I just finished watching IT and IT Chapter Two. Mentally, I feel exhausted. This is yet another long-ass film. I’ve only seen Doctor Sleep once. I remember enjoying it but I think it dragged a bit at the beginning for me. Hopefully, my memory is incorrect, as it often is.
As you know, Doctor Sleep is the sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and not the longer Stephen King approved mini-series. The film has Ewan McGregor as Dan Torrance. Aside from that, it’s not really a loaded cast of big names. Rebecca Ferguson plays Rose The Hat, and that’s really the other big role in this. Cliff Curtis (Fear The Walking Dead and Training Day) is in this as Billy Freeman. I know Carl Lumbly from an assortment of things, and he plays Dick Hallorann. Bruce Greenwood who was Gerald in Gerald’s Game is Dr. John. And last, but certainly not least, is my man Henry Thomas who is The Bartender (Jack). I have seen Henry in many projects and usually enjoy his work.
I have never read the book. I probably never will. I’m not interested in doing play-by-play commentary. The relaxed approach works for me with Doctor Sleep. One final thing, Mike Flanagan directed this and I mostly enjoy his work. I liked Gerald’s Game and have heard good things about The Haunting of Hill House, not so much for Bly Manor, but his best film to date is still Oculus. Many would say that this is his best film, and you’re welcome to your opinion, but Oculus is really fucking good too.
Start Film
I watched the director’s cut the first time. I am just doing the theatrical cut for this review because it saves me 30 minutes. I am simply pressed for time.
I already like the music.
Florida 1980
We have a young girl named Violet and there’s Rose the Hat. I’m just gonna call her Rose because I’m lazy. Rose shows off this magical hat. Soon, she is surrounded by Rose’s friends who then close in on Violet.
Okay, watching Danny on his tricycle pedaling around the Overlook and the iconic floor design. And there’s room 237. It’s a smart way to hook fans almost immediately. I can’t imagine this film being nearly as good if you had never seen the original The Shining. The lady that they have playing Wendy is quite pretty. Doc ain’t talking to her after his continued nightmares. Dick pays him a visit. Dick says that the ghosts from the Overlook are hungry and want Danny. Dick teaches Danny about putting shit in a special box. Props to Carl for his portrayal of Dick.
Danny sees Miss 237 again. She is sexy as always. He puts that bitch in the box. Now back to Looney Tunes!
New Jersey 2011
Dan is a drinker now but he wakes up with a very pretty girl. She likes her blow. He has no money in his wallet. Did she steal it or did he spend it stupidly? He’s gonna steal the money back but she has a small child. Dick reprimands Danny.
Snakebite Andi meets a guy in the theater and he’s looking for young girls. She uses her power to make him fall asleep and then she robs him and cuts him as Rose and this dude watches. Looking at the cast listing, I am guessing that is Crow Daddy. Rose is very interested in Andi’s powers.
In New Hampshire, we are at Abra’s birthday party. Is Abra really a name? Okay, Abra can make shit happen, like spoons hanging from the ceiling. Andi is 15. Rose offers her a deal to stay young for a hundred years.
Frazier, New Hampshire
There’s Cliff, well Billy. Cliff’s hair game is on point. Ewan pulls off the disheveled look pretty well. Dan gets a room from Mrs. Robertson. Billy paid for Dan’s first 2 weeks.
Andi is ready for her ceremony. Grandpa Flick is gonna lead this ceremony. Yes, that’s his name. Stephen King has a thing about people showing no fear. Okay, so they have this thermos-looking device, and it releases Steam which is some kind of essence from people, in this instance, Violet from the opening scene. This is the key to this group. It is all very odd. Rose breathes it in and then blows it into Andi’s mouth. Well, Andi’s eyes now have a glow to them. So that’s the big crux of this as you can imagine.
Dan wakes up with the girl from earlier, but she is dead, and nobody has found her or her baby yet. Okay, that scene was disturbing and well done. Dan decides to try out AA and the leader is Dr. John. Man, those 3 guys together on screen. That’s solid. Dan knows where the doctor lost his watch. That basically earned Dan a job as an orderly at the hospice. The job interview scene mirrors a lot from the scene in The Shining.
Rose tells Andi that she kinda died during the ceremony and may not be 100% human. And I’m having a moment. I was remembering a scene from this film but couldn’t remember what the movie was. That was probably bothering me a good 3 or 4 months ago. I feel an ounce of relief.
