'Doctor Sleep' isn't 'The Shining' and that's the highest compliment

The following is a spoiler-free review of Doctor Sleep.

If you want to watch The Shining, then watch The Shining. That’s the best advice I can give any prospective Doctor Sleep goer attempting a return to the Overlook Hotel this weekend.

Yes, this sequel will let you revisit the lodgings where Jack Torrance lumbered along with a literal axe to grind. You’ll see his son Danny and wife Wendy flee across honeycomb carpeting as ghosts ooze into frame. The elevators will fill with blood, and the snowy maze will ensnare you once more. Every itch left by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film will get scratched.

But Doctor Sleep isn’t The Shining, and despite what its marketing might have lead you to believe, it should not be. If you head into Doctor Sleep anticipating the same eerie horror, you’ll be disappointed. But bring an open mind (and 151 spare minutes), and you’ll get a steal.

Written as a novel by Stephen King in 2013, this follow-up story imagines a world where Danny Torrance, played in the film by an appropriately shell-shocked Ewan McGregor, has grown up. He’s still shining and haunted by the memories of his childhood, and nursing an alcohol dependency scarily reminiscent of his father’s. Flashbacks featuring an uncanny Shelly Duvall impression by Alex Essoe are interspersed with adult Danny — now, just Dan — fighting his not-so-inner demons in an earthbound drama that can be, at times, a bit of a bummer.

Things get more interesting when Abra, a young girl who shines and is played by the dynamic Kyliegh Curran, contacts Dan asking for his help. (She does so over what is essentially the psychic internet, and it must be said: Teenagers should never meet anyone over any kind of internet ever. Ever.) Turns out, there’s a gaggle of vampire-like creatures, called the True Knot, feasting on the souls of shining children — and they’re after Abra.

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A sexy sadist, known as Rose the Hat and played by a burning Rebecca Ferguson, leads the Knotters as they seek to cannibalize Abra and achieve immortality. Dan, having battled his fair share of ethereal antagonists, steps in. What follows is a blend of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy, wrapped up in a big bow of Stevie Nicks style and The Shining Easter eggs, that is as otherworldly as it is intoxicating.

Doctor Sleep is a hard sell, in part because it ties together so many big concepts and corners from King’s universe(s). Director Mike Flanagan, known for his work on Netflix’s Haunting of Hill House and Gerald’s Game (another King adaptation), makes a very specific kind of horror, wrought with feeling and humanity.

The film struggles to present all its pieces in a concise manner, dragging for the first third. With so many ideas in play, Flanagan occasionally lingers on the wrong moments and wastes energy on yet another feeding scene when we’ve got bigger fish to fry.

But his willingness to spend time with each and every weird character in this cinematic hellscape is a welcome change to The Shining universe. While Doctor Sleep borrows liberally from Kubrick’s visual palette, it’s a stark contrast to the emotional abyss presented in the first film.

Where Jack, Wendy, and Danny met bleak despair 39 years ago, Dan, Abra, and Rose find a modern fight. It’s the kind of resilience any story worth bringing back nearly four decades later calls for; if they’re going to be here, they’ve got to earn their keep — and Flanagan allows them to do so in spades.

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For decades, The Shining has loomed over celebrated horror films. To be compared to this classic in any way, be it for cinematography, mood, or just being in Colorado, was an admirable accolade. To be that horrifying was a monumental task, an aspirational artifact capable of dwarfing contemporary admirers. Doctor Sleep could have tried to be The Shining’s copycat sequel, an intimidated son yearning to be like his father. Instead, it’s entirely new.

Standing on the shoulders of King-centric box office success, Flanagan delivered a transcendent journey full of scenes that ought to be iconic in their own right. Images of Jack frozen in the snow should stand alongside visions of Rose sailing across the astral plane. Danny and Dan should meet, in a sort of suspended disbelief only found at the Overlook. Lloyd, wherever the hell he is, should be serving drinks to us all — be it a 1920s Old Fashioned or a White Claw. (OK, fine. We can skip the White Claw.)

This sequel is sure to be divisive among Kubrick and King fans alike. But if it can be separated from its legacy, appreciated for what it is and not for what it could have been, it will make a mark spectacularly fitting of its message.

Doctor Sleep isn’t The Shining, but it does shine.