WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH DOCTOR SLEEP

Today there are a lot of sub-genre of horror out there. I can't begin to mention each of them, but for example there is slasher, paranormal, sci-fi, psychological, found footage, body, creature, monster and many more. One of the recent horror movies release that found a soft place in my heart is Doctor Sleep, a direct sequel to 1980's The Shinning, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. The Shinning is one of the most iconic horror movie of all time and could also be called a masterpiece of modern horror as of its time of release and it still manage to stay relevant till date. Now while I didn't watch The Shinning when it came out, I had to do a catch up on it before watching Doctor Sleep. I wasn't even born when The Shinning was released. The good thing about Doctor Sleep is that you don't necessarily have to have watched The Shinning to understand what is going on but watching The shinning or knowing the events of the movie give a better understanding of some references in Doctor Sleep. 

Doctor Sleep follows the story of one of the major characters in The shinning, Dan, now an adult. We get a short look into how Dan coped with seeing the dead with his gift after the events of The shinning and through a time jump the rest of the story follows Dan now an adult trying to suppress his gift. This didn't last long as his life nosedived into being an alcoholic. After a tragic event, he decides to find a path to redemption which leads him to becoming 'Doctor Sleep'(I won't spoil this for you) It's some of these little details like this that makes this film really cool in my opinion. Dan soon finds out there more people like him out there and there is a particular girl with a big shine that some people after. Hence, it's up to him to protect her. The plot, in general, is straightforward and not a convoluted mess. The plot of a movie doesn't have to be so complicated to appeal to the audience. It's the components of the story that and how everything comes together that makes movies very amusing to watch. I won't like to beat around the bush further and I'll just get into my favourite component of Doctor Sleep.

There are so many things to like about Doctor Sleep but by far my most favourite is the implementation of the antagonists. You see, the constant problem the horror genre has faced after the decades is the antagonists or villains. Lately, they usually lack depth. It's agreed that the horror genre currently suffers from a serious burnout on ideas and needs a little bit of switch up here and there to impress the audience; in my own opinion at least. However, when slight changes are made, it can either make or break a movie. This is not to ignore the fact that most times it's always difficult for fans to accept some changes to some of the things they've grown to love about their favourite genre and it's always high risk for writers and producers to take this game changing steps.

In the world of Doctor Sleep, there are people with a gift called, the shine, it's more like a psychic power. The inception of this idea came from The Shinning, the idea is further explored in Doctor Sleep. Where is there is good, evil is not all that far behind. So we can establish that people with shine are the good guys while the bad guys are introduced as this sort of vampiric shine stealers, according to the movie they're called True Knots. In other for them to survive they prey on people with the shine to renew their lifespan.

The villains in the Doctor Sleep might at first appear to be almost one dimension like every other movie villain where the evil force is just an unstoppable force that the protagonist are always in constant fear of, other times they just kill for sports and the fun of killing without any reasonable motivation to them other than that they're just evil or just an unstoppable murderous force. The True knots are opposite of this particular stereotype known in horror movies. They're not untouchable, in fact they are aware of their vulnerabilities, weaknesses and mortality. There is a strong motive as to why they do what they do, which is very simple, for survival (a basic instinct for any living creature). This fact introduces an interesting dynamic to the movie as, it becomes a fight for survival between both good and evil in familiar way and yet different feel. I won't want to include spoilers this article, there are so many things done right by this movie you just have to see it to understand. The visual elements are played to their strength, there was a scene where the leader of the true knots goes on an astral projection trip, believe me, I've always imagined what astral projection would feel like and this scene blew away my imagination with the way it felt real and any point it never felt like the visual department tries to over Impress with the budget they have or go overboard.

I'm not trying to sell this movie to you as this almighty horror movie you'll ever see on tv screen or theatres but it feels refreshing to see cinema done differently from time to time. Doctor Sleep might not live up to the hype, reputation and influence of The Shinning, it's a great movie on it's own that made a huge impression on me personally and I will recommend you watch it if you're yet to see it.