Welcome to the Cut Comparison, where we compare and contrast different versions of our favorite horror movies.
I'm James A. Janisse and today we'll be looking at Doctor Sleep, the 2019 horror epic that has a theatrical version and a director's cut.
Doctor Sleep is based on the 2013 novel of the same name, written by Stephen King as a sequel to The Shining.
King is known for his tendency to write long, detail-filled stories,
so it's no surprise that writer/director Mike Flanagan had a lot of material to work with for his screen adaptation.
While the theatrical version was plenty long itself, running 2 hours and 32 minutes,
the director's cut has nearly a full half hour of additional footage, bringing its runtime to a cool 3 hours even.
As I said repeatedly in my Kill Count, which you should watch before THIS video for behind-the-scenes info and theatrical cut context,
Doctor Sleep is one of my favorite recent horror movies, and in my opinion, the Director's Cut makes it even better.
Sometimes a director's cut feels unnecessary and even masturbatory, with scenes added back in that were very clearly cut for a reason - Lookin at you, Mallrats!
But the Doctor Sleep DC earns every additional minute, some of which comes in the form of entirely new scenes - I counted 4 or 5 -
and some of which comes little by little, with extra shots and lines added back in to scenes you'll recognize from the theatrical cut.
Taken altogether, the extra footage helps add to the stakes of the story and flesh out its characters - especially the two families in opposition of each other:
Abra Stone and her parents David and Lucy, and Rose the Hat's evil clan, The True Knot.
It's all integrated seamlessly, giving those characters more motivation and making the story feel grander in scope and scale.
The Director's Cut also leans more into some stylistic choices that help tie it to both of its two source materials.
First off, there are more slow dissolves between scenes and pounding heartbeats on the soundtrack.
This editing technique and sound effect are all over Kubrick's Shining,
and their omnipresence in the Doctor Sleep Director's Cut further reminds us that this is a proper sequel.
The other stylistic distinction in the DC is the inclusion of 6 Chapter Titles.
The addition of these cards help demarcate the sprawling story,
underlining the progression of the plot and the development of its characters while also making the movie feel more like a novel -
just like it's OTHER source material, Stephen King's book.
My goal in this video is to show you the most significant differences between the Theatrical and Director's Cuts.
Because there are so many little changes, I won't be noting the most minor ones -
like when shots get extended for a few frames or seconds, or when conversations have an extra line or two of dialogue.
I also want to give credit to a website that I wouldn't be able to make Cut Comparisons without.
The Austrian website Movie-Censorship.com is, as far as I'm concerned, the gold standard when it comes to comparing different movie versions.
Without their work, the Cut Comparison probably wouldn't exist.
So thanks to them and their tireless translators, I can happily say, for the first time in over 2 years, let's get to the cuts.
Our first extended scene is the film's first scene - the one in which the little girl Violet becomes a Shine Smoothie the True Knot slurps down.
There's a full minute of extra footage here. Some of it is in extra dialogue between the two flower-named characters,
and a bunch of it comes from extra shots that show the True Knot's caravan -
the director's cut establishes the cavalcade of crusty kid killer carriers much earlier, like in this shot where Violet's mom is shown worriedly looking for her daughter.
The Theatrical Cut doesn't roll out the RVs until Andi's on the beach gettin turnt.
The DC has a few extra shots in the short Overlook Hotel flashback scene,
as well as some when young Danny Torrance trepidatiously approaches his bathroom door at home.
After he enters the bathroom, the DC adds a fair amount of footage of Mrs. Massey getting out of the tub -
so, as you might expect from a Director's Cut, this version does have a bit more nudity.
Mossy, moldy nudity.
A minor but enjoyable addition to the DC is a short little scene that concludes the bathroom sequence -
one wherein Wendy sees phantom footprints left on the bathroom mat. Shpookeh!
The convo between Dan Dan and Ghost Hallorann also gets a significant extension, with 2 minutes of dialogue added back in.
May slow things down a bit, but as far as I'm concerned, you can never have too much of Carl Lumbly's fantastic performance.
Some of the lines missing from the theatrical version concern Danny's parents,
like when Dick tells the boy Jack Torrance wasn't a bad man, he was just possessed by the Overlook Hotel.
Nice sentiment, Dick, but that feels like a partial retcon of the Jack we saw in Kubrick's film -
Jack Nicholson played that dude as a scary stressball from the get-go.
"See? It's okay. He saw it on the television."
Another, more accurate, line from Dick reinforces the fact that Wendy Torrance is a saint
"Let's get you back to Mama. Wendy'll worry... and she shouldn't have to worry another day in her life."
After Dan Dan becomes a Man Man, there are some minor changes in his scene at Deenie's apartment -
it's mostly in the editing, but there's also a notable line where he asks the toddler for his name,
establishing an emotional connection to the kid before he leaves him to die of hunger.
There's also a shot that pointedly shows him pocketing Deenie's money as he leaves.
The Theatrical Cut is somewhat ambiguous as to whether or not he listens to Ghost Dick and puts Deenie's money back;
the Director's Cut confirms that this is Dan at his worst, setting him up for a more dynamic redemption arc.
