First Doctor Sleep Trailer Reveals The Shining‘s Long-Awaited Sequel
May the sun never set on the Stephen King empire. Adaptations of the horror master’s novels keep coming at us, on the big screen and small, at a truly astonishing pace. Among those are Andy Muschietti’s beloved 2017 adaptation IT (and the upcoming IT: Chapter Two), the recent reboot of Pet Sematary, and now Doctor Sleep. This latest film is based on King’s 2013 sequel to “The Shining,” adapted by writer/director Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House). Warner Bros. has released the first teaser trailer for you to feast your eyes on.
Doctor Sleep catches up with Danny Torrance some forty years after the events of The Shining, in which Danny’s dad went insane and tried—very hard—to murder him with an ax. The degree of difficulty in adapting Doctor Sleep is no joke. Not only is Flanagan tasked with tackling King’s 531-page novel, but he also has to connect his film with Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 1980 adaptation The Shining, which famously took some major liberties with King’s source material.
The first glimpse is definitely promising. There are several nods towards Kubrick’s masterpiece, including a shot of little Danny (re-created rather than pulled directly from the film) on his Big Wheel at the Overlook hotel. Another shot reveals room 237, which was not only a source of so much madness in the film but was also the title of a fantastic documentary on the creation of The Shining. In Doctor Sleep, the adult Danny (played by Ewan McGregor) meets another person with his special gift, a young woman named Abra (Kyliegh Curran). Abra seeks out Danny’s help in dealing with a creepy group called The True Knot, who feed on the shine of gifted people like her.
Doctor Sleep boasts an excellent cast. Alongside McGregor and Curran are Rebecca Ferguson, Jacob Tremblay, Bruce Greenwood, Zahn McClarnon, Alex Essoe, Carl Lumbly, and Jocelin Donahue.
Doctor Sleep creeps into theaters on November 8, 2019. Watch the first trailer below.
Here’s the official synopsis for Doctor Sleep:
Doctor Sleep continues the story of Danny Torrance, 40 years after his terrifying stay at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson and newcomer Kyliegh Curran star in the supernatural thriller, directed by Mike Flanagan, from his own screenplay based upon the novel by Stephen King.
Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the “shine.” Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality.
Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abra’s innocence and fearless embrace of her shine compel Dan to call upon his own powers as never before — at once facing his fears and reawakening ghosts of the past.
Featured image: Caption: EWAN McGREGOR as Danny Torrance in the Warner Bros. Pictures’ supernatural thriller “DOCTOR SLEEP,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jessica Migli
