Doctor Sleep
Warner Bros. | Release Date: November 8, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
20
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneNov 11, 2019
Luckily, Ferguson is fabulous in the role. She and Curran take possession of the tale and save it with sprightliness; their smiles arise without warning. I only wish that Rose had been around when Jack Torrance was on the rampage. What a lovely couple they’d have made. Read full review
60
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 7, 2019
Doctor Sleep relies way too much on borrowed inspiration and eventually runs out of — pardon the word — steam. But this flawed hybrid and King and Kubrick still has the stuff to keep you up nights. Read full review
60
The AtlanticDavid SimsNov 7, 2019
Over its 151-minute running time, Doctor Sleep floats between the bleak and mournful themes of King’s writing and the chilling, inimitable dread of Kubrick’s filmmaking. But it never quite figures out how to bring the two styles together. Read full review
60
Total FilmJamie GrahamOct 30, 2019
Don’t overlook this spiritual sequel to "The Shining." But don’t expect it get close to Kubrick’s original, either. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 30, 2019
It doesn’t have Jack Nicholson, Stanley Kubrick or even much of the Overlook Hotel, but Rebecca Ferguson and other good actors provide some shine of their own in Doctor Sleep, a drawn-out and seldom pulse-quickening follow-up to The Shining that still has enough going on to forestall any audience slumber. Read full review
60
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Oct 30, 2019
Working off source material that is very different from its predecessor, anyone expecting a straightforward Shining sequel will be disappointed. This isn’t a gruelling exercise in pure horror. It’s odder and more contemplative, but worth checking in. Read full review
58
Original-CinJim SlotekNov 7, 2019
In some reality where it came without baggage – and where it didn’t have to be a bloated two-and-a-half hours to accommodate its relationship to a classic – Doctor Sleep could stand on its own as a decently stylish popcorn thriller. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 31, 2019
For as much as the story concerns leaping into other people’s heads, Flanagan never quite gets into Danny’s; his tortured grappling with his memories is abstract at best, McGregor’s mostly functional performance failing to offer the necessary window into that process. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnOct 30, 2019
Doctor Sleep shows considerable effort to ingratiate itself to discerning cinephiles, from the moody Newton Brothers score to cinematographer Michael Fimognari’s dark blue nighttime palette; as a whole, the movie conjures an eerie and wondrous atmosphere that blends abject terror with a somber, mournful quality unique to Flanagan’s oeuvre. But his pandering to dueling source material results in a jagged puzzle beneath both of their standards. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichOct 30, 2019
Doctor Sleep is a mess. It’s way too long, clashing somber sobriety with loony cheap thrills. The Shining homages turn shameless and cheap. The jumpscares are more funny than scary. Read full review
55
CNNBrian LowryNov 7, 2019
Add "Stephen King's Doctor Sleep" -- the long-delayed sequel to "The Shining" -- to the list of movie and TV adaptations based on the author's work that shine at first, before flaming out down the stretch. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoNov 22, 2019
Doctor Sleep is a conflicted and unwieldy sequel attempting to unite worlds (King and Kubrick) while telling an original story from yet another filmmaker's viewpoint (Flanagan) that never blends together. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 7, 2019
This screen adaptation feels like a clumsy hybrid. It’s a little too long and winding to work as a feature film, especially in the horror genre, and might have worked better as a limited series, with a little more room for the many characters who populate its grimly imagined American landscape. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 6, 2019
It is also very much a Mike Flanagan film, for better and for worse. Part homage to Kubrick’s moody atmospherics, and part hyper-literal superhero story, Doctor Sleep is stylish, engrossing, at times frustratingly illogical and, ultimately less than profoundly unsettling. Read full review
50
SlateSam AdamsNov 6, 2019
Flanagan is more faithful to "The Shining" than he was to Shirley Jackson’s "Hill House," but he ends each with a twist that functions as a smug reproach. Read full review
50
Slant MagazinePat BrownOct 31, 2019
Like a traumatized psyche, it remains uncomfortably stuck in the past, replaying familiar events in an effort to empty them of terror. Read full review
43
TheWrapRobert AbeleOct 30, 2019
Like a servant to two masters, “Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep” wants both Stephen King and fans of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film of his book “The Shining” to be happy. But sadly, it isn’t enough of its own chilling entity to have much impact. Read full review
42
The PlaylistLena WilsonNov 4, 2019
Much like “It: Chapter Two,” Doctor Sleep is an odd generic blend. Part horror, part fantasy, part “The Shining” Oscars tribute, it engenders confusion more often than delight. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 30, 2019
You could call it fan service, if the service is to teach fans that mimicking Stanley Kubrick’s chilly elegance—and even reshooting scenes from the original film with lookalike actors, a crime bordering on sacrilege—doesn’t make your take nearly as scary. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 30, 2019
It is more than half an hour longer than the Stanley Kubrick film, although it seems more than that – laborious, directionless and densely populated with boring new characters among whom the narrative focus is muddled and split. Read full review
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