For the uninitiated
Picking up only a few years after the events at the Overlook Hotel, this sequel to Stephen King’s The Shining follows a now middle-aged Dan Torrance as it becomes his turn to help an even more gifted young lady who is being sought by a tribe of murderous paranormals that feed on the pain and suffering of child-shiners for their steam.
Now that you’re caught up
Getting into this sequel opened my eyes to the true nature that is to say the author’s intended ethos of what both The Shining and Doctor Sleep are ultimately about, which is a man’s effort to tackle the demon of alcohol addiction. Among the things I loved about reading this book wasn’t as much the story itself, which is a great read: an easy 10, but getting to hear from Stephen and learning his true feelings about the Kubrick interpretation. I never knew he was so loathing of it and, upon reading his reasons why, I found myself agreeing with Stephen; then I found out there was a remake done almost 20 years later. A three-part miniseries was produced with Steven Webber (Wings, Dracula: Dead and Loving It) as Jack “Here’s Johnny!” Torrance, Rebecca De Mornay (Risky Business, Feds) as Wendy, Courtland Mead (The Little Rascals, Recess) as Danny, and Melvin van Peebles (Bellyful, Watermelon Man) as Richard Hallorann. While not as graphic as far as the on-screen blood and gore, you do get to see a considerably more sympathizable Jack, and a Wendy I had far greater appreciation and respect for than the Shelley Duvall portrayal – nothing against Shelley.
As Doctor Sleep opens it’s ‘80s and Danny is still fairly young with the traumas from the Overlook still lingering around – quite literally. Waking from a sleep with an urge to pee Danny starts for the bathroom only to find Mrs Massey from room 217 is in his tub now, seeming to be waiting for him! This time Mrs Massey wasn’t so easy to get rid of the way Halloran told Danny they were back in the Overlook days, and what’s worse: there’s actual residue left behind from her presence in the bathroom, even Wendy can see it. Fortunately, Hallorann, played by Carl Lundy (Men of Honor, Alias), still has another trick for Danny to help handle the pesky Overlook apparitions, “There’s a way you can turn what they want from you back on them,” and so teaches young Danny how to create mental lockboxes: time to go to sleep, Mrs Massey.
While Danny’s learning to discipline his shine and overcome his traumas from the Overlook there is a band of paranormal vampire-like creatures who feed off the pained and tortured sufferings of children with shine; their shine and energy is purified into an inhalable “steam” these cult members feed on to remain perpetually young and nearly immortal. They’re led by the very attractive and seductive Rose the Hat played by Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Men in Black: International). If you thought Mrs Massey was a sinister bitch, she’s about to pale by comparison in regard to the horror she evokes. When we meet Rose in the movie she is seducing the first child we see, and the whole sequence has super eerie elements to it; however, you don’t see any on-screen violence.
Fast forward about two decades and Dan, played as an adult by Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), has followed closer in his own father’s footsteps towards alcoholism than he would have ever cared to have admitted. Never-the-less around the country he bounces, chiefly the Northern areas. He holds no job longer than a few weeks to a few months and drinks himself silly on every dollar he can afford to spend on said medicine plus a few hundred dollars more. He wakes up to the hangover of his life and finds himself in his birthday suit lying next to not the least unattractive woman I’ve ever seen, but booze makes everyone look better. Turned out this hussie’s choice of candy was cocaine, and as Dan’s preparing to head out of this latest one-nighter her son comes strolling into the living room with no more than shirt and (likely soiled) diaper. The kid sees the bag of coke and exclaims, “Canny!” Hungover or not Dan’s quick enough to keep the kid from “blowing” his own brains out. He leaves the kiddo with a still-unconscious mommy, snags $75 from mommy’s purse since he made the donation of his life the prior evening getting her that canny.
Following another few months on interstate bus trips Dan finally finds himself settling in the quiet Frazier, NH where he runs into an old friend from his youth – Tony – and an auspicious sign from the same that Dan’s finally found his place. Upon entering Frazier Dan’s spotted almost immediately by Billy Freeman, played by Cliff Curtis (Training Day, Blow), who will become one of Dan’s best friends through their mutual demon of alcoholism. Billy’s one of those who’d rather smoke the booze away with cigarettes. Dan can’t see it right away, but Billy has some shine in him, too and is able to vouch for Dan ensuring his new friend a place to hang is hat and a part-time job working the local tourist attraction, and attending regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings replete with a hard-assed though not totally unsympathetic sponsor named Casey Kingsley. As sobriety kicks in for Dan so too does his until-recently-drowned-out-by-the-booze shine return. He meets a new friend in his first AA meeting Dr John Dalton cameoed by Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek, Thirteen Days) and right away can tell the man is missing a watch that meant the world to him, Dan approaches him following a meeting and is able to pinpoint exactly where Dalton left the watch.