Azrael, the cat, insists on visiting one of the patients. The cat always knows when it’s time for people to die. This poor dude, he’s so scared to die. And he calls Dan, Doctor Sleep. Welllll shiiiiiit. Dan reassures the man of the peace from death. The man’s steam essence leaves his body. That is the scene I was trying to remember.
Haha, on the wall in Dan’s room, it now says Hello. Abra is smiling about it.
Eight Years Later
Dan has remained sober for some time, which is nice. I like his sweater. It’s a really nice color. He dedicates his sobriety token to Jack Torrance. All the hospice patients call him Doc. I don’t know how I would do working in a hospice. Initially, you think that you can’t handle the death aspect. But I wonder if there’s something therapeutic and positive about being with people in their dying days. Something to consider. Dan gets another message on his wall, “Mornin'”.
Crow Daddy is like a scout to find more people to victimize and steal their steam. Rose is in charge of the steam canisters and she is in denial about there being less and less steam in this world.
Adair, Iowa
This is the kid, Bradley, that Crow is scouting because he can predict pitches thanks to his gift. Well, they lure him into their van thanks to Andi’s ability to “push” people. I have questions about steam quality and quantity and how it relates to a person’s age, health, and gender. Do any of those things matter? If this kid was so good at predicting stuff, why didn’t he see this coming? Pain and fear help purify the steam. They should hire Tobin Bell to help then. So they torture this kid to get the good shit, quintessentially. Abra can see this happening but then tells Rose to stop. Abra is flailing around and sends a message to Dan. There it is! REDRUM!! He asks her who, and she tells him the baseball boy. I need more info on these steam receptacles. Rose knows someone was watching and informs Crow Daddy that this could be a big score along the East Coast. Crow wants to find her before her parents send her to a psychiatrist.
Abra is a very smart, intuitive girl. I’m sure the shine helps, but she is on a different level. She can actually see landmarks and where they made camp to torture Bradley. That’s a hell of a gift. And she can go into a grocery store, sees UTZ chips, Capri Suns, Chef Boyardee, I think I saw Pop-Tarts. Rose can also get in Abra’s head. Well, that makes for a giant mindfuckeroo. Dan also collapsed. Dan was asking for help from Tony.
I have a feeling that Rose is gonna fuck over Crow. Crow asks if Abra is food or if they turn her. Rose doesn’t want to turn her, most likely fear of her power, jealousy, losing her grip on her group called The Knot.
Abra travels on the bus and meets Dan who is working on the train. It’s about time that they meet up. She wants Dan to find Bradley to help ease his parents. Dan tells her to go home and try to avoid attracting attention. He’s a coward. Azrael goes to a supposedly empty room, but there’s Dick!!! The last person that Dan put in a box was Horace. Dick has no real grip on time, it’s been 8 years, but it feels like a dream within a dream to him. Does Christopher Nolan have the Shine? Dick tells Dan that the Knot will be tracking down Abra. Dan is like, why me, and Dick is like, well I thought the same when I met you and I’m still helping you out. Time to pay that shit forward, Dan. He needs to get her what she asked for. And Dan won’t ever see Dick again. Well, that makes me sad.
Is it just me or does Abra’s mom remind you a bit of Rashida Jones? I really enjoy some of the unique perspectives that they take, like Rose flying over cities, or when Abra kinda flipped her room. Ewww, fuck walking on the road in bare feet. I couldn’t do it. Rose has successfully tracked down Abra. Ohhh memories in boxes. This is very reminiscent of Dreamcatcher. Oh shit, it’s a trap set by Abra. Hahaha, now Abra has access to Rose’s mind. Ohhh, Rose’s hand looks like a combination of Jessie’s in Gerald’s Game and Addison’s in Saw II in the hand trap.
Rose flees back to camp. Grandpa Flick is cycling. Abra tells Dan that she got into Rose’s head. Grandpa Flick is dying because they haven’t been eating well. His death scene is quite remarkable. Then he fades away to steam. Dan brings Billy on a ride to Iowa. Abra is kinda virtually joining them on the ride. She sees Dan’s boxes. Girl, you best stay away from them.
Crow suggests that Rose shouldn’t go on the hunt for Abra because she can possibly track her and see her coming. I really like Crow. Hahaha, Billy says that he doesn’t know whether he wants Dan to be right or wrong about this. Time to do some hole digging. Billy has a hunting story that ends with him not liking the smell of death. Ohhh, they find a shoe. How the fuck are they going to explain this to authorities?
