10 Horror Movie Sequels Nobody Wanted…. But Everyone Loved

2019’s Doctor Sleep faced three obstacles the moment it became an official project, as it simultaneously had to be a respectful adaptation of Stephen King’s 2013 book; a satisfying sequel to King’s 1977 book The Shining; and a satisfying sequel to late auteur Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of The Shining (which King famously disliked).

In other words, it needed to appease two masters (and innumerable fans) at once, which inherently set it up for failure and derision.

If anyone could accomplish such a feat, however, it was writer/director Mike Flanagan since he’s a diehard King fan who’d recently blown people away with the aforementioned Ouija: Origin of Evil and his first King adaptation (2017’s Gerald’s Game).

Luckily, Flanagan succeeded with flying colors by carving out a relatively faithful and beautifully realized reimagining of the Doctor Sleep novel during its first two acts. What’s more, he wisely – and painstakingly – fashioned the final act so that it expanded upon elements from both versions of The Shining.

The result was a profoundly ambitious compromise between all possibilities that pleased all sides (including King, who famously remarked: “Everything that I ever disliked about the Kubrick version of The Shining is redeemed for me here”).