Some Stephen King fans have been waiting more than 40 years to see the continued adventures of Danny Torrance unfold on the big screen after his introduction in The Shining, with director Mike Flanagan seemingly making the wait worth it, as his Doctor Sleep adaptation is clocking in at more than two-and-a-half-hours long. Given that the director had the daunting task of not only adapting the 2013 King novel but also allowing the film to serve as a follow-up to the 1980 The Shining, this longer run time could help make sense of the sprawling thriller. Doctor Sleep lands in theaters on November 8th.
The official AMC website confirmed that the film has a total run time of two hours and 32 minutes, making for an epic experience. This falls in line with other horror endeavors with massive run times this year, such as Midsommar and IT CHAPTER TWO, both of which surpassed the two-and-a-half-hour mark.
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In the film, “Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the ‘shine.’ Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality.”
While blending elements of the original Doctor Sleep novel and serving as a continuation of the 1980 The Shining might not sound like an immensely difficult task, the original Shining novel features a much different ending than the film adaptation, posing a number of complications for this year’s film.
“It’s the most common question we’ve had since the project was announced, and the question that we couldn’t really answer until we had material to present,” Flanagan confirmed at a Q&A with press. “Because the answer is really complicated. The answer to all of those questions for us has always been, ‘Yes’.”
As evidenced by the trailers for the film, it’s clear that Doctor Sleep will deliver audiences plenty of unexpected surprises, likely leading to some clever ways to honor both universes.
“It is an adaptation of the novel Doctor Sleep, which is Stephen King‘s sequel to his novel The Shining,” Flanagan pointed out. “But this also exists very much in the same cinematic universe that Kubrick established in his adaptation of The Shining. And reconciling those three, at times very different sources has been kind of the most challenging and thrilling part of this creatively, for us.”
Check out Doctor Sleep when it lands in theaters on November 8th.
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