Later, another mostly-new scene shows Dan using Deenie's money to buy a bus ticket to Frazier.
Turns out he just asked to go as far as the cash would take him, and that's how he wound up in the sleepy home of Teeny Town.
Onto a bunch of Abra stuff, including a new 2-minute scene that serves as her introduction in the Director's Cut.
This extra look into her home life with parents David and Lucy also serves as an earlier indication of the girl's psychic powers.
After calling it a night and putting her to bed, Abra's parents discover her playing the piano in their living room - with her mind fingers!
I get why they cut this scene for time - after all, we quickly see Abra's powers on display when she causes the ceiling spoon fall after her party.
But I do think that seeing more of Abra early on helps establish that she's arguably the story's main character.
Without the extra screen presence here in Act One, I can understand how it would feel abrupt when she takes more of the movie's focus later on.
Unsurprisingly, the book has even MORE Abra stuff, including a scene where she's 2 years old and... has a premonition of.. 9/11? What the fuck?
Stephen King books are so weird, man, I love 'em.
Some more extra film stock in the DC's Stone Soup
comes from an extra shot in the birthday party scene, where we get to see David and Lucy being lovey toward each other. Aw, that's nice.
There's also a quick extra forty-five-second scene between Abra and her mom later that night,
where the birthday girl senses that her spoon trick made her parents uncomfortable
"You're scared of me."
This one line does a lot - it shows that Abra learned early on not to use her powers openly,
and it makes it all the more hurtful later when Dan tells her to keep her Shine down.
Similar to how the DC introduces the True Knot's caravan earlier, it also does the same with the group's tangled name
"So... you and your friend-?"
"Mm, not my friend, that's my family. We're the True Knot... dear."
In the theatrical cut, we don't hear their monicker spoken until Grandpa Flick is giving his spooky sermon on the beach
"We are the True Knot!"
There are a few extensions to the later scene where Andi wakes up after the ceremony,
including a line that indicates she's been out for multiple days, and a shot where she's welcomed into the family with a Flick Hug.
Guaranteed that dude smells like Sandalwood.
Some extra shots of The Overlook are shown almost an hour into the Director's Cut, prepping us for our eventual return to the location in the final act.
After that, we have Dan celebrating his 8 years of sobriety in 2019, and in the DC he speaks a little longer, with more musings about Jack Torrance
"He-he hurt me once, when he was drunk... Broke my arm... Then he dried right out."
We also get a longer scene when Dan helps ease Charlie into death.
There's a real sweet addition that comes from the book where Dan uses his Shine to transmit images of Charlie's life and family into his mind.
"Oh! Look at that... like a deck of cards, all out of order."
As lovely as that is, the scene also includes an extra line of Charlie being afraid to die,
one that reminds me of how the novel spoke about death in a way that, honestly, really fucks with me
"There was nothing before.... *wind whistles outside* so what if there's... *heavy breath* nothing... *heavy breath* after?"
Speaking of death, the infamous scene with the baseball kid has some minor alterations that make it even more difficult to watch -
so look away if you already had a hard time with it.
Mostly, it swaps out sideways views for close-ups of Jacob Tremblay, and has a few shots added in that that show more blood on the poor kid's face.
There's also an additional line from Rose that really drives home how cruel the Knot is when it comes to their pursuit of steam
"Damn, I thought he had another few minutes in him."
I absolutely love the extra stuff with the True Knot - I think it makes them feel a lot more dangerous and threatening.
Take, for example, some extra dialogue Rose has with Crow Daddy -
after telling him she doesn't want to turn Abra, cause it's too dangerous, she decides that she doesn't want to kill the young girl either.
Instead, their hungry family could benefit most from a middle path
"Think of a cow. You butcher one, that gives you meat for... a month. Keep it alive... it gives you milk for years."
That is fucking terrifying!
And it gives their overall pursuit of Abra a lot more stakes.... no pun intended.
Cause like, you know, cows, steaks. *chuckles*
Okay, the pun was intended, sue me.
The scene where Abra and Dan finally meet face to face is extended in the Director's Cut, with one line in particular adding a lot to this version's familial themes.
Abra mentions that her powers have always scared her parents, sometimes to the point where they'd avoid eye contact with her.
She then senses that Dan had similar issues with his mom growing up.
"...She couldn't look you in your eyes either."
This line is monumental when combined with extra stuff we get in the Overlook Bar later.
When speaking to his ghost dad bartender, Dan talks more about his childhood, and he reiterates the fact that Wendy was unable to look him in the eyes,
apparently because she saw Jack in his face whenever she did
"And after the Overlook, she wouldn't look me in the eyes. Not for long."
This is further illustrated in a new scene that comes right after Dan and Abra's park bench encounter,
one that ends with Danny looking in the mirror in a shot that echoes the one from The Shining.
Both versions of the film have Dan telling his dad about death flies, the bugs he would see flying around someone whose life was nearing an end.
