For our annual summer countdown, we are looking at our favorite 25 movies that were not huge hits during their initial release, but mean a lot to us. Check out last year’s Summer of Stars countdown or the year before when we did blockbusters! Find the rest of the Flop and Fizzle series here!

by Tori Potenza, Staff Writer

Ka is a wheel, Doc.

Much of life is cyclical, and we often worry about making the same mistakes over, or repeating those of our family members. Yet we often forget that when these events repeat, we are given tools that those before us did not have. We have the opportunity to do better, and to help other generations do the same. These are the ideas that are beautifully woven into Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Doctor Sleep. Even the cycle of creating sequels and revisiting old subject material is part of that process. Digging up the graves of those characters and seeing what other stories there are to tell can feel overdone and overplayed. Yet, it offers a chance to give insight into a character and where they are now. When the book came out and the movie was released I remember thinking “Why do we need this?” “What story could possibly be left after The Shining?” I assume a lot of people had that thought, which brought it to this list of flopped films. But what Flanagan achieves in this movie is meaningful, beautiful, and at times chilling. It is a reminder of how important careful craftsmanship is to the industry and how sequels can be done well.

What writer-director Mike Flanagan did with Doctor Sleep is impressive, especially taking into consideration the context of the history of The Shining and Stephen King. The Shining was a very personal and meaningful book for King to write. Especially as it ties to his own struggles with addiction. When Kubrick went to adapt it, King wrote a treatment for the script that Kubrick ultimately tossed in order to write his own. It should not be too surprising that this personal tale was turned into something completely different and to King, it no longer felt like his story. But ultimately people loved Kubrick’s adaptation. In the 90s, King wrote the teleplay for a mini-series that would more closely align with his vision, but it was not well received and the style and iconography of Kubrick’s films lived on in people's minds. So when King decided to write a sequel based on what happened to Danny Torrence as an adult, and studios wanted to adapt it for the screen, you can imagine there were reservations. Yet somehow Flanagan convinced King that the movie version of Doctor Sleep needed to be a sequel to Kubrick’s film, and not a sequel to the mini-series or straight adaptation of the book. 

King got on board and Flanagan took care and dedication to making sure that King was aware and involved to some extent in the process, and to not make the mistakes that Kubrick did. This means that in the film adaptation of Doctor Sleep,  you get Kubrick’s iconography along with a meatier King-style story. Flanagan directed a great adaptation of King’s book Gerald’s Game two years before. From his work on that film, as well as his other adaptations, it is clear Flanagan knows how to find a balance and where to take liberties with adaptations. This paid off with King’s approval and decent reception from critics and audiences alike. It simply didn’t pay off when it came to box office numbers. But considering how much legwork it took to create this unique story, do the box office numbers really matter that much? Isn’t there success in artists collaborating with eachother and succeeding where generations before them did not?

Now I will mention that I have only ever watched the director's cut of Doctor Sleep. The theatrical cut clocks in at 152 minutes while the director's cut is a whopping 185 minutes. Either way, it is a long movie, but the director's cut has various differences that make it all the better. If you have ever read a King novel, you know that they are full of tons of history, details, side characters, and sometimes inconsequential pieces that ultimately make the world feel fuller and more lived in. So the runtime, especially in the director’s cut, gives space for character development and deeper more meaningful moments. It also makes it feel structured more like a King narrative, which is impressive considering King adaptations have historically been a mixed bag. This is all to say that if you have not watched the extended cut, I highly recommend it because I cannot imagine pulling a single minute out of it. 

To try and answer some of the questions about why this adaptation is necessary, it comes down to the themes that stick out. Danny’s (Ewan McGregor) struggle with alcoholism and the fear of becoming just like his dad is one of the central themes. We see flashbacks of Danny and Wendy (Alex Essoe) trying to build a life from the terrors of The Overlook Hotel. Danny especially struggles to shut out the ghosts of his past, literally, as the ghosts of The Overlook still appear and try to terrorize him. He also worries about his mother and the fear he sees in her eyes when she looks at him. She knows he has powers and she fears the parts of him that also belong to his father. So Danny does what he can to shut out his “shine” and dull his senses, which leads him to become an alcoholic into his adulthood. He finally realizes the need to change his ways and get clean, but he still shuts out his shine. That is until he meets a powerful young girl Abra (Kyliegh Curran) who reminds him of his childhoodself,  and a deadly group called“The True Knot” who want to take her power for their own personal gain. 

