March 6, 2025 • 55 mins
Discover the spine-chilling world of Stephen King's "Doctor Sleep" in my latest episode, where I delve into the rich narrative of trauma, redemption, and supernatural terror. As I compare the novel to the critically acclaimed 2019 film adaptation, directed by Mike Flanagan, I unpack the complex character dynamics and haunting experiences that shape the journey of Danny Torrance and Abra Stone. Both narratives uncover the pain of addiction and the shadows of the past while weaving a tale of good vs evil against the backdrop of King's unique style.
Explore how Flanagan manages to balance elements of King's original work while catering to fans of the cinematic classic "The Shining." I shed light on the predominant themes—trauma, familial love, and the fight against dark forces—that permeate both versions. This nuanced discussion is perfect for fans of horror, literature, and film alike, who relish dissecting the art of adaptation alongside character depth and thematic resonance.
Join me as I analyze the critical differences in character portrayals, plot development, and how effectively each medium conveys the intense emotional landscape presented in the story. Whether you're a seasoned King reader or a film lover seeking to understand the adaptation process, my conversation promises insights that will heighten your appreciation for both the book and its cinematic counterpart. Don't miss the chance to engage with a narrative that dives deep into the psychology of its characters and the moral dilemmas they face. Tune in, enjoy the discussion, and be sure to share your thoughts with me!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set
out to answer the age-oldquestion is the book really
always better than the movie?
I'm Yuvia, an actress and booklover based out of New York City
, and today I will be talkingabout Doctor Sleep by Stephen
King and its 2019 adaptation,doctor Sleep, directed by Mike
Flanagan and starring EwanMcGregor and Rebecca Ferguson.
(00:21):
Hi, everyone, happy Oscars Eve.
At the time of this recording,it is the night before the
Oscars and all I can say is Ihope Amelia Bettis doesn't win
anything.
That's all I'm gonna say onthat.
But anyway, hi, happy to beback.
(00:42):
I'm so excited to be back withyou with another episode.
I only caught up to anotherbook and film and here it is.
Here's the episode on that.
So let's go ahead and getstarted, because I have a
feeling this might be a long one.
So Dr Sleep by Stephen King is asequel to the Shining, and in
(01:04):
this one we meet a tribe ofpeople called the True Knot.
They are a band of travelersthat live in Arby's, and they
travel all over the countrysearching for a particular kind
of sustenance.
However, that substance comesin the form of steam that
(01:25):
children with the Shiningproduce when they are slowly
tortured to death.
Meanwhile, dan Torrance, whowas a little boy when the events
of the Shining took place, iscurrently battling alcoholism,
settles in a New Hampshire townwhere he finds an AA community
that sustains him and a job at anursing home where his shining
(01:49):
helps provide comfort to thosethat are dying, with the help of
a cat by the name of Asriel.
He becomes known as Dr Sleep.
Dan then meets Abra Stone andher spectacular shining it is
the most powerful shining thatDan has ever experienced and Dan
teams up with her to save herfrom the True Knot.
(02:10):
The 2019 adaptation of DoctorSleep takes place years after
the events of the Shining from1980, in which a now adult Dan
Torrance, must protect a younggirl with the Shining from a
cult known as the Chunot, whoprey on children to remain
immortal.
So, as you can see, it is apretty faithful adaptation For
(02:33):
the most part.
There are some big, big changesand well, let me just start off
by saying, if you are familiarwith the Shining the film, which
I am, I've never read theShining book, but I have seen
the Shining film.
I really, really do enjoy thatfilm.
I think it's great and a lot ofpeople, overall, objectively,
(02:54):
just looking at the film itself,think it is a great film.
Overall it's a great film.
It is, however, a horribleadaptation so horrible that
Stephen King hates the Shining.
Like the adaptation of theShining, he absolutely hates
that film.
He has essentially disowned itand does not claim that Shining
(03:18):
as his Shining.
It is such a bad adaptation, itis so far off from the book.
Stephen King hates itcompletely.
So Mike Flanagan, the writerand director of Dr Sleep, had
quite a lot of work to do.
So hardcore fans of StephenKing and his book, the Shining
(03:39):
specifically, also hate theadaptation, also hate the
adaptation.
So Mike Flanagan had to come upwith a way of essentially
fixing the Shining adaptation,like all the things that Stephen
King hated about the Shininglike, fix that for Dr Sleep the
film, but while also remainingtrue to Dr Sleep the book.
(04:00):
So he did talk to Stephen Kingabout how he like what changes
he was going to make to the filmto make up for the horrible
adaptation of the Shining thatStephen King hates.
Now there is there is anotheradaptation of the Shining.
It was a TV miniseries.
I'm not too familiar with thatversion, but that's the version
(04:25):
that Stephen King approves of,but it's just not well known.
Like I didn't know that this TVminiseries adaptation of the
Shining existed.
I shouldn't be surprised,because a lot of Stephen King's
books were made into miniseriesto accommodate His books are so
long, so to accommodate everydetail, or as much details found
in the books, makes sense tomake them into miniseries.
(04:47):
So I wasn't aware that thatadaptation existed until moshi
was like oh, are you going totalk about, like the miniseries?
