that eat and scream and cry and nag. So he asks for one thing, just one thing for him, to warm him up, to take the sting out of those days and the mouths eating and eating and eating everything he makes, everything he has. A family. A wife, a kid. Those mouths eat time. They eat your days on Earth. [pours another drink] Just gobble them up. It's enough to make a man *sick*. And this [offers Dan the glass of whiskey] is the medicine. So tell me, pup, are you gonna take your medicine?
Mike Flanagan is a master of the craft of horror, undisputed. He was able to take Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining and incorporate it into something that even Stephen King himself appreciated and loved. That is a major feat, and he continues to make the impossible story possible every single time he creates something.
The treatment of children in this movie is the thing that disturbed me more than any other. Especially the scene with the baseball boy. Very hard to watch.
Chad, show them the Hallmark movie - FIVE MORE MINUTES (2021) - w/Nikki Deloach. By the end they’ll be bawlin’ their eyes out like new-borns. Yes, I watch alot of Hallmark movies this time of year. When they go 24/7 Christmas movies through the end of the year.
I would really like to hear what Chad thinks of this film compared to Kubrick's The Shining. I have never really appreciated The Shining but I thought Doctor Sleep was phenomenal.
The Theme of child endangerment in this story is truly disturbing and hard to contemplate but it’s so important to Danny’s character as a survivor of addiction and abuse and trauma. Mike Flanagan is just amazing at talking about the dynamics of this and it’s damned hard for anyone to talk or think about otherwise. You can take all the supernatural aspects away and it’s still a true story from a real place about surviving and rising above. Thank you for watching!
A lot of people really really had the hots for this Villain cause she was “just so Stylish” and that always makes my blood pressure hot. Like I can’t think about it or I start sweatin’ 🤣🤣
a buddy of mine explained the power levels in this movie: adult danny's shine wasn't as "strong," because of his handicap: placing so much of his power into creating his boxes [that contained ghosts of the overlook]. so much so, that it was a constant draw of his power, for literal decades. so with that context, we can assume that child danny's shine was IMMENSLEY powerful. had danny not sunk so much power into the making and constant [albeit subconscious] upkeep of his boxes, adult danny would've been next level powerful. easily eclipsing everyone, including all of rose's gang AND abra.
Supposedly, the adult actors had quite a hard time keeping it together while filming the scene where they attack the baseball boy because his screams were so visceral that it made them feel awful
This movie and another 1980's movie about a military father who killed his family both terrified me as a kid. It wasn't the old lady though it was the father's killing the family. My dad would come home drunk and my parents would have violent fights and I thought for sure he was going to kill us all one day.
Many more thanks to Arianna & Maple! 😱 I'm so glad y'all did this one so soon after THE SHINING (1980). I always advise reacters to do so, but they rarely do. I love this... it's faithful to the novel, plus it enriches what occurred before. Everything Mr. Flanagan does is excellent. #Diegesis #MikeFlanagan #DoctorSleep
The book goes more in-depth on Danny’s recovery and there’s a great bit toward the end. Before the film came out I was like, “that part better be in the film!,” because if there’s a part of the book to cut it probably would be that, and yet, it’s better without that bit. Anyway, almost like Mike Flanagan was more respectful of the source material and the writer’s intentions, and appreciated the fact it was a fully-formed and well-fleshed out story. Thing with The Shining is that, despite how fantastic The Shining film adaptation is, Stanley Kubrick made it almost just to see what a Kubrick shot Horror film would look like. Like many mainstream directors at the time, he did not go into Horror with respect for the genre. *BTW, Tim Burton did not direct Nightmare Before Christmas, Henry Selick did. You could check out some of Selick’s films 🙏🏼☺️
You want to watch a great ghost story I suggest you see the changeling from 1980 also I think you should see the haunting from 1960 and the innocents from 1963
I love this movie. I don’t think of it as a sequel to “The Shining,” in that sequels are usually trying to match the genre and feel, and this is an utterly different movie. A different movie that reimagines the elements of the first film and uses them in very different ways. To a certain extent, “Alien” and “Aliens” is like that, but here, with decades in between the two, the effect is more dramatic. Also, the treatment of Shelley Duvall in the filming of “The Shining” forever makes me think of it in misogynist terms, while “Doctor Sleep” is much more a movie that gives back and heals. Danny could have been dragged to his dad’s side or to his mom’s, and the mom side wins, even allows him compassion for his dad.
FUN FACT: Jacob Tremblay, who played the baseball kid (Bradley), actually scared the older actors during their first take of the torture scene. The director couldn't use the footage because, even though the older characters were supposed to be enjoying the moment, the actors were unnerved by how good Jacob's performance was. Considering how seasoned some of that cast is, that's saying something.
there was gonna be a sequel of the guy named Dick (i forgot his surname. he's the ghost who danny speaks to). but since dr sleep did badly in theatres. the sequel was cancelled. now, there will be another movie about abra
Nice reaction! Glad you reacted to this great overlooked movie! The Burbs starting Tom Hanks was a funny dark movie that is great for the halloween season!
I really struggle to watch kids being hurt. I thought it was a good film, but I won’t watch it again. The bit where that kid got kidnapped after baseball still haunts me.
This movie is so incredibly well done and ambitious. But that baby gets me every time. I can't do that scene. Too haunting. The woman in the bathtub disturbs me far less, even if she's actively malevolent and the baby isn't.
Funny thing, The Shinig is one of my favorite novels and movies and Doctor Sleep was a slog to get through when i read it, i had a real love hate feel for it and it took me like a month and it threw me jn a reading slump but I LOVED the film adaptation! Its one of those rare time i preferred the movie to the book
There’s very few movies or series that have stuck in my brain one way or another I feel kings movies always find some way to dsonthat his books too. But like the one other one that fucked me up so much I couldn’t even finish the series was evil dude what happens towards the end of the 1st season is so fucked that I was like yup that’s a little too evil for me
It’s been said that the baseball kid’s acting was so good that it put everyone in a shitty mood for the whole day. Like everyone on set from the actors to the lighting people were genuinely freaked out by his performance. Meanwhile once’s he finished his shoots he held hands with his dad and strolled out of there without a care in the world.
This movie is such a metaphor for adrenochrome. it's crazy! Flanagan's attention to detail is amazing when keeping to Kubricks version while also getting Kings approval as well! This is so much better than The Shining for me.
The ending of this is closer to what the ending of the original the shining novel was. In the book Jack regains control of himself long enough to save his son, so he does have a redemption before he dies. He is an alcoholic in the book as well but in the book its more the spirits at the overlook possessing him than it is just him getting drunk and becoming psycho.
