STACK #181 Nov 2019

CINEMA FEATURE

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SHINE ON

STACK talks with the director and cast of Doctor Sleep , the highly anticipated sequel to Stephen King’s The Shining . Words Gill Pringle

S tarring in Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep , the long-awaited sequel to The Shining , Ewan McGregor admits he was terrified by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic, famously starring an unhinged Jack Nicholson. “It took me a long time to see it because it was so talked about as being the most terrifying movie ever. I finally watched it when I was at drama school, when I was 18. “So it’s interesting going back to it now because it dates a little bit, but it’s still very frightening. And Kubrick’s use of music and the oddness of what’s happening there, and the hotel itself. The scariest bit for me is when Jack goes in the bar and Lloyd the barman appears. That was always the most frightening moment for me, because you don’t really know then what’s reality,” says McGregor, who today plays Danny, the now grown-up son of Nicholson’s Jack Torrance character. Directed by Mike Flanagan, Doctor Sleep makes a big deal of Stephen King’s authorship and tacit approval, something that Kubrick failed to earn despite The Shining ’s enormous popularity. We meet McGregor’s troubled Danny Torrance 40 years after his terrifying stay at The Shining ’s Overlook Hotel. Still irrevocably scarred by his childhood trauma, he has fought to find some semblance of peace and is now in recovery after years of alcoholism.

“I love horror films,” she smiles teasingly. “But it was very disturbing and creepy.” Ask them both what age group should go see their own (US) R-rated movie, and Curran warns, “This is not for children. I think 15 year olds would be okay – but only if they are mature. But it’s completely and utterly terrifying and if you are not disturbed by extremely terrifying things and you are 17, then yeah, I think they could be able to see it,” adds the worldly-wise teen. For director and screenwriter Flanagan, he’s still pinching himself that Doctor Sleep won King’s seal of approval. “We had the completely surreal experience of being able to bring the final cut of the movie to Bangor to show Steve. It’s the first time I’ve ever met him, and we sat in a theater next to him and watched the whole movie. I don’t remember much because I spent the whole time staring at him. He must have felt really weird,” he recalls. But when King leaned over as the final credits rolled, placing a hand on his shoulder and saying, “You did a beautiful job,” Flanagan promptly fainted. “I woke up to Trevor [Mace, producer] fanning me awake in the lobby,” laughs the director, whose previous horror outings include Oculus and the acclaimed TV series The Haunting of Hill House .

But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the “shine.” Portrayed by newcomer Kyliegh Curran, Abra recognises that Dan shares her power, and seeks his help to combat the evil Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who It's not like we're trying to remake The Shining . Instead it's borrowing characters and some of the cinematic language of that film... feed off the shine of innocents in a quest for immortality. Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan calls upon his own powers, facing his fears and the ghosts of his past, as he and Abra engage in a life- or-death battle with Rose, played by Rebecca Ferguson. McGregor is somewhat taken aback when Curran, 13, suddenly confesses she’s seen The Shining and loved it.

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NOVEMBER 2019

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