That's actually the versionhe's seen, if I'm not mistaken.
And I was like I didn't knowthat that existed.
So I'm talking about the morewell-known stanley hubrick film
is the one that Stephen Kinghates.
So, knowing Mike Flanagan,knowing that the Shining film,
(05:10):
stanley Kubrick film, is the onethat people know and recognize
and love, he had to appeal tothe fans of the film.
Since it is a sequel to theShining and people may not be
familiar with the Shining book,he had to create a sequel that
fans of the Shining film wouldlike but that was also approved
(05:32):
of by Stephen King and peoplethat hated the Shining
adaptation.
So he had quite a complicatedtask and this is how he did it.
So I'm going to go ahead andgive my spoiler alert for Doctor
Sleep.
You're going to get spoilersfor the book and the film, but
in some roundabout way you'realso going to get a spoiler for
(05:54):
the Shining book mainly, butalso the Shining film.
So if you haven't seen thoseand you want to read those, just
know there's going to be, likethere's going to be, spoilers
for all of those involved.
There just has to be because,in order to talk about the
adaptation, I have to talk aboutthe changes that were made to
appease Stephen King and fans ofthe Shining.
And so, as I said, mikeFlanagan did have this
(06:16):
conversation with Stephen Kingand he told him how he was
planning on making up for theShining film and how badly that
was screwed up and how heplanned to fix it in the sequel
while also being faithful to thebook.
And Stephen King heard hispitch.
He gave his seal approval.
So Stephen King does not hatethis adaptation.
(06:38):
It has Stephen King's seal ofapproval.
So, that being said, the biggestthing that Mike Feinig did in
order to continue the sequel ofthe shining Stanley Kubrick
shining and appease Stephen Kingwas change the ending of the
film.
So I will go into a little bitmore detail once we get to the
(07:01):
end and I will go into thosedifferences.
First thing I want to saybefore we kick it off is that
the ending of the Dr Sleep filmis actually the ending of the
Shining the book.
So the way that Dr Sleep thefilm ends is actually how the
Shining book ends.
Yeah, so he gave the OverlookHotel the ending it should have
(07:24):
had in the Shining.
So that's that.
So let's go ahead and kick itoff.
So one thing, that again,because this is technically also
a sequel to the Stanley Kubrickfilm.
It has to be a sequel to theStanley Kubrick film because
that is once again theadaptation that people are
familiar with.
So Mike Flanagan did have tocontinue some of the things that
(07:45):
were started in with.
So Mike Flanagan did have tocontinue some of the things that
were started in the Shiningfilm and bring them over into
the Doctor Sleep film, and oneof those is that Dick Halloran
dies in the Shining film.
So yes, in the Shining filmDick Halloran dies, but in the
Shining book he doesn't.
(08:05):
He's still alive, he survives.
So in Doctor Sleep Dick isalive.
Dick also has the Shining, andif anyone's not aware what the
Shining is, it's a psychicability, essentially, or psychic
abilities.
Yeah, that can manifest indifferent ways, but if you're
psychic you have the Shining.
So since Dick is alive in thebook, he survived the shining
(08:26):
book.
He's alive at the beginning ofthe Dr Sleep book and he is
Dan's mentor.
So Dan continues to betraumatized by the events of
things he experienced while atthe Overlook Hotel.
He continues to be haunted bythe citizens of the Overlook
Hotel, so like the differentghosts are making themselves
known to him, citizens of theOverlook Hotel, so like the
different ghosts are makingthemselves known to him.
So Dick shows him how to createlike psychic lock boxes in his
(08:49):
mind and trap the ghosts there,and so they can essentially stop
haunting him.
Dick continues to do that inthe Doctor Sleep film.
However, he is doing this as aghost.
He's now a ghost himself.
He's a nice ghost that Dantrusts, and so they still have
that like mentor relationshipwith each other.
(09:10):
Except in the book he is alive,but in the film he is a ghost
and obviously the book spends alot more time developing each
person, a lot more than the filmdoes.
So we get a lot of Dan'sbackstory before we ever even
get introduced to the True Knot,which makes sense.
(09:32):
Again, in a book you can takethe time to really expand on
each idea and spend as manypages or as many chapters as you
want, and it doesn't reallyaffect our ability to like,
relate or know who these becauseyou're spending so much time.
So we spend like a good chunkon just Dan we get it.
(09:53):
We spend a good chunk on justAbra.
We spent a good chunk on justthe true knot before the events
that bring all three of thosetogether in the, the film.
Obviously you have to do this ina lot more time and in films
especially, you want tointroduce all major players as
soon as possible.
If you wait too long tointroduce them, like we've
(10:14):
already grown attached tocertain characters, certain
things that they've experienced,things like that.
So to introduce this to someonetoo late into the film and
expect us to just accept theminto the fold, it's not
impossible but it's a little bitmore difficult.
So you want to introduce allthe main characters that you
want the audience to be familiarwith as soon as possible, even
(10:34):
if you just introduce them andthen don't bring them back until
later and you like you do acallback to like remember when
we first introduced you to thisperson, it's like, okay, yeah, I
remember them from thebeginning.
