First thing to note before watching Doctor Sleep is that you should watch The Shining first because Doctor Sleep is basically its sequel. At least you have to find out what’s The Shining about. Unfortunately I haven’t watched nor conducted research about The Shining before I watched this movie. Hence I kinda didn’t get any idea what’s this movie about. Thus I would review this movie without discuss more about its prequel.
We would be shown the little Danny Torrance a.k.a Dan lived with his mother in Florida. He able to manage his fear by locking the haunting demon with his imaginary box on his head. The ability somehow he obtained in The Shining. Later we’ll also learn that the kid in Dan’s age with superior ability are supposed to have an ability like what Dan has, which he called as “the shining”. That’s an enough introduction to those who haven’t watched The Shining, like me. Before introduced the young Dan, we’re introduced first with a cult of quasi-immortal vampires led by Rose, known as True Knot. They kill people with the shining ability and consume their steam of fear to heal and survive. 40 years later Dan still get traumatized by his fear, tries to ease it by drinking alcohol. Then he moved to a small city, befriend Billy Freeman and rehabilitate from his alcoholic nature. Soon he got a job at a hospital, and at the time he found a dying patient, he comforted the patient’s death with his shining ability, made the patient called him Doctor Sleep.
The narration of present Dan almost made me fall asleep. The story develop Dan’s character in the slow pace. However the movie becomes more interesting after it introduced Abra. She is a girl with stronger shining ability, communicate with Dan using their telepathy. Her shining ability is introduced interestingly from the perspective of a little girl. Abra’s parents deny her shining ability, make her more comfortable to telepath with Dan. A quite thrilling incident done by True Knot attracted Abra’s attention, fear her, make her unite with Dan, meet him face by face. Knowing that the two are in danger, the story gives a simple but meaningful reason for Dan to help Abra. With great power comes great responsibility. Starting from this point, the movie begins to have strong storytelling, focus on the premise about how the two will encounter True Knot.
Doctor Sleep explores the other possible ability which can be owned by “the shining”, like what Abra or each member of True Knot has. The interaction among them is limitless in terms of space, that’s how the supernatural ability supposed to be shown. It doesn’t offer new jumpscare but thrilling actions, especially when Abra and Rose know each other for the first time. It has strategy shootout actions followed by thrilling battle between the protagonists and antagonists. During their encounter, Abra is overall show stealer. From the antagonists, another most remembered character is Snakebite Andi, a shining teenager who is very good at controlling people.
Third act of the movie contains a decent closure for both Dan and Abra’s problem. It has strong reference to the events from the first movie. We would revisit Dan’s fear for a reason, to let Dan reveal his ace card to beat Rose. For Abra, she would also face Dan’s fear but would do less in the final action. However the story would give her a plot to reconcile with her parents.
First half of the movie would seem boring for those who haven’t watched The Shining. That’s why you should have any knowledge regarding the previous movie. After that, we would see sort of interesting actions until the end. From the perspective of the new audience like me, the overall score for this movie is 7.5 of 10. If I’ve watched The Shining before, my score might’ve been increased too.
Notes of Hobbies 