How do you make a sequel to a classic? It’s a difficult thing; the balance between paying homage to what came before and forging something new is difficult. An inch too far in either direction, and you risk the ire of someone, either the fan who wants something new or the fan who wants the same thing all over again.

Doctor Sleep makes the question even more difficult. The film The Shining is a stone-cold classic to reuse the word. Adapted from Stephen Kings novel of the same name, it takes many liberties with the story, so much so that King himself famously did not like it. King wrote the novel Doctor Sleep 36 years later as a sequel. So the question is, how do you adapt a novel that serves as a sequel to a classic book and film, each of which has distinctly different arcs and in particular endings?

The answer is, of course, with great care, which is exactly what director Mike Flanagan has done.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Doctor Sleep’ shines in more ways than one”