You want to introduce all themajor characters as soon as
possible so the audience canwrap their minds around who the
story is going to focus on andwho they should be rooting for
or against.
So our introduction to the TrueKnot obviously, as I said, in
(10:58):
the book happens later, but inthe film obviously it happens
within the first 10 minutes.
I think it may be 15, but it'sdefinitely not any later than
that.
And the way we are introduced tothe true knot and kind of what
their deal is is we see a littlebit of little boy, dan torrens,
after the events of theoverlook hotel, and then we cut
(11:20):
to a little girl, just this cutelittle girl, spending time with
her family in the park or inthe woods, camping or whatever,
going on a picnic something,something along those lines, and
she's attracted to these people.
They kind of find a way to lureher over.
She goes over to them and thenRose the Hat, who is the leader
(11:41):
of the True Knot, does a magictrick.
The little girl's veryimpressed and then Rose the Hat
grabs her and that's when thelittle girl gets scared and she
looks around and more and morepeople start appearing, and so
now she's really freaking out.
And then we know that somethingbad is about to happen to this
little girl.
And then we cut back to danlittle boy dan and then he has
(12:01):
an interaction with dick and wesee what, as they're talking, it
like pans away from them.
And then we see a missingposter of the little girl that
we just saw with the true knot.
So we know that they're notgood people, because we last saw
this little girl with them andnow we know she's missing.
So the film, obviouslyunderstandably, introduces us to
all our main players a lotsooner and we get the ball
(12:23):
rolling about their intentionslike right off the bat.
While Stephen King definitelytakes his time, Like I said, we
spend a lot of chapters andpages just really focusing on
Dan and the events after theOverlook and his battle with
alcoholism and then until heeventually ends up where he's
(12:43):
been sober for a little bit, andthen we turn to the True Knot
and just their deal, and then alot of time with Abra and
finding out who she is as alittle girl.
So, yeah, so as I said in thebook, you can definitely spend a
lot more time really drawingeach of these things out, and
then he brings them all togetherin the book and in the film you
(13:04):
just got to do all of that, butjust a lot faster.
So one thing that's mentionedin the book, but we don't see it
.
So this is more of a tell don'tshow that happens in the book,
while in the film we get theshow don't tell.
And in film especially, showdon't tell is very important.
It's a lot more interesting tosee the events, even if they are
(13:25):
difficult to watch, as you willfind out what I'm talking about
as opposed to being told.
So in the book we find out thatthere is an Abra senses and her
shining is the most powerfulshining out of any character
we've ever met, or that we meetin the book, in this book in
particular, and so she gets asense that there is a boy named
(13:45):
Bradley Trevor who is in troubleand she knows what happened to
him.
She knows that he's tortured,but it doesn't.
We don't like we're told like.
We know that he's tortured, butit isn't like a graphic scene
the way it is in the film and itis an intense scene.
My roommate, who she cannotwatch that scene Like she's very
like.
She cannot handle any kind ofviolence towards children
(14:09):
whatsoever and she really hatesit when films or TV shows or
anything like that include anykind of like abuse towards
children.
Like that's definitelysomething she would prefer to be
told and not shown.
But overall it is better toshow things, no matter how
distressing they are.
There is a limit, there is alimit, I will say there is such
a thing as being tooexploitative.
(14:29):
I think this film does a goodjob of being distressing while
not being too exploitative,because we see, like we know,
that this little boy is beingtortured and we see the only
thing we see is Rose.
I think we see like one sliceon the arm and like blood coming
out and then he starts yellingand then we don't see any.
(14:51):
We hear the yelling and we dosee like we're cutting back and
forth between his torture and,yeah, we mainly see his screams
and his and his screams of painand just like these, like these
horrible, horrible screams.
Which brings me to my favoritebehind the scenes story
concerning this film.
So Rebecca Ferguson, who playsRose the Hat, is very much like
(15:14):
my roommate.
She does not like participatingin any kind of child abuse
storylines and she made anexception for this film because
she really loved the script.
So she did make an exceptionfor this film, knowing that she
would have to torture a littleboy at one point.
And the little boy, bradleyTrevor, is played by Jacob
Tremblay, who is phenomenal.
(15:35):
Like he is so young.
He is so young and he is sogood.
Like I'm so jealous of thetalent this kid has.
Like now he's 18 and I feellike it's been a while since
we've seen him.
The last time we heard him wasin the Little Mermaid.
He voiced Flounder, the liveaction Little Mermaid, and he
voiced Luca in the Pixar film,luca, but we haven't seen him
(15:58):
since.
I forgot the name of the film.
I wasn't interested in that onebecause that one I felt was
like Good Boys, something likethat.
But that one, like it felt likevery vulgar humor.
I feel like it's a rated R film,but the three leads of that
film are like were like 12 or 11.
Like this took place.
These kids are like middleschool kids and like I'm not
saying that, like that's notwhat middle school kids are like
(16:20):
.
But that's just, personally,where I draw the line.
I don't necessarily like seeingchildren in like rated R
storylines for film, because atthe like I know they're acting,
but at the end of the day Idon't know.
That's where I draw the line.
