One of the most anticipated horror movies of the fall, “Doctor Sleep” is an adaptation of the best-selling Stephen King novel that takes place decades after the events of King’s own “The Shining.” Just how indebted the cinematic adaptation would be to Stanley Kubrick’s beloved film has remained a tantalizing question, one that the new trailer (currently attached to “It Chapter Two) has answered definitively.


The new film follows a grown-up Dan Torrance (now played by Ewan McGregor) who works in hospice care and allows his patients to cross over peacefully, thanks to his extraordinary gifts. He soon confronts the demons of his past when a group of energy vampires (led by Rebecca Ferguson) start targeting those with “the shining,” leading to an epic confrontation at the site of the former Overlook Hotel.

What makes this movie adaptation so fascinating is that, thanks to the original “Shining” book and movie’s very different endings, what was a more metaphysical showdown in an empty site (thanks to the hotel exploding in the novel) has become a more concrete return to the past (since the hotel still stands in the cinematic version). Writer-director Mike Flanagan, who already has one stone cold classic Stephen King adaptation under his belt (Netflix’s terrific “Gerald’s Game”), looks to be recreating the Kubrick movie with unwavering fidelity, adding an extra dimension to an already fascinating project.

“Doctor Sleep” opens on November 8th.