Doctor Sleep * * * ½

   

This hotel! No room service! No wonder Dad went nuts!

      Doctor Sleep is the 40 years later, sequel to The Shining.  I believe that Stephen King is a lot happier with this than he was with The Shining, which he hated apparently because it was nothing like his book.  I guess he missed the point - that's what made it good!  Kubrik cut out most of the expository rubbish. You didn't know what the hell was going on, which made it all the more terrifying.
      Going by "It" and Pet Sematary I think King likes explanations and visualizations, no matter how contrived and mechanical they are.  Doctor Sleep has got plenty.  Yet, somehow it's managed to retain some magic of it's own.
      The little boy in The Shining is now a grown man and an alcoholic.  Like quite a few other people cursed with a mental health problem he drinks to numb the pain, to quiet the voices in his head.  Realising he can't go on like this he travels to another town and there he meets a good man who helps him into sobriety.  But he still has the "gift" of  The Shining. He can see things and hear things.
       Meanwhile in another part of America we are introduced to a young girl who has the same abilities.  Telepathically the two start to communicate.
       We also get to meet a tribe of people who are like Gypsies and they make no sense whatsoever. All they do is travel around looking for people blessed with The Shining, so they can murder them and feed off them.  This causes them to live for ever - well thousands of years.  They put the captured  spirits of their victims in what looks like elaborate thermos flasks.  When you start bringing in mechanical props like that I just give up.  Honestly!
      Anyway, The Shining fellow and the young girl team up to beat this horrible collection of people. Surprisingly after thousands of years of living a bullet to the head has quite an effect on them.
      It's a great looking film and everyone plays their part with real conviction. It has a menacing atmosphere at times but it also frequently substitutes brutal violence for suspense.  Overall it's okay.  A few scenes and characters are a trip down memory lane. The acting is very fine.   Nevertheless, despite Mr. King's complaints, I'd love to see what Kubrick would have done with it.