Few things can scare veteran actors, but one scene in 2019's The Shining sequel/Stephen King adaptation Doctor Sleep left its stars scarred and shook after filming. Released in late 2019, The Haunting of Hill House creator/contemporary horror icon Mike Flanagan’s belated sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s iconic King adaptation was met with mixed reviews when it arrived in cinemas.
Flanagan's earlier King adaptation Gerald's Game was met with critical love, but Kubrick’s The Shining movie made several changes King’s book and, according to a lot of critics, Doctor Sleep struggled to act as a sequel to the earlier movie while also doing justice to the novel. However, some Flanagan fans found Doctor Sleep a solid effort on its own terms, with a few scenes being even scarier than their book counterparts.
The death of Jacob Tremblay’s so-called "Baseball Boy", for example, was so chilling that King himself almost asked Flanagan to tone down the scene’s content. The horrifying, lengthy death scene may not have fazed the young Room star, who by now is a veteran of disturbing content between that Lenny Abrahamson release and Before I Wake. However, according to Doctor Sleep’s Making Of, the actors playing his killers were more than ready to film the scene until the cameras began rolling and Tremblay begin crying, leading numerous stars to tap out and take a break.
Doctor Sleep’s True Knot are classic Stephen King villains, and this pivotal scene proves the pack of steam-hungry bloodsuckers aren't averse to torturing and killing kids to ensure their continued survival. It’s one of a few truly shocking scenes that crop up in the second half of Flanagan’s languidly-paced adaptation, and one that makes it clear just how real a threat the movie's villains are. As such, it’s very much a necessary scene, and the actors involved in the sequence were initially enthusiastic about getting into the gory content. However, they were unexpectedly shook and distraught by the scene when the cameras started rolling, something that amused Flanagan no end in the movie’s Making Of footage.
The True Knot’s number includes Rebecca Ferguson as leader Rose the Hat and The Babysitter’s breakout star Emily Alyn Lind as Snakebite Anri, and the brood of monsters are depicted as a genuinely loving family in a twist that makes their villainy more emotionally resonant and complex than the likes of Pennywise. However, despite scenes such as the baseball boy's gruesome demise elevating Doctor Sleep into terrifying territory on occasion, the movie’s slow runtime and excessive nods to its source material mean that the Stephen King adaptation failed to make as much of an impact on critics or fans as It’s two-part adaptation. Flanagan, however, didn’t miss a beat as he returned to television to helm the critical acclaimed (although also imperfect) The Haunting of Bly Manor.