Doctor Sleep brings Stephen King's novel to the screen in a way that both honors the author's
original version of The Shining and manages to reconcile it with Stanley Kubrick's vision.
The result is a film that's a sequel to two stories at once​, with its own mythology
and a multilayered ending.
Abra spends much of the film getting to know the extent of her own strength with the shining,
and it's clear that she's quite pleased with the things she can do.
During their final encounter at the Overlook Hotel, Rose tells Abra that she reminds her
of her younger self, because there's a darkness in Abra that hasn't reached its full potential
yet.
Will the darkness start to take her over as she ages, or will she be able to handle it?
As we see from the look on her face in the final shot, the film leaves it an open question.
One of the earliest scenes in Doctor Sleep establishes that even after he and his mother
escaped the Overlook, young Danny Torrance was haunted by the ghosts who attacked him
there.
They followed him from the hotel to his home in Florida, and attempted to feed on him until
Dick Hallorann taught young Danny a trick that would allow him to lock the ghosts away
in boxes.
Dan has kept the Overlook ghosts locked away in his own mind for years, but finally unleashes
them on Rose the Hat.
The film's final scene makes it clear that, while the Overlook is gone, the ghosts are
not.
The woman from Room 237 has returned to haunt Abra Stone's bathroom, trying to feed on her
shine now that she can't feed on Dan's.
Abra clearly knows how to deal with the woman thanks to Dan's mentorship, but what about
the rest of the Overlook ghosts?
When Dan and Abra meet in person for the first time, Dan explains that a lot of people have
a little bit of a shine, but he's only met a handful in his life who knew how to use
it.
Abra is one of those people, of course, and so is Dick Hallorann.
Brad Trevor, the "Baseball Boy" Abra has a vision of just before he dies, is another
with an uncanny gift that he is only just beginning to understand when he's killed by
the True Knot.
The film makes it very clear that Abra's powerful shine is the reason the True Knot is defeated,
because she was able to figure out who and what they were in a way that no one else could.
Now that she's defeated the Knot, she probably won't stop using her power for good.
Though there's darkness in her, there's also tremendous light.
It's easy to imagine her using her mighty gift to track down others who shine, particularly
children, and make sure they're safe from the places and things that want to eat what
shines.
As Doctor Sleep begins, the True Knot is introduced as a close knit, small group of psychic vampires
who roam the country under the radar and find themselves slowly running out of the life
force they call "steam."
By the end, only Rose the Hat is left, and in a confrontation at the Overlook, Dan taunts
her by proclaiming her to be the last one standing.
Rose responds that she's not actually the last one.
It may have been an empty boast designed to scare Dan, but what if Rose is right about
people like her?
Are there still other Knots out there in this world, roaming the landscape in search of
steam?
Are there more places like the Overlook that will eat what shines?
Are there would-be Knots that are only just beginning to learn how to consume steam, coming
together in new ways?
More importantly, will people like that be able to stay alive in a world where steam
is harder to come by?
Abra Stone will probably find out one day.
In Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, we learn very early on that the Overlook Hotel was
built atop a Native American burial ground, which sets the stage for a legacy of violence
that carries on throughout the hotel's history.
"The site is built on an Indian burial ground, and I believe they actually had to repel some
Indian attacks while they were building it."
In Stephen King's original novel, the Overlook burns down at the end of the story, but The
Shining film leaves it standing, seemingly waiting for the next caretakers.
The hotel finally burns to the ground at the end of Doctor Sleep, but the ghosts don't
die with it.
At least some of them are still present, trying to follow Abra instead of Dan.
With that in mind, what happens to the site of the Overlook itself?
What will the owners of the land do with it now that the rotted old hotel is gone?
Will it be turned into a mobile home lodge, as it is in King's novel?
Will it be preserved as a heritage site in an effort to calm down the negative energy
there?
Will the peace be maintained?
Dan Torrance is well aware of the imprint his father made on him.
He was so traumatized by what happened at the Overlook that he didn't talk for some
time afterward, and he ultimately took up his father's alcoholic habits later in life.
The contrast between Dan and his father's memory comes to a head in one of the most
stirring scenes in the film, when he meets the ghost of his father now "Lloyd" the bartender
in the Gold Room at the ruined Overlook.
They have a direct confrontation over a glass of whiskey that Dan refuses to drink, while
his father's ghost fumes over the life he claims his family stole from him.
With the Overlook gone, is Jack Torrance able to find peace?
He does find a version of it in Doctor Sleep the novel, but the film leaves that question
open.
Was he beyond saving, or did Dan free his father by burning the hotel?
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