I don't know what that saysabout me as a person that I can
see these child torture scenes.
But I think, like the childtorture scene, like I know, that
is like obviously I knowthey're not actually torturing
(16:43):
Jacob Tremblay and, no matterhow mind-bogglingly impressive
his performance was, it's fake.
Like that little boy was neverbeing tortured.
But like with the rated r stuff, it's like they're actually
saying all these vulgar thingsand being exposed to all these
things in reality.
And yeah, so I think that's howI can differentiate the two.
(17:04):
But anyway, back to my favoriteon screen behind the scenes
story.
So, yes, jacob Tremblay, so, sotalented, like like one of the
most talented little boys ever.
And well, he's not a little boyanymore.
But if you've seen Room withBrie Larson, he plays her son,
so it's literally Brie Larsonand him like carrying the entire
film.
So he's just, he's great, he'sfantastic, and so in this scene
(17:28):
he is able to like I can see whymy roommate is unable to watch
this film because he, like hisperformance, is like you, like
it's so good and it was so goodwhile they were filming it, that
like, so he's essentially beingtortured by nothing but adults.
All these adults are watchinghim get tortured and as he,
(17:48):
every time he screams, a littlebit of steam gets released,
which is what the true knockfeeds on.
And that keeps them immortaland young.
Well, not young, I guess,because there is an old man
there, but anyway it keeps themimmortal.
And so, like his performance isjust so damn good and it was so
damn good that when they werefilming that, like all the
adults that were quote unquotetorturing him were like, oh my
(18:10):
God, like they kept filming, butthey were really, really
affected by his performance, butthey were.
They were like, oh my gosh,like we're hurting this poor
child.
Like those are like legitimatescreams of pain.
This is horrendous.
Like why are they not yellingcut this kid is in.
Like serious pain.
Like they were, like everyonewas so into the performance and
(18:33):
they were so into hisperformance and it was so
believable that, even thoughthey weren't torturing him and
they knew they weren't torturinghim like his performance was so
convincing that they were likethis like someone needs to yell
cut.
This kid is not okay.
Someone needs to yell cut thiskid is not okay.
Finally, the director yells cut.
All the adults are just like,in shock of like, is this kid
(18:55):
okay?
Meanwhile, the director yellscut.
Jacob Tremblay sits up likenothing happened with the
biggest smile on his face, goesover to give his dad a high five
for a great performance andstarts digging into Crafty.
Yeah, that is probably myfavorite behind the scenes story
.
I think that's great.
I think that like good forJacob Tremblay for being able to
(19:15):
get in and out of roles thatfast and to have such a
believable performance that eventhe actors were more freaked
out by the performance, by thefact that they were torturing
him than he was like.
They were apparently like hewas totally fine.
Like I said, he got up, he duginto crafty crafty for those of
you that don't know, it's justlike craft services, it's the
(19:37):
food and snacks that's on set,like the.
But like rebecca ferguson andall the other actors that were
doing the torturing were kind oflike had to take a moment and
just sit and like he's OK.
Yeah, he's OK, he's fine.
I'm not fine, but he's fine.
So like they actually had totake a moment to like I love
that story and that just speaksto Jacob Tremblay's talent.
(19:58):
So I can't wait till we startseeing him more often on screen
again, because he like if he wasthat good back then, imagine
how he is now.
And he's still very young.
I think he's only like 18 or 19, so he's still very, very young
, but still like it's been awhile.
It's been a while.
So we have we have that.
But yeah, I think that's likemy favorite behind the scenes
story ever, any film.
(20:19):
That's just incredible and justspeaks to his talent.
But enough about me fangirlingover Jacob Tremblay.
Okay, so in the book Abra seesBradley Trevor getting tortured
and then like she kind of notthat she shakes it off, but like
she kind of forgets about itand like her parents are kind of
just like, oh, they'renightmares, whatever.
(20:39):
So she like she just doesn'tthink much about it and until
two years later later, when shecomes across the newspaper and
she sees a picture of bradleytrevor also under like the
missing children's page and thatcauses her to physically throw
up, and that's when she's likewe need to do something about
the true knot.
So two years pass betweenbradley trevor getting kidnapped
(21:01):
and tortured.
In the book and the rest of theevents of the book, while in
it's immediate in the film shesees that torture, she knows
that she has to do somethingabout it and she starts
contacting Dan immediately,which again makes sense.
There's a little bit more timeto develop what happens in
between those two years In thefilm.
We have to keep the action goingor else this is going to be
(21:21):
like a five hour long film andnot a lot of people want that.
I don't want to sit through afive hour film personally, but I
mean I guess I've well, I'vesat through a four hour film
cause I've sat through Gone withthe Wind several times, but
anyway, not the point.
Gone with the Wind is also likethicker than the Bible and Dr
Sleep was probably not thatthick.
Like it's thick, I listened toit on audio and it was 19 hours
(21:42):
long, so I don't know how manypages that would translate to,
but it's wait, let me look it upreally fast.
How many pages is this?
531 pages, so it's not as thickas the Bible, it's like thinner
.
So, yeah, anyway, sorry, I wasthinking I was like to make a
book that's as thick as theBible long, and these cuts so
much out of Gone with the Windand still four hours long.
