Mike Flanagan is one of the best horror directors working today, from his debut, Hush, to his critically acclaimed Netflix projects, such as Gerald’s Game and The Haunting of Hill House. His highly anticipated next project—Doctor Sleep, a sequel to Stanley Kubrick/Stephen King’s The Shining—just dropped a teaser, and it looks absolutely bone-chilling. Check out the trailer below.
Doctor Sleep is set 40 years after its predecessor’s horrifying events at the Overlook Hotel. Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) has tried to move past his trauma, but when a young girl named Abra (Kyliegh Curran) finds him and recognizes that they both possess a power called “the shining,” she draws him into a struggle against the mysterious Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her followers.
The trailer features some incredibly creepy imagery, including drawing on famous moments and scenes from The Shining. We see the Overlook Hotel again, and Dan finds “Redrum” carved into his wall. It will be interesting to see how Flanagan balances paying homage to one of the most iconic adaptions of Stephen King’s work while still taking the story in a newer and different direction.
Flanagan wrote the screenplay himself and brought along several of his Haunting of Hill House coworkers. As a huge fan of that series and knowing the critical raves he got for adapting King’s Gerald’s Game, I can’t wait to see his take on another King project. His work on Hill House seems to be the perfect setup for this film. After all, his show was about generational trauma and childhood memories coming back to vicious life. Dan Torrance will fit right in with the Crain children.
Next year, Flanagan will bring us back to the Haunting world with The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix. Until then, we’ll have his (hopefully excellent) Doctor Sleep to tide us over and scare us silly. If this film has a scare as good as the car scene from episode eight of Hill House, then I’ll be happy.
2019 remains an excellent year for horror, it seems.
(image Warner Bros Pictures)
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