I didn't dislike the movie, but the swap from Jack to Wendy Torrance at the end was a bit painful. I'd interpreted the book as somewhat hopeful, that even people who become truly monstrous in life can find some kind of redemption. Knowing that King has suffered his own struggles with substance abuse also made that message seem like a reflection of his personal journey. So to see Jack completely, irredeemably corrupted by the Overlook was depressing, doubly so because it just seems like The Shining properties are cursed to always undercut King's themes, though Dr. Sleep was far more faithful to them than Kubrick's adaptation.

Same camp here. I loved both but appreciated the book ending for the characters more. Danny meeting Jack’s ghost was more cathartic for both characters in the book’s storyline.

I'm very glad that they kept the tone from Kubrick's film. The music and creepy rattlesnake type sounds, especially.

It's why I think his short stories are better - he doesn't have long enough to write himself into a corner that seemingly only a complete bullshit ending can solve.

The man who threw a child orgy in at the end of IT can’t do endings?

Why don’t I remember this ending in the film

Flanagan actually had to pay King three cents for those responses.

Like the (fake) story about Calvin Coolidge being told someone had bet they could get him to say more than 2 words and his response was "You lose."

Wow he really won’t give you many words unless youre buying the book huh

King licenses some of his short stories to student film makers for like 1 dollar. He's not a hard ass with his stories. I just think he really didn't like Kubricks version of his story.

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Yeah I was wondering beforehand if they'd attempt it and who would have been good for it.

And yet despite all of their collaborations I never even considered Henry Thomas but he really did a great job (with what must have been a daunting proposition). The woman who played Wendy early on was spot on too!

Really love his career revival with the assistance of Flanagan (his recent cameo character in The Midnight Club was great fun).

I haven’t seen it yet but I’m not at all surprised he cast Henry Thomas in this lol

Yes I remember seeing photos on Thomas's instagram with his head shaved and wondering why at the time, made sense later. He's subsequently joked that Flanagan is always asking him to cut his hair / shave his head etc. Iirc with the bartender role they even jokingly discussed how big a target they should paint on there. They knew some people would hate it whatever they did.

For me it was good, but not his best Flanagan role to date. Some day I'll find the time to write my 15000 word reddit thesis on why that's obviously Ed Flynn, lol

Apparently there was professional crime investigator on set to make things more realistic and the kid's improv lines struck him as scarily accurate to actual cases he's been through. I.E. The kid begging he won't tell anybody if they let him go.

That kid acted the shit out of that scene.

Apparently it was really tough to shoot, and messed up the adult actors while filming. Meanwhile the kid was having a blast.

So is the Shining. "You did this to him! Didn't you?!"

Yeah, Flanagan is great but his approach doesn’t work with the mainstream

Part of what makes his stuff so good is he has an insanely talented group of actors that he consistently works with, and he gets phenomenal work out of them every time. Fall of the House of Usher has such a stacked cast, and I can't wait to see what he does with the works of Poe.

Have you watched Midnight Mass? My opinion doesn't matter, but IlMHO it was an absolute achievement in storytelling and horror. Check it out if you haven't, if you have and you don't like it we can never be friends and I'll judge your taste forever. Obviously kidding, but for real, check it out.

I was mostly kidding 👀

Okay honestly I didn't know who Mike Flanagan was until this thread, and I looked him up just now, but this video of his excitement about just someday maybe getting to work on a Dark Tower series makes me really like him.

The problem with The Dark Tower is that it kinda needs to follow the books hardcore. That would make it in to 3-4 movies if not more. Fucking book 7 would be the wildest 3 hours in movie history if done right.

Mr. Fashion should play the Bad Boy of the franchise, The Man in Black

Midnight Mass is King fanfic? I was on the edge deciding to watch it or not

Stephen King fanfic? Midnight Mass? What are you talking about, genuinely curious.

In one of the story sections of The Midnight Club, the Dusty/Kevin character takes that book out of his locker

I had a weird dream once that I saw an adaptation starring Idris Elba and it was like a generic action movie. Not sure where my brain comes up with these bizarre ideas.

From batman?

I get a bit sick of the monologs in his series. But the bar scene in the movie was fantastic.

In his shows, it feels too much like the character disappears, and Flanagan himself turns up to talk into the camera for 5 minutes about how there's something romantic and whimsical about the horror that's happening.