Dan wants Abra to tell her parents about this because Rose and her crew are on their way and will kill her parents to get to Abra. Man, Abra’s dad is super pissed at Dan, but Abra shows her dad a few visions to make him understand. I like her dad a lot. He reacts exactly as you would expect. She can train the crew because Barry the Chunk played with the baseball mitt that Dan brought her. Christ, everybody in that group has a name. Hat, Crow, Flick, Snake, Chunk. Is this the Goonies? They are traveling on I-95. Dan suggests that Abra lets them track her a bit and then do a trick.
Oh, I vaguely remember this scene. The Knot arrives in the woods and there’s Abra. Andi tries to deal with Abra first with her mind push. Andi stabs with her a syringe. But it’s just a stuffed animal. Barry just took a bullet. Everybody has guns. Billy shoots Andi. Andi wakes it inside the vehicle. Dan and Billy approach. Andi mindfucks Dan. She goes to kill Dan, but Abra wakes him up. Billy kills her, but before she dies, she has Billy shoot himself. Ohhhh noooo. Billy, don’t be a hero. Don’t be a fool with your life. So sad. He was my favorite character. Actually, I quite liked Andi, so they killed each other. That sucks.
Abra realizes that Crow is missing, but he shows up at her house and sedates her. What happened to Abra’s dad? He is laying down in the house and he’s dead. I feel like if this was made 15-20 years ago, Crow would have been played by Danny Trejo, right? He has Abra in the van and she is secure, and he has a gun. Tells her not to bother contacting Dan. He dopes her up so much, more than he’s ever had to. They basically took out all but 4 main characters to simplify the story, which I appreciate. Crow is very menacing.
Dan finds a knife firmly entrenched in Abra’s father’s chest. Dan, you could use Dick right now. Not the booze but the good Dick. Dan scans for conversations trying to hear Abra, and he does. Then his room shifts and he’s in the van with Abra. Dan tries something and that wakes up Abra. Hahaha, she talks about being hungover, and Crow knows it’s not her. Crow isn’t wearing his seatbelt because he feels like he’s gonna live forever, so Dan makes Crow veer into a tree and launches out the windshield. Awww, Crow is dead. So Rose has to be a superpowered adversary to take on 2 people at once. Nope, I’m not gonna make my typical porn reference.
Rose appears to Abra and asks her what she’s done. Rose feeds on some steam to hulk up. Shit, she’s like Wolverine with healing power. I like the subtle heartbeat sound throughout this in the quiet sections, which is reminiscent of The Shining. Dan picks up Abra and he says that he doubts that they can beat her. Dan wants to bring them to a dangerous place for people like them. Sweet. Hit the music, come on. I need some Shining music.
Abra’s mom calls and asks her where she is. Abra tells her that she loves her and ends the call. She instructs Dan to call her mom when this is over and she tosses out her phone. I bet that was an expensive phone. Maybe just remove the sim card. There’s the music!!! Hell, I just had to tell Alexa to turn off my lamp. It is 4 AM, totally in the dark aside from the laptop screen. I’m pumped!!
Dan doesn’t want Abra to come inside until she absolutely has to. Dan is gonna go in and wake it. Is this Pulp Fiction? This is really what everybody came to see, right?
REDRUM!! There’s the door that Jack chopped up! Everybody, get your memberberries out and start eating. The nostalgia is just too good. Was that actual footage of Wendy from The Shining or did they reenact that? Dan visits the friendly bar. Henry Thomas as Lloyd the bartender is so good. This scene is just so fucking good with Lloyd saying that he isn’t Jack. The whiskey is now the medicine. Aww, and Rose is there. I could have watched them talk for another 10 minutes and still be fully captivated. You can tell I was fully invested because I barely wrote anything.
Dan makes note of the fire axe. God damnit, I am making so many typos while typing in the dark. I need a wireless backlight keyboard. But this keyboard has lasted me years and it is the most natural feeling one that I own.
Rose is in and sees the blood and elevators. Ohhh, Dan actually grabbed the axe. There’s the typewriter. Rose plans on torturing Abra for years, nice. Rose just realizes that Dan is the one who killed Crow. It’s on!!!! Dan sends her to the hedge maze. This right, this is the shit that defined my nightmares as a child. I saw Halloween, Jaws, Amityville Horror, An American Werewolf in London, etc, but the hedge maze is the only thing that scared me and gave me nightmares. Isn’t that strange?
The chase has begun. Rose finally finds Abra just standing there. Ohhh, she did some knife cutting on Rose. She is clicking the back of Rose’s knees. She’s gonna keep doing that and get grabbed. Yup, there you go. Can’t keep going to the well that many times. Rose is just realizing that this isn’t Abra’s mind. Dan almost got her in the box. Rose gets out of the spell.
