Roman Stephen King "Dr. Dream" I went out in 2013 and became the most loud work of the writer over many years. What is not surprising, because the book told how the life of little Danny Torrence from "Shine" After the nightmare experienced by him at the Overluk hotel. And although the original did not need any continuation, King still found than to develop the topic, focusing on ghosts and telepathy (although there are enough other in the book), but on children's injuries and their consequences.
Naturally, the film adaptation remained only a matter of time, especially after phenomenal success "It". The director was appointed Mike Flenegan, one of the most talented filmmakers working in the horror genre: on his account "Okulus" , "Silence" , Great series "Ghosts at home on the hill" , And also "Gerald game" The same king. And although he faced an almost impossible task – to follow the footsteps of the great Kubrick, ”he coped with her more than worthy.
Difficult childhood was not in vain: Dan Torrens grew up in a drunken alcoholic. However, at some point he still finds the strength to tear himself away from the bottle and gets up to work in the hospice. Shine – a supernatural force, which allowed to read thoughts and see dead people in childhood – now helps him alleviate the dying transition to the next world. Near Dan, the old people do not suffer, but fall asleep peacefully, for which the former marginal receives a respectful nickname "Dr. Sleep".
Alas, the quiet measured life of the hero lasted only eight years. Once Torrens was found by another owner of the radiance, a young Abra, and asked for help. In America, a gang of vampire nomads, calling themselves a “true knot”, is dissected-only instead of blood they feed on the forces of “shining” children. Now the villains hunt Abra – and if Dan does not intervene, the girl is waiting for a painful death.
Why remove the sequel of the "radiance" was monstrously difficult? Well, first of all, because Kubrick in his film adaptation moved so much from the original source that the film and the book are actually different works (for this King simply hated the ribbon). The director rewrote the ending and killed the characters who remained alive in the original. In addition, it was more interesting for him to explore the dark side of the protagonist than telling the history of a hungry hotel, where ghosts struck in the baths, and the hedge is a little more alive than you could expect. Kubrick’s booze and loneliness erased Jack Torrens more successfully ghosts, and the theme of Leovegas Casino the radiance went deep into the background. But in the “Dr. Dr.” King, of course, continued his own story, where the paranormal component dominated, and at the end the Overluk hotel took off safely into the air.
It would seem that Flenegan will have to either overhaul the book or ignore the legendary film adaptation … However, he managed to link the two original sources in one film – and found for this surprisingly elegant solutions.
It is easy to introduce a character who is alive in the book, and in the film adaptation safely rested if the main character literally communicates with the dead
The film is quite accurately followed by the book in the first two acts, squeezing “water” and lowering minor details to fit in the timing. But, unfortunately, sometimes these very details are very missing to revive the characters. First of all, this applies to secondary heroes: the same members of the “true node” look colorful, even remember, but throw half of them from the plot – nothing will change. However, at the same time, the antagonists were not cardboard. The spectator is shown the ordinary life of the cultists, and therefore it is easy to understand them: after all, they, in fact, are not the same villains – they simply feed as they can … But then they demonstrate their reprisals against the next little victim in detail – and the desire to empathize with the local vampires disappears sharply.
Who was not deprived of attention, is the leader of the "node", a charming rose-in-whip performed by Rebecca Ferguson. The villain of it came out excellent, and the heroes are a pleasure to observe her confrontation … Especially because the battles mainly occur in their heads. To the level of the series "Legion" The tape does not reach the ingenuity of the directors, but the battles of telepaths on the surrealistic field of other people's consciousnesses “Dr. Son” accurately showed better than any of the parts "X -Men".
It is much sadder that the image of Abra (the debut role of Kylie Kerran) and her touching relationship with Dan suffered from the abbreviations. If there are two main characters in the book, then in the film adaptation of Yuen McGregor unequivocally pushes the young partner into the background. He in his role is damn good, which is predictable: the marginal actor perfectly played in "On the needle" , wise mentor – in "Star Wars". It’s really not scary to go to the battle with vampires with such Dan, even to an abandoned hotel.
In the screen pair of Abra and Dan, half of the “chemistry” that was between book characters is not felt even. On the other hand, maybe it is for the better: it is more difficult to blame the hero of unnatural interest in little girls
And if the film is the second main character, then this is definitely the Overluk hotel, even if it appears only closer to the end. When Dan goes through a hotel who is slowly waking up, welcoming the long -awaited visitor to a dull light of dusty lamps, you clearly feel: this place is a living. And also evil and hungry.
It is a pity that the desire to honor Kubrick's memory sometimes serves Flanegan a bad service. Already too intrusive and clumsy, sometimes references are inserted to the "radiance". Successful solutions like a camera span over a night lake under a familiar musical theme are adjacent to a tasteless “copy -fingered”, and other scenes do not look ommes, but clumsy imitation. The ominous old lady from number 237 climbs into the frame so often and obsessively that it is no longer a fear of the end, but laughter. In addition, the joints of the styles of two creators look strange – and, alas, when a direct comparison with the Kubrek Flenegan loses.
At times the film is physically difficult to watch, it is so terrible
But before that, the film is quite successfully scolding the horror and keeps in tension, and without any screamers (with a timing of two and a half hours!). Flenegan knows how to escalate the atmosphere, work with a pace, picture and color scheme. The film is full of beautiful and inventive moments-one meditation of roses-in-whores. Operator Michael Fimonyari, with whom the director collaborated more than once, successfully grabs the either McGregor shining eyes, then bloody bubbles on the lips of a dying child. An alarming embosses against the background, where the main batch was given to a deaf heartbeat, scares better than a hysterical screech of trivial violins. Rare but well -aimed jokes do not discharge the situation, but only allow you to exhale before the next tense scene. It would seem that not a swarm for yourself a hole, do not use the cuber like a crutch, you have something to remove and show without it … but not.
“Dr. Sleep” is unlikely to be awarded the Lavrov “Shine” and will not become a new milestone of cinema. The wrong level of production, the wrong work with the frame, is not the viscous atmosphere of the advancing insanity, where darkness in the human soul is worse than any ghosts. But this is a good film with excellent actors, with fascinating and memorable scenes, made with great respect for both Kubrick and King. This is one of the best film adaptations of the King of Horror, worthy of standing on a par with a new "it". And at least for the fact that she managed to gracefully loop and complete the classical story, and at the same time reconcile King with the creation of Kubrick, which the writer hated for many years, the tape deserves applause on the final credits.