Both versions also mention the awful sight he had to endure when Wendy was on her deathbed
"And in those last weeks she was COVERED. Her whole face. I could barely see her eyes."
He says he could barely look at her, but the director's cut underlines the point
*trembling* "She just lay there dying... with her son that couldn't look at her."
It's a heartbreaking memory poignantly delivered by Ewan McGregor,
and all these lines about Danny and Wendy being unable to look each other in the eyes makes their final scene together so fucking powerful.
As Dan sacrifices himself to save Abra and destroy the Overlook, he and his mom are shown together again.
They're both young and healthy, and they're FINALLY able to look each other directly in the eyes.
This movie's the best, man.
Going back a bit now, Dan's conversation with Ghost Dick is a few lines longer, including one that reveals it's painful for Dick to make these spiritual visits...
"You listen son, it hurts to be here, so I'll only say it once..."
...and another that clues Dan in to how long the True Knot's been around, with Dick intimating that their origins go back millenia
"Once they rode camels in the desert, once they drove caravans across Eastern Europe..."
The theatrical cut gives us that info during Rose's eulogy for Grandpa Flick, but I still think it's dope to hear more about the Knot,
and two more Director's Cut changes give us insight into how they operate.
The first is an entirely new scene between Rose and Crow Daddy - in it, we see how they found out where Abra lives.
Turns out that when the young girl invaded Rose's psyche in the supermarket, it caused a little earthquake localized entirely to a single street.
Crow discovered the news article covering the quake, and the rest was history.
The second extra helping of Crow Daddy comes later, when he's laying out his kidnapping plan to Rose.
Additional lines have him mentioning an asset at the NSA - which gives credence to the scene later on when Dan and Abra determine they can't go to the police.
Speaking of that scene, a minor change involves WHEN Abra shows her dad what happened to the baseball boy.
In the Theatrical Cut, she does it, perhaps accidentally, when she pulls her dad away from Dan outside in the driveway.
In the DC, she waits until they're inside the kitchen, and gives David the mental backstory a bit more intentionally.
There's more extra David Stone in a scene where he attempts to defend his daughter against Crow Daddy with a knife
"Always tickles me, watching you rubes threaten a god."
It's cool to see David try to make a stand, and to hear more scary badass lines courtesy of Zahn McClarnon,
but I've gotta admit that this inclusion actually makes LESS sense to me.
In the Theatrical Cut, the last time you see David alive is in the background while Abra's projecting herself into the park.
Then she's needled by the Crow, he leaves with her over his shoulder, and you can see that David's been killed, his body in the background.
Here in the Director's Cut, the men have their confrontation AFTER Crow's already entered David's house and drugged his daughter.
Where the hell was David when all that was going on?
In the Theatrical Cut, we can assume that David was silently killed by Crow while Abra was distracted.
In the Director's Cut, he was still alive during the neck needling - seems like not the best time to take a bathroom break or whatever, dude.
I already talked earlier about the extra lines between Dan and Jack at the Overlook bar, but the Director's Cut ALSO has a whole new scene between them -
one that takes place in the red bathroom we saw in the Shining.
This may be the only addition that FEELS like a Director's Cut scene to me -
in other words, despite looking cool, I can see why it was cut, as its inclusion doesn't feel as natural within the flow of the film.
That could also just be a personal thing, though, since I already felt like there were too many direct homages to Kubrick's film in the final act of Doctor Sleep.
The rest of the movie is the same between both cuts,
and the DC ends with a card of text wherein Mike Flanagan thanks Warner Brothers for supporting him as he made this version.
I'll go ahead and thank them too, because I loved the extra footage.
In case I still haven't made myself clear, I'll show you why at the differences. AYE-UH!
Oof!
Hah!
As far as runtime goes, the Director's Cut of Doctor Sleep is 28 minutes longer than the theatrical version -
split kind of evenly between new and extended scenes.
This movie's not a slasher, so kills aren't a focal point, but the Director's Cut did have some extra baseball boy blood,
so I guess it's technically more violent.
Mostly, the DC gives us more insight into the True Knot, and more time with Abra's Family -
and I think that those additions, along with the stuff about Danny and Wendy, make the longer version more emotional and satisfying overall.
So even though the Theatrical Cut is obviously a shorter watch, I think it's worth spending the extra half hour to experience the Director's Cut.
It is MY preferred version, and the one that gives us a fuller appreciation of Mike Flanagan's genius.
Hope you enjoyed this long-awaited return of the Cut Comparison.
The next movie I'll cover on this show is Jennifer's Body, but probably not until March -
cause the rest of February's bout to be filled with a bunch of Kill Counts.
Until next time, I'm James A. Janisse, and you can consider these cuts compared.
Thanks a lot for watching this Cut Comparison! I wanna thank some Patrons, like
RyLaw, Cj coleman,
Christian Mays, Caine Aramov,
spacedive, and Zion Smith
Like I said, I'm gonna cover Jennifer's Body on this show, and also Army of Darkness pretty soon.
And look out on Monday for a new thing I'm doing; Trailers for that week's Kill Count!
Thanks everyone! Be good people.