Like its source material, Doctor Sleep revolves around an adult Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) as he struggles with alcoholism (like his father Jack), his psychic “shining” abilities, and the traumatic events of The Overlook Hotel all those years ago. With a little help from a ghostly Dick Hollorann (Carl Lumbly with an uncanny embodiment of the late Scatman Crothers), Danny has since learned to use his “shine” to lock away the ravenous ghosts that have followed him out of The Overlook. Eventually finding respite working at a hospice, the grown-up Danny is known as Doctor Sleep to the residents, using his abilities to help the dying come to terms with their passing. However, his peaceful existence is interrupted when he makes psychic contact with another person with the ability to “shine,” a teenage girl by the name of Abra (Kyliegh Curran). Abra has attracted the attention of a cult of starving psychic vampires known as the True Knot; led by the charismatic beatnik Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson, giving the film’s best performance), these hungry predators sniff out those with the ability to “shine” and murder them to steal their life-force.

There’s a fascinating dichotomy at work with Doctor Sleep that doesn’t quite coalesce. More dark fantasy than outright horror, Danny and Abra’s entanglement with the True Knot is largely compelling. Working more like a superhero film than anything else - with two super-powered groups facing off against each other - this thread is confidently carried by the dangerous charms of Ferguson’s Rose the Hat; however, the goofy good time offered by soul-vaping vampires contrasts sharply with the elements pulled from Kubrick’s The Shining. Even with the booming trombones of “Dies Irae” and the film’s meticulous recreations, Doctor Sleep never reaches the creeping, surreal, and deliberate dread of The Shining, nor does it reconcile its two visions efficiently.

Flanagan’s deference to Kubrick’s film is one that toggles between awe-inspiring homage and dissonant distraction. From new actors inhabiting old roles (Alex Essoe stepping in for Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance is particularly fantastic) to the stunning reconstruction of The Overlook set, Doctor Sleep’s slavish recreations are undoubtedly impressive and trigger an almost Pavlovian nostalgic pleasure, but they also draw distracting comparisons to the 1980 film. The horrors of room 237 and the Grady twins, The Overlook’s labyrinthine architecture, and the essences of Jack and Wendy Torrance are all reconstituted in a painstaking production, but it all lies consistently in The Shining’s shadow without really feeling like a part of Doctor Sleep’s overarching narrative.

As a reconciliation between Kubrick and King, Doctor Sleep doesn’t quite work, but as a dark horror fantasy, there’s a lot to love. Mike Flanagan is a horror storyteller that fundamentally understands the true nature of terror: Ghosts and ghouls are frightening, but the most difficult demons to overcome are our personal ones. Doctor Sleep is no different, but its most compelling narrative struggles to breathe beneath the surface of its swing-for-the-fences approach and its imitative tether to nostalgia.

Grade: B-