(22:03):
But that makes sense, causelike is long.
But that makes sense, causelike is that a sticker than the
Bible, but anyway.
So in the film Abra sees BradleyTrevor getting tortured and
immediately she like goes to theNew Hampshire town where Dan is
and surprises him and is likehey, I'm Abra.
And he's like Whoa, okay, likeyou're a little girl, you can't
just come up to a strange manLike first we'll just like
stranger danger.
But also, like, people know mein this town and what are they
going to think when they see metalking to like a random little
(22:24):
girl?
And she's like, oh, we'll justtell everyone, you're my uncle,
make note of that.
But anyway, it's just likewe'll just tell everyone you're
my uncle.
And then she like tells himeverything and he agrees to help
her out to take down the trueknot, blah, blah, blah.
So in both the film and thebook they do communicate through
with each other psychically andvia.
Uh.
So dan has one of like the roomthat he's renting, one of the
(22:46):
walls is like that chalkboardpaint.
So like sometimes, like growingup, abra would write like
little messages to him withchalk on that wall.
So they've communicated likepsychically, like through their
minds and then through thechalkboard.
So in the book they actuallymake plans to meet each other
and they come up with a way todo that that doesn't make him
look suspicious and she stillsays we'll just say you're my
(23:09):
uncle.
But in the book they actuallyplan it out a little bit more
before they meet each other andin the film she just like shows
up and meets him.
This is kind of like a throwaway, like not important detail I
probably shouldn't have includedit but I just thought it was
interesting and that is thatRose the Hat meditates inside
the RV in the book, while in thefilm she meditates outside.
(23:30):
So she actually gets on theroof of the RV and meditates and
so she meditates.
Essentially she senses again,the whole thing about the Chuna
is that they have to torture andkill children to get this with
the shining.
It can't be any child, it hasto be a child with a shining and
let that their steam releaseand that's how they stay
immortal.
So she senses the shiningsomewhere and then she like
(23:52):
meditates to like get into themind of that child and find out
like what they look like, wherethey live and all that so they
know where to travel to get tothat child.
So yeah, just thought I justthought that was interesting
that in the book she's insidethe trailer and in the film
she's like always on the roof ofthe RV.
Yeah, just again kind of throwaway, but just something I found
interesting.
(24:12):
I think I like that she'soutside cause she's like
grounded in nature, but maybethat's why in the book she's
actually meditating inside,because there's like less
distractions, because she cankick everyone out and just focus
on meditating.
So in the film, dan only, it'sessentially only a team of three
.
It's Dan, billy Freeman, who isthe first person that Dan ever
(24:32):
met when he moved to NewHampshire, and Billy's the one
that recommended like the AAcommunity that he himself, billy
, goes to, and then Abra andthen her dad gets involved for a
little bit.
But it's really just Dan andBilly Freeman and Abra, and then
in the book it's actually abigger team, like it's Dan and
John who is Abra's pediatrician.
(24:55):
They do some major taskstogether and then sometimes it's
depending on the task that theyhave to do.
So it's like Dan and John thedoctor do one task together
major task together.
Dan and David, who is Abra'sfather, do one important task
together and then Dan and BillyFreeman team up to do another
(25:16):
task together.
So it's a much bigger team ofadults in the book versus the
film.
It makes sense, I guess, in thefilm to not include the
pediatrician.
You don't really miss him inthe film.
I mean if they added him itwould have been fine.
But I think it makes sensebecause I think, like the True
Knot, there's so many moremembers of the True Knot that we
have to know.
(25:36):
I think, just to keep it a lotmore simple, we focus on just
Dan and Billy, because those arethe two characters we see the
most in the film and then, yeah,so I think just to clean it up,
make it easier I think that'sprobably why they got rid of
John, but you also, he provides,he's a great help in the book,
but like it makes sense to justhave Billy take over for some of
the stuff that Dan does witheither the dad or with Billy.
(25:59):
So the thing that Dan does withJohn the doctor, that, like I
said, in the film it's like Danand Billy doing everything.
So Dan and Billy go drive toIowa to where Bradley Trevor is
buried, because Abra's like weneed to like his parents don't
know where he is.
We need to like tell hisparents and the police where his
(26:20):
body is so they can like getsome peace in terms of like
getting the closure of knowingwhere what happened to their son
and being able to bury him.
But they're also going to get abaseball glove that like
Bradley Trevor's baseball glove,and they're going to bring that
back to Abra and I believe Abrais going to use that to help
keep track of, like, the trueknot because, like they all
(26:40):
touched it.
So, yeah, that's like thesafest way to do it without
getting into their minds,because if you get into
someone's mind, they can feelyou in there and they can fight.
It's just a lot more dangerous.
So, yeah, so Billy and Dandrive from New Hampshire all the
way to Iowa and they make itseem like it's such an easy trip
which, all things considered,it wasn't that bad.
I did look it up.
I think it was like 12 to 14hours, which, like all things
(27:04):
considered, isn't that bad of adrive.
Like it's a long drive, butit's not that bad.
Something I could be very wrong, but it was.