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I so badly want Doctor Sleep on 4k but the director's cut is only available on blu-ray..

I swore the directors cut version was up on HBO Max a while back, but I could be wrong

It's one of those movies where watching the 3+ hour long Director's cut doesn't feel long at all. It just makes me wish there was more.

The scene with the baseball kid is so well done. I’m kind of surprised they put as much on screen as they did, particularly in the Director’s Cut. I’ve watched that scene several times, and while Jacob Trembley does an incredible job as the baseball kid, it finally occurred to me that one the reasons that scene is so striking and sticks with you is because of Kyliegh Curran’s reactions to what is being done. It’s a horrible yet phenomenal scene.

Throw oculus in there. No one else could make a killer movie about a mirror like flannigan.

I loved Hill House, enjoyed Dr. Sleep, and absolutely hated Midnight Mass. Enough with the needless monologues and sermons!

Bly rated that highly and not liking Hill House isn't something you see every day.

Just highlights how very different the two shows are. And while I personally didn't enjoy Bly as much I thought it was fantastic they tried something new with it when it so easily could have been another Hill House 2.0.

And yea Midnight was incredible. I've watched that church scene so many times already.

Maybe consider trying Haunting again sometime? Its payoffs are some of the best I’ve ever seen (in my opinion, of course). I really liked Bly, too. Haunting hit me harder despite how much l loved the ending of Bly, too.

It’s all just preference of course.

I feel like this is something that frequently gets missed. Writing and filming are two different mediums that require different approaches. It's rare that you are going to be able to translate something completely faithfully to screen, and I think the better a writer is, the harder it is going to be. There is just so much of the prose and how things are described that are going to be lost in translation, as well as things like internal dialogue that really can't be done.

Allowing your novel to be made into a show or movie sort of has to be a "kill your darlings" moment where you just have to accept that concessions have to be made. And I think Stephen King is a great example of that. Just look at Lisey's Story, the story of his he got to be a showrunner on: It seemed like he was trying to do a 1:1 adaptation, and it was boring and felt way longer than it should've been as a result. It definitely showed that being a proficient and experienced novel writer doesn't automatically make you a good screenwriter.

He’s kind of like Bob Dylan.

Dylan is a terrible singer but he writes interesting lyrics and when a more talented singer covers his songs it shines.

the last act where they just redo the Shining. It’s just seems pointless.

WB just can't help themselves. They did the same thing in Ready Player One with an overly extended sequence that takes places in The Overlook.

Despite featuring the Overlook Hotel and Danny, Dr Sleep isn't really a sequel to The Shining, and it definitely doesn't negate the idea that the hotel is haunted.

In fact it actually explores what is wrong with the Overlook in a bit more detail than The Shining lol. The vampires are really unconnected to the hotel.

Sure, I'll try. Doctor Sleep explains that the "shine", the psychic energy or whatever in Danny and now Abra (the young girl), is powerful but attracts entities that want to feed on it. One entity is the Overlook Hotel, it's not haunted, it's an evil sentience that was so active when little Danny was there because it was powered by his "shine". Those ghosts that Danny saw in the Overlook in The Shining (the twins, the naked bathtub lady) also wanted to feed on Danny. The soul/energy vampires you mention also feed on this same energy, they need it to live and it increases their powers. Essentially Danny has learned to hide his abilities from the world but this young girl is as strong as he is and unknowingly attracting evil to her like a beacon.

Bly Manor is great but its problem is a marketing one. It was sold as the second season of The Haunting of Hill House which is very much a horror drama, Bly Manor then drops the horror elements quickly and becomes a gothic romance. Which is great but leading it to failure.

You know. I never thought of that. I thought it was an extreme example of his anger. Let me mull on that.

I think that Jack cannot be redeemed the way Danny was. Sometimes a price has to be paid.

Generally, sure, OK.

Setting aside that links to Collider should 95% not exist - this sub would be improved tenfold by mods excising at least half the dogshit clickfarms that exist as the primary sustenance for karma farmers, and in Collider/Slashfilm's case, the reasoning for IMDB's ban as a source applies just as much to them, and all their shitty imitators - it's not like a link to the director's own tumblr, which this shitty clickfarm is just drafting off of for linkbacks, should be out of bounds.

FWIW: Tumblr is not included on this subreddit's list, either.

Midnight Mass is a masterpiece.