While many scratched their heads at the time it was announced, Mike Flanagan's Doctor Sleep has acquitted itself quite well. The long-awaited adaptation of Stephen King's sequel to The Shining currently boasts a 77% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 7.4/10 IMDB-rating, and a 59/100 Metascore. The film also fared well commercially, turning a $45 million budget into a $72 million global moneymaker.
Set nearly 30 years after the events that transpired in Stanley Kubrick's classic, Doctor Sleep follows a now adult Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor), a wayward alcoholic who finds a shot at redemption by helping a young girl channel her ability to Shine and ward off a sinister sect called The True Knot. But the closer he gets to redemption, the closer his repressed demons get to haunting him.
Stephen King Was Inspired By A Cat
Stephen King first germinated the idea for a sequel to The Shining way back at a 1998 book signing. A fan asked him what happened to Danny Torrance as an adult, which got King thinking about the young boy's fate. When the question recurred over the years, King joked that Danny married Charlene McGee, the pyrokinetic girl from his book Firestarter (which coincidentally also has a movie adaptation from 1984).
While nothing really came of these jokes and hints, King later read a story about a house cat in New England that seemed to harbor the ability to (for lack of better words) Shine, as it would pay visits to infirmed patients right before their deaths. King was then inspired to incorporate the cat into Doctor Sleep when the sequel's ideas finally materialized.
Azzie The Cat Was Based On A Real Cat
The cat with the ability to shine in the film is named Azzie after Azrael, the angel of death. Azzie is based on a real-life cat named Oscar, a tabby that lived in a Rhode Island nursing home and provided bedside solace to numerous patients prior to their expiration.
Oscar was said to sense when a patient was about to die and would enter the patients' room hours before they lost their lives. By 2007, Oscar consoled more than 100 patients on their deathbed. Unfortunately, Oscar died of an allergic reaction in 2013.
Recreating 'The Shining' Took A Lot Of Effort
With the exception of three helicopter shots, director Mike Flanagan arduously recreated every set from The Shining over a six-week period based on Kubrick's detailed blueprints. Instances that were lifted from the original film included the opening shots of the lake and oasis, as well as two overhead shots of the VW Beetle driving up to the Overlook Hotel. Fake snow and a color change from day-to-night were digitally added in post-production.
For the iconic elevator-of-blood scene, Flanagan had to digitally recreate the sequence in order to alter the angle to accommodate Abra's POV. The hedge-maze was rebuilt on a sound stage in California and was filmed months after production wrapped.
Ewan McGregor Wasn't The First Choice For Danny Torrance
Although Ewan McGregor was ultimately cast as the adult Danny Torrance with Stephen King's blessing, several other high-profile actors were up for the coveted role. Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Matt Smith, and Dan Stevens were all considered for the role of Danny Torrance.
Ironically, McGregor has stated that he isn't much of a horror film fan and even avoided watching The Shining until he became an actor, as he could no longer avoid its status as an all-time horror classic. Additionally, Kyliegh Curran beat out roughly 800 others to win the role of Abra Stone.
Danny Lloyd Has A Cameo
In The Shining, Danny Torrance was played by a very young Danny Lloyd. Although Lloyd essentially quit acting after the iconic horror film, he makes a cameo as an adult in Doctor Sleep.
A now adult Danny Lloyd can be spotted in the background during the baseball game. He is listed as "Spectator" in the credits and can be seen wearing a black and grey ballcap, matching shirt, and a salt-and-pepper goatee. Other than The Shining and Doctor Sleep, the only other film Lloyd has appeared in is the 1982 TV movie Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy.
Rose The Hat Was Foreshadowed
For a movie about 'the Shining' and what exactly it could do (i.e. telepathy and clairvoyance), it makes sense that a fair amount of foreshadowing takes place in the story. Attentive viewers can spot Abra's endangerment through the semiotics in her bedroom.
In addition to a drawing of a rose on Abra's fridge, another rose can be spotted on a shelf above Abra's bed. The toys positioned in her room conspicuously spell out the words hat, intimating the presence of Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), Abra's primary foe in the film.
Axing The Door Down Took Longer To Recreate Than Expected
To recreate Kubrick's infamous "Here's Johnny" door axing sequence, nine different wooden doors were constructed by the props department, although just two were used during filming.
Additionally, two different versions of the ax were also created by the prop team. One had a rubber blade and was used for the swinging effects in the film, while the other was made with a real metal blade. Once production wrapped, director Mike Flanagan was gifted one of the prop axes to take home as a souvenir.
Mike Flanagan Paid Homage To The Green Mile
Although the film is littered with Easter Eggs relating to the original The Shining (both the film and book), direct references to Stephen King's other novels cannot be overlooked.
According to Flanagan, he visualized the hospice's long corridors that way because they reminded him of the death-row section featured in The Green Mile, Frank Darabont's adaptation of King's novel of the same name. Additionally, the shot of Rose the Hat standing before a projector beam is directly lifted from a similar image featured in King's prison tragedy.
There Are Connections To The Dark Tower
In addition to The Green Mile, several hints, clues, and reference points to Stephen King's The Dark Tower series can be found in Doctor Sleep. Most notably, the motto "Ka" (meaning fate or destiny) featured prominently in The Dark Tower is mentioned by Halloran (Carl Lumbly) to Danny. The word is also spelled out via balloon animals above Abra's bed.
Other The Dark Tower links include the presence of Lamerk Industries (run by The Dark Tower's antagonist The Crimson King), the Tet Transit bus line, a baseball player with the number 19 (an important number in the Dark Tower mythos), a standup show by Joe Collins seen in a cinema's marquee (Collins being a Dark Tower monster that feeds off laughter), and the recurring rose motif seen throughout Doctor Sleep.
Mike Flanagan Makes References To His Own Works
While paying homage to Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick, Mike Flanagan also added a couple of direct nods to his own body of works. When Danny is traversing down the hallway before entering The Gold Room in The Overlook Hotel, the Lasser Mirror featured in Flanagan's 2013 horror film Oculus can be seen adorning the right-side wall.
During the scenes in the van, the footage shown through the back window is done through rear-projection plating. The footage used in the rear-projection is the same used in the eighth episode of Flanagan's Netflix original series The Haunting of Hill House. Several actors from the hit horror series also appear in the film.