It was like less than a day, Ithink, I don't know, but anyway.
So they drive to Iowa and thenthey drive back immediately,
which again is like they made itlook so easy In the film, in
the book, sorry Dan and John thepediatrician actually fly to
Iowa while Billy stays behind towatch over Abra, and at this
(27:27):
point her parents have no ideawhat is going on with Abra.
So Billy stays behind to watchover her and make sure she's
safe while Dan and John are outof town, and since her parents
have no idea he's involved, haveno idea Abra is even doing this
, yeah, they.
Billy like is watching over herand make sure she's safe while
they fly and then fly back,which expensive but probably a
little bit less tiring, I don'tknow.
(27:49):
Anyway, in the book the TrueKnot doesn't know which little
girl they're looking for.
So Rose the hat like knowswhere the shining is and she's
kind of like these are threeoptions.
We have Abra, we have thisother little girl name that's
like close, who's like Abra'sfriend and then Abra's other
friend.
So they know it's one of thosethree little girls, but they
don't know exactly which onethey're looking for.
(28:11):
In the film they know andthat's because they, rose and
Abra do have a little bit of amind battle and at point Abra
accidentally like revealsherself to Rose.
So Rose knows exactly what Abralooks like and how to get to
her and all of that she knows.
Like she can sense where theshining is and like which
(28:32):
general direction to go in.
But, like in the film, theyknow exactly which little girl
they're looking for.
And again, that's just excesscharacters that we don't need
included in the film.
Let's just cut the friends.
So what happens?
Is that?
So in the book Rose has a lotmore followers, like there's a
lot more members of the TrueKnot than there are in the film.
(28:53):
Like in the film, pretty muchso.
Like once Rose reveals herself,rose and Amber have their like
battle of their psychic battlein their minds.
Billy the Crow is like listen,I know you don't you want like
this little girl, but you likeyou need to stay behind because
she's going to be able to senseyou coming, since you have that
connection.
So you need to stay behind andthe rest of the true not will go
(29:15):
to New Hampshire and get herand bring her back and Rose
reluctantly stays.
So in the film it's just likeRose.
And then like I don't know, notas many followers Like they,
like Rose is the only one tostay behind, and then all the
rest of the followers go to NewHampshire to get Abra.
But in the book there's like somany more followers Like Rose
stays, like is a lot morewilling to stay behind in the
(29:36):
book than she is in the filmbecause she still has so many
followers that stayed behindwith her, while in the and and
only like a select few go to newhampshire, including billy the
crow.
But anyway, in both the book andthe film abra lures the true
knot into to the woods likecampground, and she's like this
(29:57):
is where I'm gonna be, come getme, this is where I am, come get
me.
And so they all go to thecampground.
So it's just Dan and BillyFreeman that go to the
campground, while in the filmwhile Abra and her dad stay at
her house and they like at thispoint, like obviously they've
already talked to Abra's dad, hecan't say he's on board, but it
means keeping his daughter safe.
(30:17):
Like he's gonna do that, he'sgonna help watch over her.
So Dan and Billy Freeman go tothe campground and Abra and her
dad stay at home and Abra isessentially like astral
projecting or making it seemlike she's at the campground but
she's actually safe at home thewhole time.
In the book, actually, dan John, pediatrician, and Abra's dad
(30:39):
all go to the campground WhileAbra stays behind at her
friend's house and Billy staysbehind to watch over her.
So in the film, like I said,all the followers end up at the
campground and they get caughtby surprise because they're like
, oh there's Abra, let's get her.
And then it turns out to justbe like a vision that she's
making them see, and then sothey're caught by surprise and
(31:01):
Dan and Billy end up killing allof them except for Billy the
crow, because it turns out thatBilly the crow knew Abra was at
her home the whole time and hegoes to her house and kills her
dad and knocks her out andkidnaps her and starts driving
back to Rose.
In the book, abra's dad has togo to the campground with Abra
and, sorry, abra's dad has to goto the campground with Dan and
(31:25):
when John's just there forbackup, essentially.
But the dad has to go becauseAbra's essentially like I'm just
gonna call it possessing, eventhough that's not really what it
is, but like Abra's taking overDan's body so that anyone that
gets into her see what Dan'sseeing.
So Dan is like if he's lookingout the window they see the
campgrounds that they're goingto, and then he looks at the dad
(31:47):
and so they think that they'reinfiltrating her mind and that
they're seeing what Abra'sseeing.
But they're actually seeingwhat Dan is seeing.
So it's a little bit morecomplicated, I feel like in the
book, but it still works.
And everyone goes to thecampground and again they're
caught by surprise and they'rekilled, except for Billy the
Crow who, on a whim so one ofthe characters who they I forgot
(32:09):
the name of him, but hisnickname is the Chink, which I
was just like it even feelswrong for me to say that.
So that's going to be the onlytime I say that I don't know why
Stephen King named him, that Idon't like that he named him
that, or why his nickname isthat I don't like that, that's
his nickname.
And then at one point Abra evensays you know the, but he's not
Asian.
And it's like I don't.
It's not really not helping.
(32:30):
So because it's okay to callsomeone that because they're not
actually Asian, I don't know.