Throughout the movie, Danny is faced with challenges and opportunities, much like his father. So he has to actively make choices to not be like Jack; to not drink, not shut out his shine, not give into his darkness, and help those in need. As Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly)  says in a flashback, everyone has light and dark in them and life is about finding that balance. Which is exactly what Danny needs to do in order to be of service to Abra. One of the most powerful moments of the movie is when Danny receives his chip after 8 years of sobriety and uses it as a moment to reflect on his dad:

I'm thinking about my dad. He died when I was 5, so the only way I got to know him, I really got to know him was when I went dark. When I drank. To dull the... or… whenever I wanted to break someone's face. 'Cause the drinking and the temper and the anger, those things in me were his. And they were all I could know of him. But now. Well, now I get to know him a little different, 'cause he also stood in a room like this once. Wanting to get well for me, my mom. And he has a chip in his hand, and that chip said "5 months". And on that day he… before it all…well, on that day all he wanted in the world was to stand where I'm standing now. And here I am, so… so, thank you for us both, I guess. This is for Jack Torrance.

In a beautiful moment of reflection and understanding, Danny gets to see some of the light that was in his father.  Through all the struggle and terror Danny remembers when it comes to his father,  he is also able to see some good and hold those two opposing emotions, without judgement. Even though Jack failed, he tried. Later he even gets to confront Jack Torrence (played by Henry Thomas) who now, as a ghost, has taken on the role of the bartender at The Overlook. At that moment he is able to say the things he always wanted to say, not for any sort of reconciliation, but simply for himself. 

We also see him take on a paternal role with Abra who is young and needs guidance from someone who knows what she is going through. It puts him in a position to be a father figure like his dad, and instead of hiding all the dark, he can share it and teach Abra to do better. So much of the movie is around doing better than the generations before you and healing generational trauma. It involves embracing all the parts of us, even the ugliest ones, and fighting back evil even when it is too scary and overwhelming. Because if not us, then who. Even the way Flanagan went about making the film, by including King in the process,  improves upon the way Kubrick handled it. It shows us how in little ways, we can do better.

This also ties to the villains of the film, The True Knot, led by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson). They are essentially energy vampires who can live for centuries by feeding on those who have “the shine”. It creates a divide between those that only know how to feed and those that give and share. Abra wants to use her gifts to help others from the get go. She does not care that it puts her in danger, she knows that she has this gift for a reason and it is to be of service to others. The True Knot is so terrifying because they kill and torture young gifted children in order to get the most out of them so they can sustain their lives longer. They are glutunous parasites that believe sustaining their lives is more important than the lives of others. Part of Danny’s struggle is choosing between being like Rose and his father who are fueled by greed and addiction, or being like Abra who is willing to make sacrifices for others. It also means recognizing those who gave to him; his mother caring through the pain, Dick who gave up his life, and his new friends John and Billy who took a chance on him when he had no one else. Living in a world where so few have so much, and so many have so little it is hard not to see the importance in this messaging. 

Doctor Sleep is so centered on people and relationships, so it makes sense that Flanagan takes the opportunity to show how we can center people above technology. With the popularity of de-aging technology and CGIing dead actors to be in movies, it feels like it could become the new standard. Even though Doctor Sleep has plenty of flashbacks, you will find no such technology in the movie. In flashbacks, we see a young Danny (Roger Dale Floyd), Wendy (Alex Essoe), Dick (Carl Lumbly), and Jack (Henry Thomas). All of them are played by new actors, with no de-aging or CGI. They simply rely on the actor and their ability to bring forth the character to the best of their abilities. Every single one of them does an incredible job because they are real people, breathing life once more into these character. Alex Essoe brings the tremble and uncertainty in Wendy’s voice that perfectly emulates Shelley Duvall’s performance. Carl Lumbly’s scenes as Dick as he guides Danny are just as moving as Scatman Crothers’s. Henry Thomas’s presence as Jack with his inflection and delivery is just as outstanding as Jack Nicholson’s. It is a reminder that we do not get that uncanny superficial feel that comes along with this technology. Trust and rely on actors to hone in on their craft and it will always feel more real that a computer. 

In the film, Dick comes to Danny and reminds him that “you still owe a debt”. We all owe a debt as humans sharing this planet together, to do right by each other and help where we can. When Danny returns to The Overlook the ghosts try to fuel his dark by making him into a parasite, by making him someone who takes. When talking about Abra the bartender says “why should you pay her tab?”. It can be so easy to simply ignore the problems of others, to be greedy, and to be selfish. Yet what is left for us when we are? When we live our lives as parasites no one is better off, but when we live to be there for others we’ve helped to plant seeds that will fuel others. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said “to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” This is really what this movie is all about. It is an effective and chilling horror movie but it is also such a beautiful meditation on what we owe each other. King overcame addiction and inspired his children to be writers, King has even worked with his son and clearly felt inspired to write this because of Hill’s book NOS4A2. Flanagan pays a debt that Kubrick owed to King. And Danny learns the best way to overcome our trauma is to find the lessons in it, and use it to help others. Regardless of a silly box office number, this film succeeds in so many ways, and I believe for those who find meaning in Doctor Sleep its storytelling has left us a little bit better off.