Red Rum! Red Rum! For those whom don’t know, this is another installment of “horror” from the mind of Stephen King. “Doctor Sleep” is the continuation movie to his 1980 story, “The Shining”. In this, little Danny Torrance is all grown up and trying to get his life together. There are still bad things out there, though, and, now, he has to help someone else, someone like him. It wasn’t scary at all, but it was decent.
There are spoilers in the air.
I have to say, this wasn’t what I expected. I thought this was going to be a horrific, killing-spree kind of movie. It was not. It was more of a supernatural type. So, it’s still worthy of the blog. There are, what I think they were called, “hungry ghosts” in the story, but they were there only at the beginning and end of it. The rest of the movie centered around live people, and, mostly, people whom wanted to stay alive for as long as they could, like centuries. They did this by stealing the powers of those whom “shine”.
The main character, Danny Torrance, has chosen to keep his gift a secret, which is what spared him, as a child, from being hunted by the “shine”-eaters. Danny rode the unhealthy rollercoaster of booze and drugs, then got sober. He used his gift to comfort old folks in a hospice until the “Eaters” murder a gifted little boy, which prompts a powerful, pre-teen girl to seek Danny out to put a stop to the “Eaters”. This, of course, is the climax, the decision that propels the characters through the rest of the story.
This movie is a mindscape kind of film: think Professor X, but more sinister. Danny and Abra, the pre-teen girl, set a trap for the “Eaters” and end up destroying all but the leader of the group. Danny and Abra know that the leader, Rose, is too powerful. So, Danny takes Abra back to the hotel from the first movie to “wake it up”. Rose has no idea what she is walking into and, therefore, is destroyed, but, in the process, so is Danny. Abra is safe, but, unfortunately, there are more things in the world like Rose.
This is one of those cases where the movie suffers because of preconceived notions. Even though the story is supernatural and has “hungry spirits” and soul-eaters, it didn’t put me on edge. This was more of a good versus evil story, and I was more intrigued than I was afraid for the main characters. Danny acquired the tools to fight his demons early on in the film. So, there was little threat. He was more of a threat to himself than any outside force. I felt like there needed to be more scary things trying to get him and Abra. I give this film 7 🎃🎃🎃 out 10. I stayed awake, but no spine-tingling occurred.
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