Doctor Sleep Parent Movie Review
DOCTOR SLEEP PARENT REVIEW
If you’re a fan of Stephen King then you’re probably ready – after a very long wait- for this sequel to The Shining. Can your teens see this one? This Doctor Sleep Parent Movie Review will help you decide if your older kids can handle it. Affiliate links are included in this post.
Table of Contents
About Doctor Sleep
40-years after The Shining, Danny Torrance continues to be tormented by the events of the Overlook Hotel. He meets and befriends a young girl, Abra, who shares the same powers, or Shine, as he does. And she needs help. Something big and bad is coming her way and the only way to help Abra might lie in looking back to the past.
Doctor Sleep is directed by Mike Flanagan and is based upon the novel by Stephen King.
Rated: R
Runtime: 2 hours 33 minutes
When Can You Pee During Doctor Sleep?
Look.
This isn’t the scariest movie of all-time, but we also don’t want anyone peeing in their pants because they tried to hold it too long! And this movie? It’s on the long side of things. You definitely need to know when you can pee during Doctor Sleep.
You won’t miss any of the action or plot or major moments if you time it just right.
And don’t forget to be quick about it!
This is a list of when you can get up and go to the bathroom during Doctor Sleep.
- 29 minutes after a new person is turned
- 45 minutes when a baseball game starts (go now, you’ll need to get back quickly!)
- 1:05 when Abra boards a bus
- 1:50 after Abra meets Rose
Are There End-Credit Scenes In Doctor Sleep?
No- there are no end credit scenes in Doctor Sleep.
You can stay for a while if you’re too creeped out to move (and no one will blame you!) but there is not a stinger at the end of this movie.
Doctor Sleep Parent Movie Review
First as a Doctor Sleep review: is Doctor Sleep a good movie and worth going to see for most lovers of spooky, scary, thrilling movies?
I’m going to say yes. It’s a decent sequel to The Shining (the movie) and was an interesting movie to watch as a stand-alone.
Danny Torrance is still troubled by his past and leads a life of questionable decisions fueled by alcohol. When he finally makes moves and winds up on the right path, his world settles into a peaceful rhythm.
That changes when he meets Abra, a fellow “shine” user who is young and scared. She needs help when she stumbles upon The True Knot, a group of supernaturals who prey on young children.
Where Doctor Sleep shines (pardon the pun) the brightest is showcasing the friendships and family relationships that blossom. That’s where the true humanity of King’s story comes through and it’s one of the reasons I keep reading his novels.
Kyliegh Curran (Abra) and Ewan McGregor (Torrance) create an adorable, relatable and awkward friend grouping. Brought together by their shine, they stick together because they need to. And as actors, they bring a lot of life and hope to what could easily have been one heck of a downer of a movie.
Is Doctor Sleep As Good As The Shining?
Not on the level of scare the heck out of you.
But as an overall movie, the direction, acting, and production level are just as compelling.
The pacing, however, is pretty slow; Flanagan kept a lot of backstories and build up in the film that might have been ok to leave out for sake of propelling the story forward a bit quicker.
And the movie goes on a bit too long due to that. That’s probably my biggest complaint about the film.
Do You Need To See The Shining Before Doctor Sleep?
I’m going to say yes.
You really need to have read or watched The Shining before you see this movie. And that recommendation plays into how I feel for the older teens in your life who want to see this as well.
While it was nowhere near as terrifying or impactful as (affiliate link) The Shining, you will appreciate the story and settings being told if you have seen the other movie first. Or even read the book.
If you go into Doctor Sleep without that background, you can still get a decent scare or two, but the impact will not quite be the same. So I suggest watching this one first before heading to the theater next week.
If you’ve seen The Shining then you’re going to love the surprises and Easter eggs hidden in this movie.
Can Teens Watch Doctor Sleep?
There is some brief nudity but no sexual acts viewed on screen.
Language isn’t prevalent here, either.
Violence is another story. The amount of violence and gore is similar to The Shining. If your family has been able to ingest that level of blood and scare then this movie might be alright for them.
Where Doctor Sleep veers into a “hold on, partner” level for me is the victims of the violence. It’s all about hunting and killing children and that, my parent friends, is not something I’m cool with saying teens are ok watching.
Doctor Sleep has a few terrifying scenes involving young children and their brutal deaths. That is where you’ll want to determine if this is something your child can handle, even in their teens.
Total truth here: I could barely handle it- my husband (who never flinches) was looking away from the screen during one horrifying scene involving a child. And it stays with you, even though it’s “just a movie.”
Keep this warning in mind before giving the teens the ok to see this one in the theater.
Rating: 8/10
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Patty Holliday is a parent movie reviewer, writer, and podcaster living in the Washington, DC area. Her goal is to bridge the gap between casual fandom and picky critic with parent movie and television reviews. As a lifelong fangirl and pop culture connoisseur, she’s been creating online since 2009. You can find her work at No-Guilt Disney.com, No-Guilt Fangirl.com, No-Guilt Life, and as host of the top-rated No-Guilt Disney Podcast.
