Friday, November 13, 2026
Doctor Sleep (2019)
While author Stephen King was famously displeased with director Stanly Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of 'The Shinning', director Mike Flanagan's adaption of King's sequel to that book, 'Doctor Sleep', is very explicitly a sequel to the iconic Kubrick film. This movie includes excerpts of scenes from the original film, painstaking reproductions of seats, and the casting of lookalike actors for ghost characters ----- I'm really glad they didn't go the CG route with those.
The story concerns the character of Danny Torrance, now decades after the events of the first film grown into a full-sized Ewan McGergor. Danny remains traumatized by the events at the Overlook Hotel, and maintains his Shinning powers, but with ambivalence. Danny leads an unmoored, drifter like exitance, he understandably develops substance abuse problems. He eventually lands in a small town in New Hampshire, makes some good friends, hooks ups with Alcoholics Anonymous, and gets a job working in hospice where he uses his abilities to help the dying make peace before moving on.
Danny has at last found an equilibrium in his life. He makes psychic contact with Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran) a young woman with developing Shinning powers, he tries to mentor her as Dick Hallorann had done for him. Abra's powers are greater even then Danny's, and she accidentally makes contact with a group of similar powered individuals lead by "Rose the Hat" (Rebecca Ferguson). Rose's group calls themselves 'The True Knot', there are about eight of them. The group travels around nomadically looking for others who have 'The Shinning', only generally not to recruit or help them, but to feed off their life essence, which manifests as steam, to extend their life, with the groups oldest member having been around since ancient Roman times.
Now aware that Abra constitutes the greatest source of 'Steam' they've encountered in a long time, they set their sights on either recruiting or consuming her - the movie makes clear that the number of induvial with Shinning powers is at a low mark, largely because they've been consuming them. Abra reaches out to Danny for help in stopping 'The True Knot', and eventually they recruit Abra's father and Danny's AA sponsor to help.
The movie leads to a final showdown at The Overlook Hotel, and while some have felt this setting forced, I thought it worked. In fact, I think the whole film works remarkably well, I'd entered with trepidation but frankly I was blown away. Doctor Sleep did not feel an unnecessary or exploitative add on, but as a logical second half of Danny Torrance's story. There is a sense of completeness here that adds onto, rather than detracts from the original movie.
Well-acted and perfectly paced, while the first film was focused principally on the ghosts, this movie is focused principally on people blessed and cursed with The Shinning; it expands the sense of a coherent cinematic universe and even deepens the original movie. I'd heard good things about director/writer/editor Mike Flanagan and now need to seek out more of his work in the future.
I rewatched the original Shinning a couple days before watching this and highly recommend you do the same, both to reacquaint yourself with the characters, events, and style of the first film, and to better apricate how these are blended together here. As you doubtless picked up on, I give this film a wholehearted endorsement. ****
Sunday, November 1, 2026
Amityville II: The Possession (1982)
The first sequel to the highly successful 1979 film 'The Amityville Horror', 'Amityville II' is actually a prequel, telling the story of the family that lived in the house prior to James Brolin and Margot Kidder. We get some information about this story in the first film, though this movie fills that out considerably.
A Catholic family of six, disturbing occurrences start the day they move in, but patriarch Burt Young doesn't want to see it. While Burt is more or less lapsed, his wife Rutanya Alda is not, she takes 3 of the 4 kids to church and requests that gay coded Father James Olsen visit and bless the house. Father Olsen comes and at first, he is not sure if there are supernatural issues with the house, or if it's family disfunction resulting in the awkward vibes of the place. In time the priests' concerns about malevolent forces grow, but not in time to prevent oldest son Jack Magner from slaughtering his family, after having incestuous relations with his sister Diane Franklin.
In its second half the film becomes an Exorcist knock off. This movie is pretty bad, with increasingly hectic pacing employed in the hopes that the viewer won't notice this. James Olsen is the standout performance, doing a sort of Father Karris schtick; the most expertly executed part of the whole film is the way they subtilty handle Olsen's sexuality, it's never overt, but his close relationship with a handsome congregant suggests the father is tempted, though not necessarily that he's given in.
The movie takes advantage of its larger budget to its predecessor, and at times it goes pretty wild with the makeup and effects. At 104 minutes its maybe slightly too long. though some of the film's most intriguing characters such as Moses Gunn's detective and Leonardo Cimino's Dean aren't given much time and feel underused. The film has an exploitative stink too it and is often schlocky in a bad way. I don't think it knows what it wants to be, beyond being a cash grab. *1/2 with the 1/2 star being for James Olsen's performance.
Teenage Tramp (1973)
'Teenage Tramp' is a 1973 crime-drama-exploitation picture. Teenaged Alisha Fontaine had often clashed with her parents, so she ran away. Years later the parents have passed on (the movie never says how or when) and Alisha returns to her old home where her older sister Robin Lane now lives. Alsiha has come for her share of the inheritance; she also learns that her sister has become a successful art dealer in the intervening years. Robin is in a sexual relationship with one of the artists she represents (Anthony J. Messina). Robin wants to marry Anthony, but he doesn't want to commit until he's become more successful, which Robin fears is just an excuse and an indication that he might leave her at any time.
Alisha is also in a sexual relationship with draft dodging hippie Don Jarrell. Alisha and Don had been associated with a kind of hippie cult but fled the group when it's leader David Sawn became too controlling. David wants Alisha for himself sexually. David's group manages to track down Alisha and Don, and they more or less take over Robin's house. Robin wants Anthony to help her get rid of the hippies, but before the group arrives, they have a falling out. The falling out is because Robin doesn't trust Anthony to stay faithful, and she's right because Anthony sleeps with Alisha the day she arrives, though in the course of the movie Robin never learns this. Don has a plan to poison Robin so that Alisha will get the full inherence and then rejoin the group.
This is one of those movies where a lot happens, but also not much happens. At only 80 minutes in length the movie does a good job keeping things moving and not staying with any storyline too long. It's basically a soap opera, and while none of the acting is very impressive, it is sufficient for the needs of the film. Abrupt ending. *1/2