Killer clowns. Childhood trauma. Alien spiders. Andy Muschietti’s 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal classic, IT, had everything going for it. Finally, the beloved story would have the modern adaptation that it deserved. After the campy Tim Curry Pennywise, the two-part film series delved into the true depths of horror as Bill Skarsgård took the stage as Pennywise.
IT: Chapter One was a phenomenal, faithful adaptation of the central story, while updating the ‘50s nostalgia to the ’80s. The decision to split up King’s tome was a necessary one, but inevitably, the ending of IT: Chapter Two would not have the same juice as its predecessor. The chemistry between the kids did not translate to their adult counterparts. Though it was a solid attempt, the IT franchise was a bit unbalanced. This was not the case for another two-part series that succeeded where IT failed.
‘Doctor Sleep’ Is the Perfect Combination of Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick
Upon its release, Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep was tragically not embraced. Stephen King’s sequel toThe Shining was a fascinating look at sobriety after Jack Torrance’s reign of terror. Doctor Sleep would later be acknowledged as a successor to The Shining in a way that didn’t work with IT.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring
Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.
😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)
🧸Chucky(Child’s Play)
📞Scream(Ghostface)
🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)
01
Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.
02
You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.
03
Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.
04
Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.
05
How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.
06
Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.
07
Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.
08
Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.
The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath
your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what
it would leave behind.
A Nightmare on Elm Street · Since 1984
Elm Street
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you
to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever
won that particular argument.
Freddy is horror’s cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot
guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your
own head is where this does its damage.
These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose
because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.
Child’s Play · Chucky · Since 1988
Chucky
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the
person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you
describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You
know that feeling from real life too.
The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you
have met those adults.
By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.
Scream · Ghostface · Since 1996
Scream
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost
certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be
somebody who was at the party.
You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the
same way you watch films.
The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are
the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
The Conjuring · The Warren Files · Since 2013
The Conjuring
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people
asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary
room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than
personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are
the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one
standing in the hallway.
Flanagan accomplished this by seamlessly interweaving the canon of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and King’s original story. The Eyes Wide Shut filmmaker famously threw the king of horror off-kilter with the monumental changes he made to the story. Flanagan’s movie went a long way to rectifying this with the story of Dan Torrance’s (Ewan McGregor) struggle with sobriety in adulthood.
Doctor Sleep picks up decades after his father’s demise in the hedge maze of the Overlook Hotel. While this ending differed from King’s original vision, Flanagan still made it work. After Dan meets Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), another child with the Shining, the final showdown with the terrifying psychic vampires known as the True Knot occurs at the structure, which is still standing. Flanagan incorporates the unforgettable score from Kubrick’s movie and the unsettling decor.
The ending of King’s book is also honored, as the Overlook finally gets the book-accurate conclusion the author was waiting for. At the end of The Shining, King writes that the hotel explodes because of the incident in the boiler room. Though Kubrick’s version had an icier ending, the fate of the Overlook finally comes to a head. The hotel burns to the ground at the end of Doctor Sleep, making a clear indication that both versions were worthy of portrayal. This was the difference between The Shining franchise and IT, which was almost shackled by its devotion to book accuracy.
Mike Flanagan’s Artistic Freedom Allowed ‘Doctor Sleep’ To Burn Brightly
Mike Flanagan has never been someone who lives and dies by book accuracy. These adaptations of The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher merely take inspiration from these celebrated works of horror. Flanagan’s upcoming take on Carrie is also heavily modernized, altering many of the characters for a new generation.
Doctor Sleep had fewer changes, but the changes that were made allowed the movie to soar. Flanagan’s alterations were necessary for the story to resonate with King fans and uninitiated viewers alike. It would have been impossible for him to ignore the canon of something so iconic as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. At the same time, none of these features would be here without King, and the director honored him up until the final frames.
Doctor Sleep is genuinely terrifying, as Rebecca Ferguson portrays one of King’s most vicious villains. This differed from Andy Muschietti’s solid attempt at adapting a story as overwhelming as IT. Even splitting the story into two movies was not enough to make this adaptation as iconic as The Shining universe. The two movies still had to cut major components of the book to make a concise narrative.
IT’s greatest achievement would instead be accomplished with the HBO series, Welcome to Derry, which did a better job of being a spiritual telling of the book if not a literal one. The first batch of IT movies were constrained by being too faithful to the book, which made some elements not be a hit with modern viewers. Doctor Sleep may not have accomplished this at first, but time has been much kinder to the sequel to The Shining.
