1980's "The Shining" may not be the best horror film in film history, but the horror created by Stanley Kubrick can only be imitated by posterity, but not copied. The average horror film is visual horror, this movie is a spiritual horror.
Robert De Niro was one of Kubrick's considered male lead candidates, but was vetoed by stephen King, the novel's original author. De Niro, who did not act, later watched the film, and he claimed to have had nightmares for a month because of it.
Years later, Warner dared to take "The Shining" to make a sequel with real courage.
Without waiting for the original 2020, the sequel movie "Doctor Sleep" is scheduled for November 8, 2019. Also adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name, but without Kubrick and without Jack Nicholson, can The Shining be reproduced?
The story will focus on Danny, the son of Jack, the protagonist of The Shining, who has a supernatural ability called "The Shining", which is colloquially "psychic". Using this ability, he works in a nursing home to help dying patients smoothly complete the final journey of life.
A girl named Abra Stone broke his quiet life. Abra also possesses the Ability to "Shine" and seems to have predicted the events of 9/11.
Danny also discovers that a cult leader feeds on children with psychic abilities, and he feels he wants Abra to protect him. However, Abra's flashing ability is more powerful than expected, and unconsciously, Danny's childhood nightmare gradually awakens.
The little Danny in "The Shining" is played by Danny Lloyd, but unfortunately the child star has already quit the film industry early because he himself does not want to be an actor.
Although the timeline of "Doctor Sleep" is about 40 years after "The Shining", Danny Lloyd's age and role are synchronized, but he himself has long been no longer the image in the audience's mind, and he has not acted for many years, even if he intends to make a comeback, it is difficult to find the feeling of being an actor.
Therefore, it is more reliable to find experienced actors.
Ivan McGrey seemed like a good choice. He became famous with "Guess the Train", a converted drug addicted teenager who was charming.
Around the turn of the millennium, he starred in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and became the mentor of the classic villain Darth Vader, Obi-Wan.
After becoming famous, he chose a more commercial film route, but there is still no shortage of excellent works. For example, "Black Hawk Down" and "Big Fish" are all high-scoring movies he starred in.
In recent years, he has not completely retreated to the second line as a supporting role, and there is still no shortage of films starring him.
"Guess the Train 2" and the previous starring strong return, I don't know how many fans of the tears.
In the 2018 live-action version of Winnie the Pooh's "Christopher Robin", he became a couple with "Carter Agent" Hayley Atwell.
"Doctor Sleep" has undoubtedly become his most important work of 2019.
He has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, and people will inevitably compare him to Jack Nicholson. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The bad thing is that the classic is difficult to surpass, even if he plays well, the director can't drop the chain; the good thing is that he can compare with the "King of oscars", who can turn pressure into motivation and dedicate a stunning performance.
He has never been nominated for an Oscar in years, and this time the schedule is suitable for the awards season, and if the quality of the film is surprising, he can compensate himself, and he can also compensate for the regret that "The Shining" did not have an Oscar nomination that year.
Supporting characters who came to his aid include Rebecca Ferguson, who recently became popular through the Mission Impossible series, who played the villain cult leader. After the three-handed female alien in "Men in Black: Global Pursuit", this beautiful lady can soon be seen again.
Word-of-mouth child star Jacob Tremblay is also on the credits, and those who have seen "Room" and "Miracle Boy" should know that his appearance and acting skills are Hollywood's first-line level.
For the most daunting task of directing, Warner recruited horror film professional Mike Flanagan. This director is a more versatile filmmaker, in addition to the director, screenwriting, editing, visual effects are his best skills.
However, his previous works seem to be relatively mediocre, there are no particularly eye-catching works, and the rating is generally at the level of 6 points.
Mike Flanagan said in an interview with Time.com that I was an avid fan of Stephen King since I was a child, and I admired Stanley Kubrick very much, and it was incredibly exciting, happy, nervous, terrifying and incredible to accept this project.
But he was still excited, and he had to show his true ability.
As can be seen from the first trailer, he made a restorative tribute to the picture of "The Shining", that is to say, without denying Kubrick's setting, "Doctor Sleep" is indeed a sequel movie.
"If The Shining is about addiction, Doctor Sleep is about recovery." Mike Flanagan's words are more illustrative that the themes may be different, and the stories are certainly more closely linked.
Kubrick made a lot of changes to Stephen King's original book, and now Mike Flanagan says that it is more difficult to be loyal to the original book.
There are thousands of interpretations of The Shining, from which some people see the social problems of the division between laborers and classes, some say that they explore the spiritual problems of human beings, and some say that they use the self-destruction of a man to allude to the blood and tears of the slaughter of American Indians.
Kubrick himself said about the film that he himself believed in supernatural abilities, so the Shining was not an illusion.
Although Kubrick's films are often beyond reality, but there is a certain scientific basis, the ability to flash can be seen as a sixth sense of human beings, and now science can not give a reasonable explanation, can not explain, then Kubrick can add a little imagination into it.
Nolan inherited Kubrick's "realistic" style, and only what science could not explain would he join the surreal imagination.
This may not be the case with Doctor Sleep.
The supernatural abilities in the trailer directly do computer special effects, which seem to have become somewhat fantastical. This is a little worrying.
It's one thing for Mike Flanagan to worship Kubrick, it's another thing to perpetuate the spirit of Kubrick's films.
With Kubrick's camera soundtrack empty, but without its core soul, Doctor Sleep may only be reduced to a pitiful accessory.
There is no second Kubrick. This statement is not an exaggeration at all.
That being the case, instead of trying to play Kubrick's feelings, it is better to start from the core of Stephen King's original book.
Making a "Stephen King adaptation" movie is obviously much more comfortable than making a Kubrick sequel movie.
Indulgence is the hallucinogen of youth, but freedom is human nature. - "Guess the Train"