Come play with us, Danny... again

Doctor Sleep

Confession time. Doctor Sleep is probably my least favourite Stephen King book. I wasn’t even that big a fan of the novel The Shining, which I found to be inferior to the Kubrick adaptation. So I wasn’t expecting much from this sequel, but the filmmakers manage to fix some of the problems from the book, though not all. The True Knot, a group of psychic vampires, are still pretty one-dimensional. For example, the introduction of Snakebite Andi, a young psychic who preys on child sexual predators, would have been a good way to show conflict in the group. Except she doesn’t bat an eyelid when she learns the group kill children, so there is no conflict. But they are at least slightly more threatening than in the book, where the heroes end up killing them all while barely breaking a sweat.

Ewan McGregor makes a good grownup Danny Torrance, and the rest of the cast put in their best effort, especially Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat. The film is slow-paced (they could easily have cut out 10-15 minutes) but does a good job making you care about the characters, especially Danny’s relationship with Abra, a young girl who also has the shinning. I have mixed feelings about the ending. Bringing Danny back to the Overlook Hotel makes for an exciting conclusion visually, but things turn a little ridiculous when he meets a Jack Nicholson lookalike and then every ghost from the original film ends up attacking him. I also wasn’t happy with Danny turning evil before redeeming himself. It mirrors his father’s arc in the first book (but not Kubrick’s movie) but also makes him seem weaker since it took months of solitude for Jack Torrance to turn psycho, whereas Danny goes full redrum after just one night in the Overlook. So definitely a mixed bag, but worth watching.

Frozen II

Like many Disney classics, Frozen didn’t really need a sequel, but this one is fine. The plot is less focused, though the lack of a villain works surprisingly well. The songs are also less memorable. Great animation, quality voice cast, but not a movie that lingers in the memory.