Doctor Sleep Trailer: Analysis and Breakdown

Warner Bros. Pictures has released a teaser trailer for Doctor Sleep, a sequel to the 1980’s horror classic, The Shining. The movie is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2013 horror novel of the same name.

The trailer sees the movie set in the future as Danny Torrance is all grown up now and it seems that he is still being haunted by the demons of the Overlook Hotel all the while experiencing new occurrences of the shining.

The Shining Sequel

Anyone who saw 1980’s The Shining will recall “the shining” as a psychic power possessed by Danny, allowing him to communicate telepathically and sometimes see the past or into the future. These supposed powers give him premonitions of horrors to come and interactions with strange beings who traverse time.

In the 1980’s movie, Jack Torrance takes a position as the caretaker of a remote Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies, taking his wife, Wendy and young son Danny with him. Danny uses his psychic gift, called “the shining,” to communicate telepathically with the hotel cook, Dick Halloran. We learn that the hotel is haunted, and the previous caretaker went mad and murdered his family. Although Jack ultimately gives in to the same madness, Wendy and Danny manage to escape with their lives.

In King’s “Doctor Sleep,” Danny is still struggling with the psychological trauma he experienced in the first movie. The trailer follows this path as we see Danny all grown up but this time though, he is not alone. The trailer introduces us to a young girl, Abra Stone, who has the same powers Danny possesses all the while in danger as she is being pursued by an evil cult. The cult is known as The True Knot led by Rose the Hat, who may not be human, and her many followers. The group feed off ‘steam’ which is a psychic essence that comes from people with the shining who die in pain. The group target Abra, believing they can torture her into giving them a steady supply of ‘steam’ and therefore it is up to Danny to protect the young girl.

Doctor Sleep Trailer Synopsis & Breakdown

This teaser trailer opens with a “Hello” written on a blackboard in Danny’s home. Danny also writes on the board so we assume he is communicating with someone. Later on, he meets up with Abra, who knows he has powers like her but thinks its magic. Danny tells Abra he calls it “the shining” but warns her that the world is hungry and dark.

“I’ve only met two or three people like us, they died.”

We then see an appearance from The True Knot as they are sucking the “steam” from one victim and targeting a little girl as their next victim. As he tries to uncover the secret of his powers and keep young Abra safe, Danny seems to be drawn deeper into his past he has so desperately tried to avoid.

The trailer hints at the movie leaning heavily on his childhood experiences in The Shining, and we may see Danny go back in time to retrace his father’s final trek through the hotel. Such as the scene where Danny looks through that infamous door hacked through with an ax by his father.

The cast of Doctor Sleep comprises of Ewan McGregor as Danny Torrance, Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible/Rogue Nation, Greatest Showman), Kyleigh Curran, Carl Lumbly, Emily Alyn Lind, Bruce Greenwood (Kingsman: The Golden Circle), Alex Essoe, and others.

Doctor Sleep hits theaters November 8th.