Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Carl Lumbly
Running Time: 153 minutes
Release Dates: October 30th for France and limited Fandango early screening, October 31st worldwide, November 8th for the United States
Genre: Horror
Synopsis: Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra (Kyliegh Curran), a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the 'shine.' Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality. Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abra's innocence and fearless embrace of her shine compel Dan to call upon his own powers as never before—at once facing his fears and reawakening the ghosts of the past.
Trailers:
Figured I would throw this since the movie will begin having screenings tomorrow
The Shining is my favorite horror film. I've watched it three times this week. I'm so hyped for this movie. Gonna have Jack on the rocks when I watch this at Alamo.
I didn't realize that the story leaned so hard into The Shining. When I read a brief synopsis about the book it sounded like a largely standalone story that just happened to have adult Danny Torrance as the protagonist who confronts some kind of psychic vampires. Looking at the trailer for the movie though it appears to have a much much stronger connection to the events of the Overlook Hotel......even going so far as to have Danny revisit the Overlook.
I got my tickets for the preview screening tomorrow night. Anyone interested in seeing it tomorrow can get tickets from the Fandango app (I'm having trouble pulling them up in a browser, but there are definitely still seats available at least in my neck of the woods).
Going to see this tomorrow night with my fiance. We both adored The Haunting of Hill House, and we're really looking forward to this.
Surprised there aren't any reviews out though. Does anyone know when the embargo is?
EDIT: I'm surprised to see the US doesn't get this until next week? It's out here in the UK this week. That seems really bizarre to me, releasing a big horror film like this.....one week after Halloween. What's the logic behind that?
EDIT: I'm surprised to see the US doesn't get this until next week? It's out here in the UK this week. That seems really bizarre to me, releasing a big horror film like this.....one week after Halloween. What's the logic behind that?
I'm pumped. But having not read the book, it looks like they return to the Overlook Hotel based on the trailer and that is just about the least interesting thing they could possibly do. But my butt is totally going to be there on Nov 8th
I'm not even questioning the logic behind different release dates, just that it's not coming out in time for Halloween. Seems pretty weird for a horror film.
Just got out of it. Honestly.... it's pretty solid. Of course it can't even come close to touching the original, but it's definitely like a 7.5 or 8 out of 10 flick.
It's a little slow to get going and there are a couple moments of slight silliness in terms of plot, but for something that nobody asked for it feels like it earns its existence.
I liked it. Its definitely not The Shining but it has it's own identity and it's a solid one. People expecting Kubticks movie are going to be disappointed.
The girl who played Abra did a great job being a kid but not an annoying one. Her confidence was earned and there were times you could sense her menace. Ewan felt like a guest star in this movie though but he turned in a good performance.
The villains were underdeveloped though. We didnt need all of their backstories but definitely the hat lady needed more time.
Their powers were also not well defined. Some got classifications and then you had people like Danny or the hat lady which seemed to do vague range of things. Abra was called a looker. Evil lolita was a pusher. Maybe I missed something though.
Overall it's a good film that borrows elements from The Shining but its really a very different type of movie. Pacing was good, acting was enjoyable, sound design was on point but I would have liked more character building and better scares.
For those who also read the book, how much of a departure is it from the source? I know they're going to have to excise a lot because it was a pretty long read, and a lot of what went down in the book would probably be pretty boring to see on the big screen.
Got out of an early screening a short bit ago. I'll preface this with saying I haven't read Dr. Sleep. As a fan of both the novel and the film adaptation of The Shining, this did nothing for me. The Kubrick film is one of my favorites of all time. I would've enjoyed Doctor Sleep more if it didn't try and force itself as a direct sequel. It felt like lazy fan-service. The way Doctor Sleep tries to reconcile the differences between the novel and film versions of The Shining doesn't make sense.
The ending felt like King wanted to see his original ending to The Shining take place on film. It was cheesy and didn't work. Danny dying similarly to how Jack dies in the novel minus the whole roque mallet violence was meh.
I'm not the biggest Flanagan fan, but I enjoy most of his movies. I thought The Haunting of Hill House botched the ending. This botches the ending too, but my issues with the film go beyond that. It's too long of a movie with dialogue that's often laughable. The haunting imagery of The Shining is undermined due to the execution being straight up uncanny valley. So much is literalized that it ruins any creepiness it's trying to build up. I can't help but wonder how much better this could've been if it would've done it's own thing instead of standing in the shadow of Kubrick.
I liked it a lot. Everything in the last 10 minutes felt kinda forced and unnecessary, but it was a fun experience otherwise. Very different from The Shining.
It's much more a supernatural thriller than it is a horror movie though. I can't imagine anyone being all that scared by it. There are a few scenes that will be quite disturbing though, if you don't like seeing children put in harm's way.
