Interviews
Mike Flanagan on How ‘Doctor Sleep’ Also Honors Mick Garris’s ‘The Shining’ [Interview]
It doesn’t take long to realize that Mike Flanagan’s sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep (read my review), isn’t just a sequel. It’s also a film that revisits and recontextualizes Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror film, and the beloved Stephen King novel that preceded it. Fans of both the book and the movie can find something to love and appreciate about Doctor Sleep, but there’s another version of The Shining out there that nobody is talking about, isn’t there?
Back in 1997, Stephen King wrote a TV miniseries of his classic haunted hotel story. This new version of The Shining was directed by Mick Garris (The Stand), and starred Steven Weber (The Perfection) as Jack Torrance, the struggling alcoholic who goes mad from isolation and tries to kill his wife and son. And although it’s arguably more faithful than the Kubrick version, it’s nowhere near the most popular version of The Shining.
But, as Bloody-Disgusting learned in a recent interview with Mike Flanagan, there’s a little bit of that TV miniseries in Doctor Sleep too.
“I think there is,” Flanagan reveals. “I think you if you look at the way we staged Dan and Abra’s confrontation in the Overlook at the end, and look at the scene that Steven Webber did in the miniseries, there are moments there.”
Flanagan isn’t just being a completionist by paying homage to the 1997 version of The Shining. He’s genuinely a fan.
“I’ve probably watched the Garris [version] a half dozen times in my life. I quite love Steven Weber’s performance in that film,” Flanagan explains.
“As a King purist I would often get myself in trouble by saying it is a far more faithful adaptation, which I think would not be a controversial thing to say but you’d be amazed,” Flanagan says.
The miniseries was an important production to Stephen King, who is famously not fond of Kubrick’s interpretation of The Shining, and who wanted to spearhead an adaptation that stayed true to the book’s rendition of the story, which ends very differently and portrays Jack Torrance more sympathetically than the 1980 film.
So it’s rather impressive that, according to Flanagan, the author warmed a bit to Kubrick’s version after watching Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, which treats both the film adaptation and the novel as equally relevant.
“You know, he [King] said something after we watched the movie with him that stuck with me, which is really interesting,” Flanagan says. “Because he’s still, as cathartic as the miniseries might or might not have been for him, he still has all those feelings about The Shining. That hasn’t softened over the years.”
“And what he said when we finished watching the film was, ‘Yeah, I love what you did with Dan. I really love the film. I’ll tell you what, I know we talked a lot about the Kubrick of it and getting all of that iconography in here. This movie warms that movie up for me,’” Flanagan recounts.
“He said to us that he liked Doctor Sleep in a way that made him feel a little better about the Kubrick film. That… I mean, that was a profound honor.”
Doctor Sleep is now playing in theaters everywhere.
As the inaugural season of Apple TV+’s stellar new series “Widow’s Bay” barrels toward its finale in two weeks, the latest episode gives Kate O’Flynn the spotlight as her character revisits her trauma with the Boogeyman.
“Your Baggage“, directed by Andrew DeYoung (Friendship), sees O’Flynn’s scene-stealing Patricia once again renew her fight with the Michael Myers-like stalker that slaughtered her peers during her adolescence. Thrillingly, it makes for one extended chase sequence that sees Patricia trying to warn others, while evading the undead killer.
In short, this episode’s incredible riff on Halloween and the slasher subgenre transformed Patricia into a fierce Final Girl.
“Well, that felt like a bucket list that I didn’t know was on my bucket list until I did it, but when I did it, I just lapped up every minute,” O’Flynn tells Bloody Disgusting of her triumphant turn this episode. “It felt fantastic for her to get that moment where she is becoming a badass. That was amazing.”
The actress turned to a few notable references for her performance. “Horror-wise, I go back to my youth, which was referenced in some of the episodes: Wicker Man, Carrie, and Rosemary’s Baby, that sort of thing is my kind of vibe.”
O’Flynn also notes how the series’ unique tone allows for so much creative freedom to make bold swings. “There’s something very freeing about it. Every moment is up for grabs, so it’s like we don’t have to totally land in one direction or another. It keeps it alive.“
Patricia is the eccentric assistant to Matthew Rhys‘ Mayor Tom Loftis, who’s at the forefront of trying to solve the island’s pesky curse predicament. Rhys felt the same about “Widow’s Bay” and its rare ability to make you laugh and scream in equal measure, stemming from series creator Katie Dippold.
“The mandate was, ‘It’s a real world with real people. You play for real.’ There’s no playing for comedy or horror,” Rhys echoes O’Flynn’s sentiments on how freeing the series’ tone has been.
New episodes will release every Wednesday through June 17 only on Apple TV+.
Kate O’Flynn in “Widow’s Bay,” now streaming on Apple TV.
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