We all know how Hollywood likes to ruin perfectly good books. They make unnecessary changes to great stories. Recently, I read and watched Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. The movie pleasantly surprised me even though it was vastly different. The movie perfectly blended in elements of the book along with seamlessly flowing with the Kubrick rendition of The Shining. If you haven’t read and seen The Shining just know the two are also vastly different from one another. I think the Doctor Sleep movie did a great job working with two different source materials, however the movie included many changes that subtracted from the themes in the book. Let’s take a look at some of the differences. If you don’t want spoilers for either book or movie I would stop reading here.
Removing Characters
The first major thing I noticed was the difference in characters. Doctor John played a significant role in the book but did nothing in the movie. Dan met Doctor John in an AA meeting where they became close friends. In the movie, Doctor John is only used to show Dan’s shining. However, they become great friends in the book. John even goes out of his way to help find the body of Bradley. After he then assists Dan and Abra’s father to take out members of the True Knot. Three people fighting against the True Knot seems more believable than just two people taking out all of them.
Abra’s grandmother is also surprisingly absent from the film. She plays a very important role in the book. She dies from cancer and Dan uses her cancer to kill the majority of the True Knot. Abra’s grandmother also respected the strange powers Abra uses. She cared for Abra and is included throughout the novel. Removing her felt unnecessary and leaves out some character development for Abra.
Lastly, Dan’s AA sponsor in the book is completely removed. Casey Kingsley, introduced the world of AA to Dan. He also introduced Dan to Doctor John and helped him throughout the book fighting against his alcoholism. The movie combined both Doctor John and Casey Kingsley into one person, Billy. Billy in the movie does everything those two do in the book. However, I believe the other characters to be just as important as Billy. Kingsley, especially, pushes Dan’s character development throughout the book.
The Deaths
Both the movie and book are categorized as horror. I found the novel to be more thriller than horror. The movie tries to skirt on the more horror side. Three major deaths happen in the movie that do not happen in the book. Maybe the makers wanted to increase the stakes of the movie to keep their audience more invested, but it dramatically changes the tone and feel of the story.
Both Abra’s father and Billy die in the movie. Neither die in the book. When Abra’s father dies in the movie he isn’t even in that scene in the book. He dies protecting Abra from being kidnapped. This shows his fatherly love for his daughter but ends up splitting their family. By the end of the book Abra’s family is whole leaving a happier ending. Same with Billy. Billy stays by Dan’s side throughout the novel leading to a stronger theme of friendship and bonding. When I witnessed his death on screen I felt shocked and confused. How could they do such a thing to my beloved Billy, but hey maybe that’s what they wanted.
The True Knot
In the book, the True Knot did everything to hide who they were. They wanted to blend and go unnoticed through the world. The True Know wore normal clothing and disguised themselves as camper people, people who traveled campground to campground in their RV’s. They had money and resources to spare since they lived practically forever.
The movie does a poor job of blending them in. Their caravan is massive and conspicuous. Crow Daddy and Grandpa Flick could very easily be distinguished from normal people. In the movie they also seem to have less supplies and money. I found the scariest part about them was their ability to blend into the world they lived in. Anyone could be a member of the True Knot.
Abra
Abra exhibited different personality traits in the movie compared to the book. I enjoyed book Abra more than movie Abra. One of the first details I noticed in the movie is Abra is an outcast. Her peers call her weird and don’t like her. In the book Abra is popular with many friends. She even spends the night at one of her friends’ houses. The community knows her and enjoys her presence.
Secondly, book Abra is headstrong, stubborn, with slight anger issues. Movie Abra seems more reserved without the anger issues. She seems more perfect and more together than the book Abra. Flaws are a great thing to include in any story. It allows audiences to relate to the characters. The only flaw with her in the movie is her peers considering her weird. In the book Dan tries to work with her flaws and help her see through them more as a mentor figure. In the movie Dan seems more like a protector than a mentor.
Lastly, book Abra has a much more vivid imagination. Dan tells her to set an alarm for if Rose gets in her head. Instead, Abra is more bold and sets a trap. Abra imagines herself as a knight in shining armor riding a beautiful stallion. In the movie they try to embrace the more horror aspect rather than fantasy. They battle using their minds instead of battling in Abra’s fantasy setting. Maybe it would be harder to convey in a movie but movies use horses and knights all the time. I believe the fantasy Abra creates paints a better and more teenage girl picture than what Hollywood represented in their movie.
The Ending
The ending of the movie is the hardest to compare to the book. If you’ve seen The Shining you know the Overlook is still standing. The boiler never exploded and Dan’s father died instead frozen in the snow. My first question I asked when watching Doctor Sleep is how the ending is going to turn out. Watching the ending felt like a whole different story which, believe it or not, I loved. In the book the final showdown takes place at a campground near to where the Overlook Hotel used to stand. In the movie the final showdown took place inside the still standing hotel.
Dan used the horrors of the hotel to his advantage when dealing with Rose. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. The film flawlessly connected the Kubrick film into Doctor Sleep’s conclusion. However the one thing I did not like is how Dan died in the movie. Once again Hollywood thought his death would mean more views but it leaves his character arc incomplete. Dan wanted to be a mentor to Abra; He wanted to write his past mistakes off. In the book he gets to do just that. He resolves his innermost conflict in the book at another AA meeting where he tells everyone his crimes. In the movie, he just dies and that’s that. I found his death more unnecessary than the other two. This subtracted from the movie more than any other thing mentioned above.
Conclusion
If you ever find time to read and watch these movies, I would recommend it. Normally, I would say to read the book first, but the movies give off a whole different vibe. Watch the movies before the books. I think you will enjoy it more that way. Doctor Sleep the movie feels closer to the Kubrick rendition of The Shining than Stephen King’s novel, but it is still a great watch. I enjoyed many aspects of the movie. Of course, I enjoyed the novel way more than the movie but they were so different I can’t consider the movie a bad movie, just different. In comparing how similar the two are I would give the movie a 4 out of 10 but my enjoyment of the movie stand alone would be an 8 out of 10.
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As always, happy reading!