I loved all the villains. Yes their powers and abilities weren't ever explicitly defined, but I'd prefer a little mystery and surprise over explicit exposition. Rebecca Ferguson is great as Rose the Hat, and I particularly liked Snakebite Andi though she doesn't have a huge role.
I wasn't really on-board with the concept for this story, but it really won me over and had me tense and excited at particular moments. I didn't really like the way things all came together at the finale, just because it felt like a lot of buildup for a pretty predictable and straightforward event. Even lazy viewers can kinda see the ending coming from a mile away, and there's no real attempt to throw in an interesting twist or wrinkle.
For 2hr30min horror movie it moves pretty swiftly and never feels like it is treading water in the same way that IT Chapter 2 and Suspiria did. Midsommar had a very long runtime as well, but Doctor Sleep never feels as indulgent and languid either.
I am so glad that they just recast all the major roles from the first film, rather than having some kind of creepy CGI de-aging for Jack Nicholson, Scatman Crothers, and Shelley Duval.
I also just saw it, and Mike Flanagan understands ghosts like few directors do. He understands that they were people once (and still are in a way), and people that expect ghosts to be scary (rather than sorrowful and sad) probably will respond to this the same they may have The Haunting of Hill House. I really enjoyed it. It's a thoughtful movie in every way, from the above to its attempt to bridge the gap between The Shining as a film and (as I understand, since I haven't read it) Doctor Sleep the novel.
I enjoyed it. It's messy and overlong but Mike Flanagan really knows how to focus on small human moments
the dying patients
. Ewan McGregor was great and Rebecca Ferguson was a sexy-scary delight. I think they overdid the fan service *slightly* but they juggled it well for the most part.
The new actor who played Dick O'Halloran was fucking spot on.
One moment made me feel really bad -
when Danny's pal is made to shoot himself. That really bothered me, in an effective way of course
I liked that it was a smart thriller / horror, as in the protagonists are actually competent and do not end up in idiotic situations (IT Chapter 2 ) .
Also just read up on how the book ends.. wuff yeah I'm way happy they went with this. That one sounds cheesy as hell.
Fun movie. It is not a Kubrick movie but I liked it almost as much so around 8.0 or a bit higher. Oh and the villains here didnt dick around like that clown for three hours.
Got out of an early screening a short bit ago. I'll preface this with saying I haven't read Dr. Sleep. As a fan of both the novel and the film adaptation of The Shining, this did nothing for me. The Kubrick film is one of my favorites of all time. I would've enjoyed Doctor Sleep more if it didn't try and force itself as a direct sequel. It felt like lazy fan-service. The way Doctor Sleep tries to reconcile the differences between the novel and film versions of The Shining doesn't make sense.
The ending felt like King wanted to see his original ending to The Shining take place on film. It was cheesy and didn't work. Danny dying similarly to how Jack dies in the novel minus the whole roque mallet violence was meh.
I'm not the biggest Flanagan fan, but I enjoy most of his movies. I thought The Haunting of Hill House botched the ending. This botches the ending too, but my issues with the film go beyond that. It's too long of a movie with dialogue that's often laughable. The haunting imagery of The Shining is undermined due to the execution being straight up uncanny valley. So much is literalized that it ruins any creepiness it's trying to build up. I can't help but wonder how much better this could've been if it would've done it's own thing instead of standing in the shadow of Kubrick.
I just watched. Insane movie, I love almost everything on it except
the recreation of the shinning scenes, felt a little bit off.
I LOVED the "dream battles", the scene of rose flying to reach abra, i felt the "fantasy" in those scenes, Im amazed.
Another issue is with the pusher girl, she looked like she was gonna have a bigger plot inthe movie but just, nahhh
Damn - wait, this was actually really damn good. Wasn't afraid to take its time developing things. There three major character groups are really well addressed for the first half and it feels really well composed and engaging. Lots of cool imagery. The ending saw the most adjustments from the book, and I enjoyed those as well. The best King adaptation of the year for sure, expansive and compelling.
1. It's just not scary at any point in the film. Tense, sure. But there's never really any horror except maybe the very two opening sequences.
2. One of the horror bits, the
lady in the bathtub
is so incredibly overused.
She shows up in the same way probably five or six times over the course of the film and it almost turns into a running gag.
3. The villains suck. They're portrayed as these immortal supernatural apex predators,
but the moment they meet any resistance they are constantly foiled by the protagonists handily at every turn. Most of them are killed in a terribly filmed shootout.
4. The return to the Overlook was completely wasted and felt like
an afterthought. It probably takes place over the last half hour of the film in a 2.5 hour movie.
5. The ending is terrible.
Danny sacrificing himself to let the boiler explode makes no sense in the context of the film. His father doing it in the original Shining made sense as it's his redemption.
