Get Your Reps In: “Doctor Sleep” Doesn’t Dull 40 Years of “Shining”

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Doctor Sleep’s best homages to The Shining aren’t winks or nods.

They’re more like shudders, aftershocks of malevolence rippling through the life of now-adult Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor). Forty years later, he’s off his tricycle and still trying to put his life back on course.

Naturally, horror mainstay and Stephen-King-adaptation whisperer Mike Flanagan’s film expands the proverbial Shining universe. Now there are roving vampires (led by the magnetic Rebecca Ferguson), new telekinetic kids (one played by Kyliegh Curran) and additional rules about “shining.”

It’s no accident, though, that the version of Doctor Sleep playing Sept. 30 at Cinemagic is the director’s cut, programmed by local filmmaker Tony DiBern for his monthly Paracinema series.

To gaze unblinkingly at the core themes of Doctor Sleep and its forerunner (the particular kind of haunting that is hatred and despair in the Torrance family), the extra 30 minutes is the only way to revisit the Overlook. Cinemagic, Monday, Sept. 30.

Also Playing:

Academy: Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Sept. 27–Oct. 3. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Sept. 27, 28 and Oct. 2, 3. Election (1999), Sept. 27–Oct. 3. Cinemagic: Event Horizon (1997), Sept. 27, 29 and Oct. 2. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010), Sept. 28 and 29. Vampire’s Kiss (1988), Sept. 29 and Oct. 2. Cinema 21: The Room (2003), Sept. 27. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Sept. 28. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Sept. 28. Clinton Street: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Sept. 28. Carnival of Souls (1962), Oct. 1. Hollywood: Scooby-Doo (2002), Sept. 27. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Sept. 27–Oct. 3. The Kid (1921), Sept. 28 with live score. Mortal Kombat (1995), Sept. 28. Deep Red (1975), Sept. 29. I’m From Hollywood (1989), Sept. 30. Boca Chica (2023), Oct. 2.