This thing has spoilers, like, it’s literally chock full of them.
So there’s your warning.
Spoilers for what?
Everything.
The books, the movies.
All.
I know All.
All work no play makes jack a dull boy
Hi most amazing fam, my name is Abbey and today I’m bringing you Top 10 Scary Doctor
Sleep theories
On November 8th, 2019, Doctor Sleep is released in theatres internationally, as a sequel to
the Shining.
The director Mike Flanagan tries to make it a sequel to the movie by Stanley Kubrik while
also paying staying close to the source literature by Stephen King.
Apparently Stephen King has also given his stamp of approval.
But all of this keeps us wondering, so let’s get into these Doctor Sleep theories.
Let’s begin at number 10 with a theory about the novel
Stephen King used Doctor Sleep as an FU to Stanley Kubrick
We’ve all heard of the beef between King and Kubrick.
King didn’t like Kubrick's adaptation and how much it strayed from his book.
He says he doesn’t quite understand why people think of Kubrick’s movie as one of
the scariest films they have ever seen.
Well, some people are saying that Stephen King wrote Doctor Sleep, the sequel to the
Shining, as a way to reclaim the legacy of his ideas.
This can be seen in the authors note of the 2013 novel, which at one point says this about
the Shining: “If you have seen the movie but not read
the novel, you should note that Doctor Sleep follows the latter, which is, in my opinion,
the True History of the Torrance Family.”
Onto number 9, Shelley Duvall’s absense People say Shelley Duvall may not be in Doctor
Sleep because the Shining changed her.
Right off the bat the reason they have a different actress is for the age they are portraying
the characters in Doctor Sleep.
But, Duvall probably wouldn’t want to go back to this franchise anyways.
There is a theory that being in the Shining sent Shelley Duvall to a dark place, and unfortunately
this theory may have some truth to it.
Being in the movie really affected her.
She was treated poorly onset, according to Kubricks daughter, which may have been a way
to get her into the character Kubrick wanted.
But traumatizing an actor so your movie turns out great isn’t right.
Unless someone decides to go method, getting really into the character for themselves,
and requests that treatment as a part of it, it’s horrible.
She had to do the bat scene 127 times, the Guinness world record for the most takes of
any dialogue scene that still hasn’t been beaten to this day.
She allegedly had real tears in the scene and began to lose hair from the stress of
the movie.
She called it the toughest role she ever had.
Let’s move to Number 8, Indigenous themes Of course, people will be looking to see if
the theories from the first movie will remain in the second.
The first of which that we will be looking at is the metaphor of violence in American
history.
One moment in Kubick’s version of the shining that wasn’t in the book was the information
that the Overlook was built on a “native american burial ground”.
In the documentary Room 237, people believed Kubrick was slyly commenting on indigenous
genocide.
The movie version of Doctor Sleep reveals that after the Torrance family incident, the
hotel was boarded up and left to rot, as Dan puts it, but the ghosts don't cease to exist.
That legacy of violence and terror is alive and well, and comes to the fore when Dan and
Abra go back to the Overlook to "wake it up."
This could be a metaphor of covering up and ignoring the indigenous genocide in north
america just like the original themes alluded to in the Shining.
Instead of it being burnt to the ground like in the novel in the first movie, it’s left
as it is, then boarded up in the second.
Another theory from the first is our number 7, another space case
So it was rumoured that Kubrick’s movie that preceded the moon landing, 2001: A space
odyssey, was research into faking the real moon landing footage, and that the shining
was his cathartic release of holding in the secret.
Now, there are rumours that Mike Flanagan has taken the torch from Kubrick in covering
up other space information.
We are planning to reach Mars by 2030.
Rumours say that Flanagan is warning the future missions of counter missions becoming faster,
stealing their steam, and that there are other “things out there”.
Now, I’m not saying I buy into this, I’m just saying it’s what people are saying.
Diving more into the new release, let’s talk about our number 6, Ghosts taking over
bodies So the dark cult stealing the shining or “steam”
from others is known as “The True Knot”.
Led by Rose the Hat.