That still feels I don't know.
I didn't like that, butcharacter is, he's the one
that's like tracking Abra forthem and he's like I can't, I
like as he's dying because allthe true knots in the book
contract measles from BradleyTrevor, so they start like dying
(32:50):
off little by little.
So as he's dying, he's like Ifeel like she's at the
campground, but I don't know.
I have a feeling she's actuallynot like.
I feel like she's actually ather house, which is here, but I
I'm not sure, like I'm dying andI'm like slipping in and out of
my powers here.
So I can't be sure.
So everyone's like but you'reseeing her at the campground, so
let's go to the campground.
(33:12):
And Billy the Crow's like justto be safe, I'll go to her house
.
So everyone's like okay, and sothat is how, again in the film,
billy the Crow just knows thatshe's lying to them and goes to
her house.
In the book he has a reason tosuspect that she's at home this
whole time.
Yeah, so at the campground.
(33:33):
In the film there's no.
So there are no deaths in thebook.
There's a lot of deaths in thefilm.
Like a lot.
I don't necessarily agree withthe killing off of definitely
one of the characters.
I don't know that it wasnecessary to kill off Billy
Freeman.
Billy Freeman does die at thiscampground battle.
So there's one of the membersof the True Knot.
(33:54):
Like she has, her shiningability is her power of
persuasion, which is why, eventhough they could have killed
her because she wasn't like alittle girl, but she was still
really young, they decide toturn her into a member of the
True Knot because that power isjust so like, so special and so
like, so so helpful that theydecide to keep her alive.
So, essentially, she has thatlike power where she's like,
(34:17):
jump off that bridge and you'lldo it.
Like you have no way offighting.
Like, if she tells you to do it, you're going to do whatever
she says, no matter what.
So at one point in the finalbattle, right, she's shot and
she's dying, but with her finalbreath she tells Billy Freeman
to shoot himself.
So he shoots himself andobviously he dies.
(34:38):
That doesn't happen in the book.
Like I said, billy Freeman isover at Abra's house and there's
no deaths, is over at Abra'shouse and there's no deaths.
Abra's dad and John thepediatrician, don't die during
this battle.
The only casualties are thetrue-nots.
So again, I don't necessarilyagree with Billy Freeman's death
, but I can kind of see how thatdoes amp up the stakes a little
bit, because we have grown,there is a certain attachment we
feel towards Billy and we don'twant to see him die and we see
him die.
So that's really sad.
(34:58):
The death that I reallydisagree with is that of Abra's
dad, especially because hedoesn't die in the book, and
it's just one of those thingsthat so in the book Abra is
white, but in the film she isbiracial, she has a white mom
and a black dad and so whenBilly the Crow shows up to
(35:19):
kidnap her, he kills her dad andkidnaps her.
In the book, when he shows upto kidnap Abra, he knocks Billy
Freeman out, but he doesn't killhim.
Like I said, billy Freemansurvives.
So he knocks Billy Freeman outand then kidnaps Abra.
So yeah, I don't like.
Once I found out that Abra's dadhad no reason to die, it's just
I was like I really wish theyhadn't killed him off in the
(35:42):
film, especially because he isplayed by a black man.
Just there's that trope where,like, if you're watching a
horror film, who's going to bethe first character to be killed
.
This is going to be the blackman.
Black man is always the firstone to die, so that's kind of
like my thing.
It's like we could have knockedhim out and still continue the
story, especially because wedon't really see Abra's.
We see Abra's mom at the end ofthe film.
So killing him off reallydoesn't add anything to the
(36:06):
story.
Yeah, with Billy Freeman, likeI said, it kind of ups the
stakes a little bit and we havemore of an emotional attachment
to Billy Freeman than we do withAbra's dad because we haven't
spent that much time with him.
But yeah, it's just one ofthose things.
It's like, because of who theycast as her dad, it's just like
(36:26):
there's already that trope.
Let's work on fixing that trope.
You know he's not the firstcharacter to die.
So no, like the black man didnot die first in this particular
instance, but he still diedwhen there was no reason to have
him be killed off.
So anyway, in the book, afterAbra is kidnapped by Billy the
Crow, obviously David Abra's dadis like pissed off, like
promise me she'd be safe, blah,blah, blah, and they have this
whole thing.
And then so he's like you needto take me to see her Momo.
(36:48):
So she calls hergreat-grandmother and so she
goes to.
So David's like why?
And he's like, just take methere, I need to talk to her.
And so he like him to seeConchita, who is the
great-grandmother, and he meetsAbra's mom and Conchita has
cancer.
She's on her deathbed.
So again, he's known as DrSleep, which I haven't really
(37:08):
touched upon, but yeah, that'sfine, we'll talk a little bit
more about it later.
But yeah, so he's known as DrSleep.
So he helps her die peacefullyand as, after she's dead, he
absorbs her steam, he absorbs itand is holding it for later.
He's not using it for immortalpowers, he's just holding that
steam for later.
But as she's dying, he findsout that he and Abra's mom are
(37:30):
actually related.
They're actually half brother,half sister.
They have the same dad.
So Abra, without realizing it,was calling him Uncle Dan.
