The Incredible Doctor Sleep Detail You Missed

You won't believe the lengths director Mike Flanagan went with his sequel to The Shining.

by Andrew Pollard
Doctor Sleep Overlook
Warner Bros.

Upon its big-screen release last Halloween, Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep received a largely positive response. Now while Flanagan’s Ewan McGregor-starring sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining impressed many, you’re likely completely unaware of just how much painstaking detail went into the production of the movie.

As Doctor Sleep hurtled towards its conclusion, audiences saw McGregor’s Danny Torrance returning to the infamous Overlook Hotel for one last stand against Rose the Hat. It’s clear to see that the Overlook Hotel had been meticulously recreated for this follow-up picture, yet it’s amazing to hear the full story of just how director Mike Flanagan was able to do such a stunning job in having the hotel resemble what fans had seen in Kurbick’s 1980 movie.

Deciding that he wanted to physically build the sets for his Overlook Hotel rather than digitally recreate the locale, Flanagan actually studied Stanley Kubrick’s original blueprints from that first film. For the details that Warner Bros. didn’t have on their records, Kubrick’s estate happily offered up any information that they had at their disposal in order to assist the director.

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In addition to using those plans, Mike Flanagan studied every miniscule piece of detail from The Shining and made sure that he and his crew used iPads to scour Doctor Sleep’s set and compare each and every element to what had been seen nearly 40 years prior.

There’s no doubting that Mike Flanagan was dedicated to recreating The Shining’s Overlook Hotel in as much detail as humanly possibly – and hopefully you’ll now have a new appreciation for the sequel’s excessive detail once the movie is released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 4th.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.