Doctor Sleep (4 Stars)

I went to the cinema today with low expectations. How could a sequel made almost 40 years later be anywhere near as good as "The Shining"? As expected, the film doesn't reach the level of "The Shining", but it's still a good film.

One of the things that worried me is articles I read in the press that the film would be based on a Stephen King book as well as being a sequel to the Stanley Kubrick film. I didn't see how that could happen. It's well known that Stephen King was very unhappy with "The Shining" after the film was completed. Has he finally accepted it to the extent that he can allow it to referenced in future films? I need to read more about Stephen King's views today.

The early scenes of the film made me groan. It seemed like the director was deliberately packing information into the film to convince the viewer that it really was intended as a sequel to "The Shining". What I mean is, the references seemed forced and overdone. It wasn't until the film settled into its own story that it improved.

The film follows the life of Danny Torrance, the young boy from the first film. 31 years later he's in a mess, struggling with an alcohol addiction. He's lucky enough to meet Billy, a former addict who has faith in him. Eight years later (39 years in total) he's clean.

In the first film Danny had an invisible friend called Tony. Now Danny says that Tony didn't exist, it was just the Shining manifesting itself in him. That's not how I understood Tony in the film, but it might be what the book said, or at least left open to interpretation. Danny encounters Abra, a 13-year-old girl whose Shining is even more powerful than his. She says that she considered Danny to be her imaginary friend for years, before discovering that he really existed. She wrote messages on his wall, and he wrote back.

A group of beings, all of whom have different manifestations of the Shining, feed on others who have the Shining to give themselves long life. They're not actually immortal, but they can live for thousands of years if they feed well, as they like to say. The Shining leaves the body as steam at the moment of death, so they've been killing a lot of people, mostly children. When they discover Abra they're excited, because her Shining would be enough to lengthen their lives for centuries.

I enjoyed the film a lot today. I need to watch it again, because a lot of things happened in the last half hour which weren't completely clear to me. I think I know what was happening, but I have to watch again to make sure.