Not far from Frazier in another small town called Anniston a very gifted young lady has just turned three weeks old. Abra Stone is a very impressive character from the start. Born with a caul on her face that her father mistakenly discards as if it were mere extra-placental tissue, Abra begins to display precognitive and telekinetic capabilites within her infancy: one otherwise random evening both her parents have the same tell-tale nightmare that something awful was happening to Abra. They wake up to the poor baby’s terrifying screams. Mom (Lucy) tries milk, but Abra’s cries are not from hunger. She doesn’t have to pee. They’re fairly certain she isn’t choking on anything the way she’s whaling, but why not be sure. They contact her pediatrician, Dr. John Dalton who arranges x-rays just to assuage Lucy and David (Abra’s father) Stone and sure enough her body’s clear of foreign objects. Then, just after 9:01am on 9/11/2001 she falls asleep with no more fuss. She had essentially predicted the September 11th attacks. Sadly, that never made it in the movie. Abra’s precognitive abilities quickly turn telekinetic as her parents play the house piano fairly frequently, Abra picks up on the tunes and starts playing the piano… from her crib!
As Abra ages more and her shine develops she begins to make contact with Tony of all characters. Tony tells her about Dan and it doesn’t take long before Dan sees a friendly ‘hEll0:)’ on the chalkboard in his room. The more he and Abra communicate the more he can figure out about her telepathically. While the two keep up their telepathic correspondence Dan has also taken on duties as one of the orderlies in the local hospice in Frazier where he can use his shine to help the terminally ill transition in as peaceful a way as anyone can ask for. He earns the titular nickname by helping these terminally ill folk that it’s quite alright. There’s nothing to be afraid of, it’s just going to sleep.
As Abra and Dan get to know each other they arrange a meetup in front of one of the local libraries in an effort to appear as non-creepo like as Dan could think of; noticing his concerns Abra chuckles and the two begin exchanging thoughts like two people texting each other memes and GIFs – amusing, actually. This scene in a chapter called Abra’s Theory of Relativity was by far one of the cooler chapters in the story as it laid excellent foreshadowing into what Dan will discover later in the story by his own telepathic link with Abra’s great-grandmother Momo. My only real criticism of the whole story was the titling of this chapter. Being the consummate science guy that I am I found myself questioning the word choice there; now, I realize Stephen King is not a scientist. He’s a writer and that’s fair enough. I would have called it something more like “Abra’s theory of connection” or “Abra’s version of Gaia Theory” or to that effect. Abra’s theory dealt how we’re all related biologically, and she’s correct in the most biological sense of the word; however, what Abra doesn’t realize, nor Dan for that matter, at least initially, is just how closely related those two really are. Dan does put it together a bit faster from one of Abra’s habits of wiping at her mouth when she’s nervous.
While Dan and Abra become better acquainted in person Rose the Hat and her True Knot brethren are hunting down their next target: the young Bradley Trevor played by Jacob Tremblay (Wonder, Room), a natural of a baseball player – he can tell what the pitcher’s going to throw before the wind-up. Trevor’s death would ultimately turn-out fairly gruesome in the film where-as in the book, while the writing was certainly vivid, the filmed scene is regarded as easily one of the toughest and most difficult scenes in the movie to watch. The filmmakers justified the filming of the torturous murder as necessary 1) to show Rose’s truly savage nature and 2) to setup what will ultimately become the Knot’s downfall: a simple childhood illness that Trevor never got vaccinated for.
I call bull on both of those justifications on the basis that the first child they torture and kill for stream isn’t killed on camera, but the scenes following it certainly lead us to believe that kid’s parents will never know what happened. In a similar vein one of the remaining bits of respect I still have for M Night Shyamalan’s 1999 blockbuster The Sixth Sense was that no on-screen violence ever happens to Cole Sear. He shows signs of bruising, scratches, and torn articles of clothing several times throughout the film. It never happens on camera. I’m not overly fond of filmmakers who think it’s necessary for the sake of a story to film children being harmed, which is just my two cents.
During the Trevor-kid’s murder Abra finds herself peeking in on it unintentionally. She can tell the boy is being badly hurt and screams for it to stop, while of course the cult’s not about to stop Rose can feel Abra’s nearly astral presence. Finally, as the scene becomes too horrific for Abra to see she snaps from the vision of the murder and sends a whopper of a message to Dan that they “killed the baseball boy.” However, Rose has become aware of Abra and how strong of shine the young girl possesses – Rose convinces about a third of the surviving Knot-members to hunt down and kidnap Abra at any cost – for a potential lifetime of steam.
While on a telepathic scouting mission to learn more about young Abra, Rose gets considerably more than she bargained for: Abra’s waiting for her. If you’re familiar with the myth that one can die in their dreams then perhaps you’ll appreciate what happens to Rose during her psychic tussle with Abra leaves her physically body equally as marred as she gets in the altercation: chiefly that her hand gets messed heavily. Rose being Rose (the declaration being the only paraphrasing in the following line): this means war, you little bitch!