The movie says that the people of the true knot are others with a bit of the shining
that act vampire-esque in trying to steal the steam off others in an attempt at attaining
immortality.
They typically target children to do so.
What some people have been saying is that The True Knot is just a group ghosts that
have successfully taken over a host bodies and need the “steam” to keep on trucking.
They are tied to that body, in a knot, once they have added the steam from another shining.
Once the host bodies have been killed, they expelled after being attached to the mortal
plane for so long.
This would explain how the characters would be motivated to an unfathomable degree to
commit the atrocities they do.
The body is being controlled by a desperate other entity who's only way of continued existence
is to leech it off someone else.
Plus, possession isn’t unheard of in the film itself.
Dan becomes possessed at one point, so it’s not off the table.
But let’s look at number 5 The True Knot isn’t the only “knot”
So, yes, in the film the true knot are followers of Rose the Hat.
But in the end, when we see she has lost her followers, Rose herself says she isn’t the
only one left, only the “prettiest”.
This has led people to think that there are others, either working alone or in other groups,
that will continue to cause terror after the movies endpoint.
They reason that if this group discovered that this was possible, than others have too.
Sure, not everyone may be as dark-spirited, but they say the odds are in favour of this
not being the only instance.
This leads me to the next theory at number 4, it’s real
Another theory I found was that the book and movie were a warning to people with gifts
to go into hiding.
Back when the Shining came out, people thought that maybe Stephen king had gifts that gave
him dark visions or hallucinations, and his own version of the shining.
Now some are adding onto this idea and say that the sequel is supposed to serve as a
warning to those with the shining.
The idea being spread is that not only are people with the shining real but people who
want to hurt you because of it are real too.
The movie is a warning and anyone with a gift should go into hiding.
Talking about being dark, let’s go onto number 3, Abra falls into the cycle
First let’s get past her name being Abra and the Magic and Abra Cadabra and all that.
Following the cycle of Jack and Dan, people think there is reason to believe that although
the movie shows Abra as a good person, she could fall back into the cycle of abuse that
plagued Jack and then Dan.
This is even something we see Dan warn her about.
Avoiding alcohol and things like that.
The movie showed he was bright and shining before going down a dark path and reason she
could do the same.
There is lightness but also darkness in her, will the dark take over?
To number 2, Jack is a more than a man At the end of the shining they pull up to
a picture of Jack Torrance, but not just any picture.
Its of him being an original guest at the hotel some 100 years before.
So, is he a ghost somehow?
This sent people spinning off into other theories, including people guessing where the shining
comes from.
If Danny is part ghost does that explain his shining ability?
Also, if it’s confirmed in the book and movie that Danny and Abra are related, is
it a genetic ability?
Another scary idea someone had with Jack’s apparent lack of aging was that he used to
be in the True Knot.
In the current canon of the movies, it seems to be the only explanation for a lack of aging.
They reasoned that Jack changed his ways and left, decided to start a family, but was sucked
back into a world of madness when they stayed in the overlook.
Lastly, at number 1, Danny is possessed by the real ghost of his dad when he dies
This last one is daaaaark.
So, BIG SPOILER, I kind of already said it, but Danny dies in Doctor Sleep.
How he does it is an ode to the original ending in the book version of the Shining.
He goes down to the boiler room and overloads the boiler so it overheats and explodes.
But what if Dan wasn’t the one controlling what he was doing?
Yes for sure we see this as a big sacrificial moment, putting an end to the Overlook by
burning it down and taking himself out alongside it.
But we know people can be possessed.
Dan WAS possessed.
So, what if he was possessed when “he” made the choice to go down to the boiler room.
And who would be doing the possessing?
His dad.
The image of his father appeared in Lloyd the bartender, and he saw how Dan had broken
the cycle of abuse when he refused the drink.
So then, Jack decides he can stop the cycle too, by blowing up the overlook hotel.
And who does he choose to host in this act?
His son, Danny.
An ultimate end that forces Dan into the afterlife
with his dad.
Ouch
OUTRO
BONUS That there will be a star wars shining crossover
and in his next life he is Obi-wan and his shining is the force