I love the recreation of the stairs scene. It’s so different and yet still so good. Rose hopes to talk Dan into joining her. She gets an axe to the top of the shoulder. She gets him in the femoral artery. She finger fucks his wound and feeds on that whiskey-flavored steam. She is seeing inside his mind and all the boxes. He just let the boxes open and they swarm on Rose and they suck the steam out of her. Well, that was intense. But they’re still hungry. Yay, the twins!!! The ghosts are swarming Danny now.
Ohhh, the twins want to play with Abra. Abra sees Dan, but he isn’t right and giving chase. Abra hides in a room. You know the room. 237 for the win. There’s the lovely lady in the tub. Danny breaks in he looks like a fucking mess. Abra says that Dan visited the boiler first and foremost. This brings him back, for now.
Dan checks on the boiler room. Abra really is trying her damnedest. Dan kneels in the boiler room as it starts going up in flames. At this moment, he sees his mom and the younger version of him and they smile.
Abra is now talking to Dan, who is like her version of Dick. Dan talks about people who Stand. Is this The Stand? Huh, Abra’s mom is named Lucy. Abra reveals that she was talking to Dan. She reassures her mom that people go on after death and that her dad is good. It brings Lucy some peace. Hahaha, Abra sees the old lady in the tub. She walks in and closes the door. We get some good music.
End Film
Okay, first off, watching this version is much better than the director’s cut, in my opinion. It’s funny how divisive director’s cuts or extended cuts are. Usually, I prefer them. With Doctor Sleep, it goes from 150 minutes to 180 minutes. It’s a lot of movie already and then add another 30 minutes, I think it is a lot to ask all but the most hardcore fans. If you’ve never seen this, I highly recommend going theatrical first. If it warrants another viewing for you, then consider the director’s cut.
There are so many subtle and not too subtle connections to not only The Shining but to other aspects of Stephen King’s world. Mike Flanagan even included the Oculus mirror in the film. I highly recommend reading through this list from IMDB if you would like to see how much you may have missed. I think it’s fun. I noted a few things as I was watching that are on this list.
There are times during the first half that I find myself bored and my mind wanders. I don’t know if it is just me or if other’s had the same issue. The pacing was fine, by and large. The stuff that didn’t excite me all made sense and belonged in the story. But sometimes you get bored.
The second half is so fucking good though. Much like in The Shining, the second half is superior, which we know isn’t true for many of Stephen King’s stories. IT Chapter Two may have pointed that out about 8 times, and then proceeded to have a shitty ending. I would go so far as to say, from the scene when Dan and Billy dig up Bradley, that’s where it picked up for me significantly. And you needed everything before it to make everything after that much better.
I often like the antagonists of horror films. I never really got into Rose or her group. I found Andi and Crow far more interesting. I don’t think that the actress could have done much differently. I’m not sure if there’s any way to change the story or the character to make me more interested. It’s like, she had to be imperfect to be the perfect antagonist, if that makes any sense. I don’t know if that’s brilliant or not.
While I appreciate Ewan and Rebecca’s talents as the leads, neither were completely irreplaceable. I know some people will point to something to defend Ewan, just stop it. I’m not attacking the man, it’s just that I don’t think that he did anything truly remarkable. He played the role very well and that’s good enough for me. The real star was Kyliegh Curran as Abra. She did a wonderful job at her age. She could have a very bright future. I thought Henry Thomas (Lloyd/Jack), Carel Srucycken (Grandpa Flick), Zahn McClarnon (Crow Daddy), Emily Alyn Lind (Andi), Zackary Momoh (David/Abra’s dad), Carl Lumbly (Dick Hallorann), and Cliff Curtis (Billy) all really shined in their respective roles. This film let its leads consistently do the heavy lifting and allowed the side characters to accentuate the scenes. That is a damn fine job by everyone involved.
Final Rating – 7.8 – The best way for me to say this is to borrow from my recent conversation with my buddy, Joe. I prefer Oculus as a film to watch and to entertain me. But I also am realistic enough to acknowledge that this is the better Mike Flanagan film. Hell, I only gave Oculus a 6.2, which seems low in hindsight, but that is a substantial gap. This film is awfully close to an 8 and Oculus may be closer to a 6.5. This hit all the right notes. It’s not flawless, but this is definitely a highly recommended film.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Warner Bros. (presents)
- Intrepid Pictures (An Intrepid Pictures/Vertigo Entertainment Production)
- Vertigo Entertainment (An Intrepid Pictures/Vertigo Entertainment Production) (A Mike Flanagan Film)
Please go find a copy and support the creators.