“The darkest things are the hungriest,” Dan’s one-time mentor, Dick Halloran (Carl Lumbly), tells him ominously.

They are led by Rose, who is obsessed with finding the girl, and feasting upon her. His tranquility is shattered by Abra, who has sensed the True Knot, a cabal of psychic vampires, for lack of a better definition, who drain the life essences of children that shine. Finally landing in a welcoming small town, he turns his life around, deals with his addiction, and takes a job as a hospice orderly whose gift for soothing dying residents earns him the nickname of the title.Įwan McGregor in 'Doctor Sleep' Warner Bros. It’s a shame, because so many of the elements work initially, including Ewan McGregor as the grown-up Dan, Rebecca Ferguson as the wonderfully menacing villain Rose the Hat and Kyliegh Curran as Abra, the young girl whose mental abilities eclipse even Dan’s glow.īeginning with Dan as a boy in a meticulously detailed sequence, the narrative quickly advances to Dan the man, where he has taken refuge from that terrifying childhood and sought to silence his ghosts with alcohol.

The film then devolves, however, into a sort-of extended homage to Kubrick’s movie, striking in its familiar visual imagery, but in terms of the larger story, an overlong mess. Writer-director Mike Flanagan (who previously adapted another King work with “Gerald’s Game”) seemingly tries to split the difference, setting up King’s three-pronged storyline, which becomes more tense and involving as those points intersect. Part of the blame, in this case, is essentially serving two masters: the dense plot of King’s 2013 book, which follows the Dan Torrance character into adulthood and the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film, which took considerable liberties with the source, leaving behind a memorable horror classic with some problematic aspects in terms of the story.

Add “Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep” – the long-delayed sequel to “The Shining” – to the list of movie and TV adaptations based on the author’s work that shine at first, before flaming out down the stretch.

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King