Now, when I first read the reaction my bullshit-meter spiked; however, Rose does have tricks of her own. All members of the True Knot have a little “shine” of their own, most in different ways. Andi Snakebite’s, played by Emily Lind (Revenge, J. Edgar), being strong power of suggestion. In the movie that comes into play during the first of the two climaxes when Snakebite is cycling out rapidly after being shot by Billy Freeman, when he goes to examine the kill she’s not quite dead and tells him to kill himself. Since that sort of thing happens to also be a common derogatory, “Go kill yourself,” I actually had forgotten her power for a half second until seeing Billy put his own rifle under his chin and do her bidding. Fortunately, the book’s version of the final two showdowns is considerably better! Snakebite dies with no retaliation and while that hunting party is essentially killed off via firefight. Abra, in her telepathic link with Uncle Dan, begins panicking about one of the missing hunting-party members, the Crow – the only member of the Knot who could safely consider himself/itself Rose’s significant other.
Rose isn’t the only one who can think ahead in the group, but she is the best at it; in the Crow’s case the hunting party was honing in on the top two likely locations Abra could be: her house or a destination north of Frazier where Abra was telepathically leading them. While the rest of the hunting party went along with Abra’s wild-goose chase the Crow opted to stay behind in Abra’s home town of Anniston, NH where she’s being chaperoned by Billy Freeman from a distance. King, being a father himself, knows how well kids follow plans: usually not well. When Abra breaks the original the Crow is within eye-shot. He spots Billy, an older looking fella who could easily pass for late 70s, maybe 80s, and is able to put the old-timer to sleep fast with a tranquilizer and syringe. Assuming control of Billy’s truck he heads for Abra.
While Abra is in the middle of her panic with Dan about, “The Crow! Where’s the Crow?” Dan frantically searching the RV that brought the hunting party has no good news for Abra, then she hears a voice in too close of proximity for comfort. The Crow had found her home and let himself in. Armed with more of the same tranquilizer he put Billy to sleep with the Crow is able to sedate her with zero struggle. Turns out tranquilizers can act every bit like the bottles Dan married himself to early in the story; with not even much tranq-juice Abra’s out so cold she’s rendered telepathic-ally unreachable by Dan. She, Billy and the Crow go for a ride towards Rose.
Once Dan, Dr John Dalton, and David Stone get back from the shoot-out Dan heads to Frazier where Momo’s been transferred to the hospice where Dan works; he stops in to see her. She’s near death, and he does his good deed for her the ways he’s done dozens of times already. As he’s helping Momo transition he gets the affirmation he has been looking for since meeting Abra in person the first time and hearing her “theory of relativity,” he find Lucy is in fact his half-sister thanks to Jack Torrance’s regular trysts with student aides and such, but apart from that what was cool was that he was able to take in her essence – her cancer-infested steam to be used as a kind of weapon of mass-destruction.
The final trap is ready to be set. With some needed words of encouragement from Dan Abra goads Rose into meeting her at the point on the mountain over the remnants of the Overlook Hotel called Roof o the World alone with none of her Knot cohorts lingering around. Initially delighted with the idea of letting the remaining members gather together remotely from Rose in the Overlook Lodge she has no idea the kind of massacre in store. Dan and Abra have stealthily made their way around the rear entry of the Lodge and let the essence of Momo give her last gift to Abra and Dan: suck on this, True Knot members! Rose can immediately feel the trap, but it’s of course far too late. In one last desperate effort to kill Abra in lieu of kidnap her Rose plays her last ace and makes Dan strangle Abra with the ferocity of Jack Torrance on an alcohol binge. Thanks to Billy Freeman’s resourcefullness Rose’s ace gets shredded as he runs her off the platform she’s been running her mind-game on Dan and Abra – say goodnight, Rose. Abra lets out a rather cold side of herself, “I hope that hurts!” Can you blame her? I couldn’t.
The epilogue was really cool, and it was a low down dirty shame the movie wouldn’t include it or the way the book’s final showdown went. It’s another reason I still couldn’t give the movie higher than a 9 even if the Bradley murder had been omitted. There’s an exchange between Abra and Dan about the “couple of drinks” she admitted to having at a party. Some of her friends downed more than she did and messed up her mother’s dish collection, sticking Abra with the comeuppance. Dan, having just hit 15 years sober from the bottle gives her a philosophical lecture about her potentially inherited dispositions towards alcohol. Meanwhile, in that last AA meeting in the book Dan opens up to the whole group the one demon he’s been holding onto since his bottle-worshipping days. He confesses about taking the $75 from Deenie and how he kept Deenie’s kiddo from the white powder “canny” on the coffee table. Though he was in tears spilling this confession the rest of the room couldn’t have seem less stunned or impressed, the meeting wrapped and the attendees got their free food. Dan approached his sponsor Casey about the reality of the group’s reaction, “So I discovered. I thought they’d run from me, screaming. Instead, they stood around eating pizza and talking about the weather.”
To which Casey fired back, “If you’d told em you killed a blind gramma, they’d have stayed to eat the pizza and cake. Free is free.” That got a decent chuckle from me.
