Doctor Sleep (2019) **1/2

The last time that I had a drastic change of opinion of a film on "Take 2" resulting in a full star deduction from my rating was just under a month ago when I marathoned the Scream films. Scream 4 (2011) was the film in question (my review here). Sadly, the same has happened for Doctor Sleep (2019) (my initial review here).

On this rewatch (this time via streaming), I was struck by how much more the film plays out like a TV series than I remembered when I saw it in the theater. The callbacks and recreations of scenes from The Shining (1980) (my review here) really called attention to themselves in a bad way this time as well. More scenes than I previously recalled looked overly clean and some far too digitally created. Furthermore, I got more of a superhero vibe (not a good trait for this viewer) with the characters and pacing this go around. I still think Rebecca Ferguson is an excellent Rose The Hat but the rest of the performances didn't do much for me on this viewing. There are a few good moments of menace and there is some nice sound design in the film, but it’s unfortunate that just over a year later, DS didn't hold up terribly well.

You can find my Stephen King Feature & Television Film Adaptations Ranked list here.