September 13, 2024
Not super scary, but that’s what I wanted.
Dr. Sleep came out like 5 years ago, and I’ve been curious to watch it, and it hasn’t been free to watch on any streaming services until recently.
I really enjoyed the film, and I was really impressed how they took a universe that existed and built upon it without totally fucking it up or making it go too sideways. According to Wikipedia, The Shining is about addiction, and Dr. Sleep is about recovery, which makes a lot of sense.
Dr. Sleep is about the annoying kid from The Shining growing up to become a raging alcoholic who ultimately gets clean and helps out another kid with special abilities. It’s also about this pseudo-immortal vampire cult that murders kids to inhale their essence, basically psychic meth-heads. Watch them do it like they said my girl Rosie is on freebase.
A big draw for me was also Ewan McGregor cause he’s fucking lovable.
The movie is solid, paced decently for a Stephen King adaption, and there’s some intense and trippy scenes that kinda leave you on the edge of your seat. The movie also isn’t too Stephen King.
What is too Stephen King? Have you ever read any of his books? I’ve been extremely curious for the past decade or so why he’s so popular. He’s an extensively interesting person, and he puts the pro in prolific, but holy moly some of the characters need to shut the fuck up sometimes.
The easiest example is It. I have read It. It is as long as the bible – no hyperbole. I bought it used at the public library for $1 when I was in 6th grade. The book sleeve was missing, the corner was chewed off, and there was a gift note to someone on the first page, but it added to the charm I think. It took me months to read. It doesn’t matter if you read It, but you need to be familiar with either of the movie series’ it inspired. They’re both basically the same anyway, obviously with different effects budgets.
This is too Stephen King:
In Dr. Sleep they talk about ‘shining’ and ‘steam’ and a couple other things, but nothing too heavily to where it made me throw a beer can at the TV. Maybe some jibber jabber about fear giving the steam an enjoyable quaff, but nothing too bad.
Would I recommend it? Sure. Fair warning, the end of the movie is just The Shining fan service, and all the scares from The Shining are thrown in – even the sexy old number in the tub.
M-O-O-N, that spells stealing steam from dead kids.