Doctor Sleep (2020) (1 Viewer)

[Tino]

If I'm going to watch this for the first time - theatrical or director's cut?

Directors cut 100%

 

[Cranston37+]

Finally watched the Director's Cut for my first viewing. Enjoyed it very much.

A couple of quick thoughts:

- The length: it felt to me like there was about 10mins of fat that could have been cut out, but 30mins would have gutted it. I imagine this did play better than the theatrical.

- The end felt a little like fan service rather than how the story wanted to naturally play out, but it was fine. Trying to keep the spoilers vague here but the part with... multiple characters... at the end felt like I was watching a "The Shining" Super Bowl commercial.

- Nice to see the original Dan Torrence (Danny Lloyd) in a cameo.

- How did we go from what was obviously summer to winter during the course of one cross country drive? Was that sequence not supposed to be happening in the real world?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

- How did we go from what was obviously summer to winter during the course of one cross country drive? Was that sequence not supposed to be happening in the real world?

My understanding of the timeline is as follows:

• 12/06/1980: Seven-year-old Violet Hansen goes to pick flowers while camping with her family in Cedar Key, Florida and is devoured by the True Knot.
• Early 1981: Danny and his mother are living in Florida; Danny speaks with the spirit of Dick Hallorann on a park bench near the water's edge.
• 2011: Dan bottoms out in New Jersey, catches a bus to Frazier NH. On Long Island, Snakebite Andi is inducted into the True Knot. In Anniston NH, Abra Stone celebrates her fifth birthday. Dan and Abra begin communicating via Dan's chalkboard wall.
• 09/21/2019: The True Knot kidnaps and consumes Bradley Trevor in Bankerton, Iowa.
• Late September 2019: Abra Stone, now 13, visits Dan in Frazier to try and recruit him to help stop the True Knot. Dan doesn't agree, and tells her to hide instead. Dick Hallorann visits Dan, and changes his mind. Rose the Hat tries to invade Abra's mind; Abra turns the tables. Grandpa Flick dies and his "steam" is consumed by the other members of the True Knot.
  
• Early October 2019: Dan and Billy unearth Bradley Trevor's corpse in Iowa. Dan and Abra lay a trap for the True Knot in a New Hampshire campground. All but two of the surviving members of the True Knot are killed. As she's dying, Andi forces Billy to kill himself. Crow Daddy murders Abra's father and kidnaps Abra. Dan possesses Abra and causes a car accident that kills Crow Daddy. Dan and Abra drive west to the Overlook Hotel with Rose the Hat in pursuit. Dan turns the spirits of the Overlook loose on Rose the Hat; Rose the Hat is consumed by the Overlook spirits. Dan blows up the Overlook Hotel and sacrifices his corporeal form to silence the Overlook spirits once and for all.
• Early 2020: Abra is back home with her mother. She chats with Dan's spirit in her bedroom. Abra defeats Mrs. Massey, arguably the strongest of the Overlook poltergeists, who evidently escaped the destruction of the Overlook.

In The Shining, Stuart Ullman stated that the Overlook's season ran from May 15th through October 30th. When Jack Torrance went for the interview well before the November 1st shutdown, there was already snow on the mountain. Sidewinder, Colorado is a fictional place, but we can assume that it's high elevation somewhere in the Rockies, and that the Overlook hotel is even higher elevation. Given that Aspen gets snow one out of every four Septembers, it doesn't seem like a stretch to me that the Overlook would have a snowstorm in October.

 

[Cranston37+]

09/21/2019: The True Knot kidnaps and consumes Bradley Trevor in Bankerton, Iowa

See this is the one that made me question it - Abra is in school during the movie so it has to take place during spring or fall, not summer, and September seems to be really late to still be playing baseball...

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

See this is the one that made me question it - Abra is in school during the movie so it has to take place during spring or fall, not summer, and September seems to be really late to still be playing baseball...

That was the "missing date" for Bradley Trevor on the Missing and Exploited Children listing Abra brought up on the school computer. While it's definitely not prime baseball season, Iowa does have fall baseball leagues and given that Bradley was being hyped as a prodigy in the sport, it makes sense that he'd play every chance he could.

 

[Cranston37+]

That was the "missing date" for Bradley Trevor on the Missing and Exploited Children listing Abra brought up on the school computer. While it's definitely not prime baseball season, Iowa does have fall baseball leagues and given that Bradley was being hyped as a prodigy in the sport, it makes sense that he'd play every chance he could.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying it's an error - I'm just arguing for the possibility that we're meant to think that the Overlook being covered in snow was part of what the Overlook was trying to do to Danny, making it be more like the past, in the same way it filled up the ballroom up with partygoers in The Shining...

 

[dpippel]

Came across this well-written and thoughtful article about how Mike Flanagan managed to make Doctor Sleep a satisfying sequel to both versions of The Shining, the book and Kubrick's film, while making Stephen King happy along the way. If you're a fan of the films and/or the book, it's a good read:

Doctor Sleep Fixed What Stephen King Hated About The Shining

It was about more than just the terror.

screenrant.com