I had nothing to do yesterday, so I went to see Doctor Sleep. Just randomly decided to go. I don't have much of an attachment to the original movie (or miniseries) so, while the references helped connect the movies, I was more invested in the pure story progression.
Slow movie, sure. But I kind of enjoyed the parts where it delves into dreams, death, and the mind in general. The Shining is a neat power and I like how people can communicate with each other using it.
Rebecca Ferguson was a brilliant choice for the eye candy villain.
I will say that the imagery was unsettling throughout, but I never felt scared or "horrified." Perhaps that wasn't the point. That said, the "baseball boy" part of the movie was brutal.
1. It's just not scary at any point in the film. Tense, sure. But there's never really any horror except maybe the very two opening sequences.
2. One of the horror bits, the
lady in the bathtub
is so incredibly overused.
She shows up in the same way probably five or six times over the course of the film and it almost turns into a running gag.
3. The villains suck. They're portrayed as these immortal supernatural apex predators,
but the moment they meet any resistance they are constantly foiled by the protagonists handily at every turn. Most of them are killed in a terribly filmed shootout.
4. The return to the Overlook was completely wasted and felt like
an afterthought. It probably takes place over the last half hour of the film in a 2.5 hour movie.
5. The ending is terrible.
Danny sacrificing himself to let the boiler explode makes no sense in the context of the film. His father doing it in the original Shining made sense as it's his redemption.
Spoiler for the end of the King version of The Shining, I guess.
I didn't think Jack 'let' the boiler explode at all in the novel. He lets his family and Halloran escape from the htoel, but in doing so 'Jack' dies. The Jack/Hotel thing rushes to the boiler to try and stop the explosion.
I can't remember the last time I was so attracted to a villain. That scene when she's sat on top of the truck in her short skirt and bare feet with that tight T-shirt, I was getting hot under the collar lmao
Spoiler for the end of the King version of The Shining, I guess.
I didn't think Jack 'let' the boiler explode at all in the novel. He lets his family and Halloran escape from the htoel, but in doing so 'Jack' dies. The Jack/Hotel thing rushes to the boiler to try and stop the explosion.
In the book, Jack basically dies before Danny informs the hotel the boilers are going to blow. The thing possessing his body tries to stop the explosion but is too late. Jack's redemption is fighting off the hotel long enough for the Torrences to escape its evil.
It's basically the scene in Room 237 where Dan regains control.
It doesn't change your point really though on a macroscopic level.
Anyways, I personally enjoyed it. I enjoyed how different it was to The Shining. I liked the new characters. The True Knot were intriguing. Carel Struckyen as Grandpa was great to see, and I've been lucky enough to hang out with that guy a couple of times so I love seeing him get work that doesn't hinge on 'jeez this guy is super tall'.
The cast were fabulous top to bottom.
Thematically, personally, I've never felt that Kubrick's 'The Shining' failed to be a movie about alcoholism, it just didn't tell it from the perspective of the alcoholic like King's book. Instead focusing on Danny. For personal reasons, I've always been much more able to empathize with Danny in that story anyways. As such I was a little disappointed that King seemingly needed to make Dan have his own history with alcohol in order to get inside that character, but I can't say it didn't work for the story. And heck, at least he didn't make him a writer.
Those scenes, that delt with that, obviously we aren't all going to be as effected by them as I was. I wasn't expecting it to drag up as much as it did for me, so my connection with it is going to remain personal, which echoes a lot of my connection to the original.
It's no landmark masterpiece. It is, perhaps, too reverant of Kubrick's work, but being such a different story helps it push past that. I was surprised that it diverged so much from the plot of the book, knowing Flanagan and King are cool, and that he had to really sell King on the idea of making this more of a sequel to the movie that he famously hates... But I sort of see why King would agree to all the changes he did.
Thematically it's much closer to his work on both those books than Kubrick's movie was, and I've always felt King's main issue with Kubrick's (superior) take on the story, is that Kubrick made the character King saw himself in the bad guy. And I can see how that could mess you up, espescially when King was still fighting his addictions at the time the movie came out, and didn't beat them until years later.
Too many changes from the source material were required to align it with with the Shining (movie), not just in terms of plot but also characterisation. I was honestly puzzled why the filmmakers made the decisions they did.
I can't remember the last time I was so attracted to a villain. That scene when she's sat on top of the truck in her short skirt and bare feet with that tight T-shirt, I was getting hot under the collar lmao
It's a straight up weird movie. People expecting a sequel to the Shining will probably be confused or disappointed. Same with the book. Taken on its own, and with an appreciation of the lore and world building it performs, the movie is amazing. I didn't even realize it was 2.5 hours long. I was mesmerized from the very beginning.
