Doctor Sleep

The film, directed by Mike Flanagan, was not at all what I expected, and yet, everything I expected. If you are familiar with his other work, films such as The Gerald’s Game, Before I Wake, and Hush, then you might see why it makes total sense for him to have taken on the daring task of directing this project. While he is a relatively new director and has a decent repertoire within the horror genre, Stanley Kubrick set the bar pretty high for a sequel that, let’s be real, no one really wanted. That being said…

The movie follows Dan Torrance who, since the sinister event at The Overlook, has suppressed all association with his ‘shine’. When we are reintroduced to Dan, he has become a total drunk and getting into all types of trouble. He is fleaing and choosing not to take any type of responsibility revealing it, although suppressed. He never really found a way to cope with the trauma he endured as a child. Perhaps the fact that he’s an alcoholic is meant to draw parallels between him and his father. When he finally settles in a small town in New Hampshire he starts getting weird messages appearing on his wall, which we can only assume he sees through his ability to use his shine, and where he also meets Abra, a little girl who’s “shine” is just as powerful as Dan’s. 

He agrees to help her fight off the True Knot, a cult who steals steam (physical form of shine) from innocent people, however they target children because they have proven to have the strongest steam. In a way, they do what the spirits from the Overlook do except they’re alive. 

Well, it turns out that Abra and Rose (the leader of the True Knots) are both so powerful they could connect and feel each other using their shine. Once they see each other and Rose  realizes how much shine Abra has, she decides to go after her because she obviously wants to take her shine. Now, the reason  Abra’s shine is important is because there aren't many people left on the planet with shine to feed off, Abra’s shine is so powerful it will last them longer than most. So, now that Abra and Dan know their plan all hell breaks loose. 

Rose sends half of her people to fetch Abra for her.  However, Dan and Abra are expecting them so they come up with a plan and they team up with Abra’s dad. When they arrive for her they luer them to the wood away from anyone. They fight the mob and bam bam they have to find a way to call Rose out to none other than … The Overlook Hotel.  

Dan obviously chooses to have the final stand off here, so that he could finally just get over his past. Rose tries to intimidate Dan by reminiscing on his childhood. Apparently, Dan has somehow slipped between the cracks. It’s understandable that Rose didn’t detect adult Dan because the shine gets duller with age. Also, chemicals like alcohol will dim out the scent.As opposed to smaller Danny who was in Florida around the same time as the True Knots and should have been scented. I think it was most likely because he was always near his father who probably always smelled like liquor. 

When she gets close enough to him Dan, like, unboxes all the ugly thoughts or spirits from his memory and they like, physically come out in front of them. When they’re released their first instinct is to feed on the person with the stronger steam. In this case, it’s Rose. Dan released at least seven of Shine vampires so it wasn’t long until they finished off Rose. 

They then turned to Dan. So, this part still confuses me. When they turned on Dan they didn’t kill him but rather possessed him and sent him to kill Abra. Dan chases Abra through the hotel trying to kill her...just the way… Jack… did with… Danny. Except, unlike Danny, Abra stands up to Dan and somehow gets through to him, at least long enough for her to get away safely. 

Dan sacrifices himself and blows up the Overlook .

Overall, I think the film has a lot of unanswered questions. Obviously, if you read the books it will make things a little bit more clear. The story live was solid throughout most of the movie. At the beginnings I was confused on why Dan had turned against Aba the way Jack did. But I’m sure that if I would have read the books prior I would have understood it much better. The Shining was the same in that way. The movie doesn’t really give that much information as to what anything is, not that there is no information, just not detailed explanation.