7 Years Later, This Stephen King Psychological Thriller Remains a Near-Perfect Sequel

Here's Johnny!

Stephen King stories are a special kind of horror story. Each new "monster" brings a psychological torture not only to the characters that color the pages of his novels but also to those engaging with his stories. Audiences have been haunted by Pennywise the Dancing Clown since 1986. And throughout the years, King has been no stranger to adaptation. However, the best adaptation of his work is a sequel 30+ years in the making.

Focused on the adult life of Danny Torrance, the follow-up to The Shining was written 36 years after the original novel and the 2019 movie remains the best King adaptation to date. Doctor Sleep has become one of the most iconic adaptations in King's repitore and its for a good reason. In King's 1977 novel, The Shining, Jack Torrance takes his family to the Overlook Hotel that haunts and torments his every thought until he is driven by the spirits that have taken residence in the hotel. The 1980 film makes it a bit more questionable whether or not Jack Torrance acted of his own freewill or if he was possessed by something darker. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the film adaptation is not something that King himself appreciates. In a 1986 American Film issue, King said that Kubrick's version of The Shining was "a great big beautiful Cadillac with no motor inside. You can sit in it, and you can enjoy the smell of the leather upholstery – the only thing you can’t do is drive it anywhere.”

The change in King's appreciation for adaptations of his beloved story came with the 2019 adaptation of Doctor Sleep by Mike Flanagan. It was the second time that Flanagan adapted a King story, first releasing Gerald's Game in 2017 on Netflix. Since, Flanagan has been taping into King's stories with films like The Life of Chuck and his upcoming adaptation of Carrie on Prime Video. But Doctor Sleep not only highlights what makes this King story so beloved but also showed audiences what the Kubrick film got wrong (even if his take on The Shining is beloved by both horror fans and King's biggest supporters). From the use of scenery made iconic thanks to Kubrick's vision to understanding the psychological connection of Danny and Jack Torrance, Flanagan's sequel that was 39 years in the making has that secret sauce to make it something more than just another King adaptation.

A Gorgeous Look at "The Shine" and the Desperation to Understand It

Danny has "the shining" in the novel and in the original film, with Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) explaining it to the young Danny (played by Danny Lloyd). In Doctor Sleep, Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) introduces a new aspect of the shining: "Steam." Rose and her group of fellow people with shine travel around, using the steam to remain immortal and young, taking others with it out in the process. Danny Torrance, still traumatized by the Overlook, must help a young girl with shine named Abra (Kyliegh Curran) to protect her from Rose the Hat and her cult, known as True Knot.

We have had faithful King adaptations before and since Doctor Sleep. Most recently, Edgar Wright's adaptation of The Running Man was incredibly true to the novel (written under King's pen name Richard Bachman). But what makes Doctor Sleep work so well is that Flanagan understood what made Kubrick's adaptation work for audiences and how to bring in King's notes and anger towards The Shining work for Doctor Sleep.

In talking with Entertainment Weekly at the time of Doctor Sleep's release, King shared that he thought Flanagan's adaptation redeemed Kubrick's movie. "I read the script to this one very, very carefully," King told the outlet. "Because obviously I wanted to do a good job with the sequel, because people knew the book The Shining, and I thought, I don't want to screw this up. Mike Flanagan, I've enjoyed all his movies, and I've worked with him before on Gerald's Game. So, I read the script very, very carefully and I said to myself, 'Everything that I ever disliked about the Kubrick version of The Shining is redeemed for me here."

For the most part, crowning a King adaptation as the "best" is up to the reader. Or in this case, the audience member. But having King sign off on your adaptation is a great point in your favor.