2) The Shining (1980)
A few years back, it would have been blasphemous to suggest that Hollywood should film a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece The Shining, but now that Stephen King himself has written a follow-up novel, the doors have finally been opened… cue obligatory gushing blood scene.
Doctor Sleep follows Danny Torrance as he deals with the aftermath of the Overlook Hotel, which still haunts him even in adulthood. Drifting across the country, Torrance begins working at a hospice where he uses “the shining” to provide comfort to patients he knows are about to die, earning the nickname Dr. Sleep. Soon after, Torrance encounters a girl named Abra who possesses more power than he’s ever seen before and together, the two join forces to stop a psychotic group of inhuman creatures known as the True Knot, who feed off the pain of others.
There are two main issues with developing a Dr. Sleep adaptation. The first is that The Shining has a powerful cinematic legacy and there would therefore be a huge amount of expectation placed on a sequel. Secondly, and perhaps even more worryingly, Stephen King adaptations tend to be either masterpieces or cringe-worthy pieces of trash. There’s literally no in-between. Despite these concerns, the source material is one of the most engrossing novels King has produced in years and in literary form at least, Doctor Sleep is a worthy successor to the legacy of The Shining. With the right director, a Doctor Sleep adaptation could become the next cinematic masterpiece from the demented mind of King.
And speaking of demented…