Doctor Sleep Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs
2. The Excellent Cinematography & Sound Design
In addition to Flanagan's direction, Doctor Sleep is one hell of a gorgeous movie. For starters, Flanagan's regular DP Michael Fimognari shoots the absolute hell out of this thing, favouring the rich, dark tones which made The Haunting of Hill House such a visual treat last year.
Fimognari's recreations of classic Kubrick visuals are giddily enjoyable, yet like Flanagan's direction, he resists the urge to simply copy-paste The Shining's lensing 1:1, and allows his own beautifully bleak style to shine through.
This is all accentuated by top-tier sound design, always a must for a great horror movie: it takes a concerted effort to make the quiet this unsettling.
Elsewhere, The Newton Brothers' musical score invokes many of Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind's original compositions for The Shining while also injecting plenty of their own sinister personality.