journal features

movie review - Doctor Sleep

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2020.03.16

This is the story of what becomes of little Danny from The Shining. You remember Danny! "Danny's not here right now, Mrs. Torrence," Danny. Yeah.

Anyway, the answer is: not much. He's a drifter, a recovering alcoholic living in an attic apartment and scraping by on a low salary somewhere in New England (because of course). Over the course of the movie, it turns out he's been just about everywhere in the US over the course of his life, moving on when necessary because in large part of manifestations of his "gift". So he's about forty, living in an undefined time period without smart phone zombies, and doing his best.

Then he's contacted by a powerful young telepath who's in trouble. And now, at long last, adult Danny is going to do more than just murmur reassurances to the dying. He decides to get involved because a band of vampire-like telepathic parasites is sniffing through the region looking for the girl.

I really enjoyed this thing. The thought of a sequel of sorts to The Shining is brilliant, and the execution here is amazing. The vampire things are awful, the actress who plays the young telepath knocks it out of the park, and the story is so grounded that despite all of the absurdities you really feel peril. There is a non-trivial body count in this film but none of it is gratuitous.

Strongly recommended.

rand()m quote

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

—Roald Dahl