So there's where that Uncle Danties in.
So, yeah, so it turns out thathe really is her Uncle Dan.
So there's where that Uncle Danties in.
So, yeah, so it turns out thathe really is her Uncle Dan.
But we never this connection isnever made in the film Like
they never.
We never ended up finding outthat they're actually related,
(37:50):
anything like that.
So, yeah, just throwing thatout.
And then after that he's able,he kills Crow Daddy.
I will say the way that CrowDaddy is killed in the film is
like so satisfying.
So it's one of those thingswhere Abra is drugged but like,
as she's like coming back intoconsciousness, dan reaches out
to her and is like hey, I know,I told you to never let anyone
(38:13):
into your mind, ever.
That is the most precious partof you.
But I need you to trust me andlet me into your mind.
And she says okay, and so atthat point he takes over her
body and he's like taunting CrowDaddy as Abra.
And then along the way CrowDaddy realizes whoa, like, have
I been saying Billy the Crowthis whole time?
There's no Billy the Crow,there's just Crow Daddy and
(38:35):
Billy Freeman.
So let me correct that now.
I'm sorry, that's like goingback and listening to it.
Just know that if I say Billythe Crow, I meant Crow Daddy,
and Billy Freeman is a good guy.
Crow Daddy and Billy Freeman,crow Daddy, billy, but anyway,
anyway.
So, yeah, so he there's a lotof the blanks, like Rose, the
Hat, whatever his name, the ch,and then we have Crow Daddy.
So yeah, anyway, so that's whyI say the Crow.
(38:56):
But anyway, moving on, so, yes,he's taunting Crow Daddy.
And then, along at some pointCrow Daddy realizes like, oh
damn, like this is not Abra,this is Dan Torrance.
And Dan is like oh yeah, it'sDan Torrance, by the way, didn't
anyone ever teach you to wear aseatbelt?
Crow Daddy realizes he's notwearing a seatbelt and in that
instant Dan uses his psychicpowers to like turn the wheel
(39:17):
and crash into a tree.
So Crow Daddy is thrown out ofthe van and he dies.
And then Dan is like wait forme, they're like in the middle.
So again, they're in NewHampshire.
By this point Crow Daddy haddriven them.
They're somewhere in New York.
So Dan is like I, like you'regoing to be waiting for me for a
while.
I'm sorry about that, but I'mleaving my house now and I'm
coming to go get you.
So Abra is waiting like in thewoods for Dan to come get her,
(39:47):
but obviously, like that's thelast thing we see.
And then we cut to.
They're in the car together,driving to Colorado to go to the
Overlook Hotel.
There's a lot of driving inthis film.
I just realized they do driveto the location where the
Overlook Hotel was in the book.
But anyway, and yeah.
So at this point Abra in thefilm, abra's mom, comes home and
she finds her daughter missingand her husband dead.
And so Abra gets in touch withher at one point and is like I
can't tell you where you are,where I am, but I'm safe.
And then she hangs up on herand then so we're at peace with
(40:09):
the mom.
Until for now, I mean, themom's not at peace, but like the
audience is like all right, themom knows what's going on.
But in the book Abra doesn't goto the location of the Overlook
Hotel.
She challenges Rose to a battlethere, but it's just Dan and
Billy Freeman that go there.
Abra stays behind and Astroprojects to the location where
the Overlook Hotel used to be.
So we're getting to the endingof the film, which is the ending
(40:31):
of the book.
So just know that in the bookthe Overlook Hotel is long gone
and where the Overlook Hotelused to be is now the campground
of the True Knot.
So Dan and Billy Freeman are ontheir way to the campground,
while Abra is with her mom anddad and just astral projecting
to the campground, which this isthe second time I've talked
(40:52):
about astral projection in thispodcast and I really don't like
it.
I don't know, I just don't likeit.
I think that it's not a commontrope but it is like a mini
trope and I'm discovering.
I don't like it, I don't likeit, let's stop.
I like it much better that Abrawent physically with Dan, and
now I understand it would be alot more difficult for the
parents to allow her to travelphysically with them, which is
(41:14):
why, which is why Dan just tookher in the film, essentially.
But yeah, I guess, but so, yeah.
So her parents, like even it'sstill dangerous because, like,
like battle of the minds, badthings can happen but at least
physically, like your parentsknow where she is, they can keep
an eye on her.
So she astral projects to theold location of the Overlook
Hotel, as I said, that's thecampground of the True Knot and,
(41:35):
as I said, rose is there with alot more followers.
In the film, rose and herfollowers are well well, it's
just Rose at this point, becauseall her followers are dead but
they do travel and live atdifferent campgrounds.
I don't know what campgroundthey're staying at in the film,
but she knows to go to theOverlook Hotel.
So like they get to theOverlook Hotel and Dan is like I
(41:55):
need to go inside the hotel,like the hotel is very dangerous
, so I'm going to go inside.
You have to wait out.
Like you're going to stay inthe car and be a lookout.
Like there's only one road toand from the hotel.
So like there's no way she cansurprise us, even though she's
like, at this point, blocked hermind.
Like there's no surprising usbecause you're going to see her
car driving up the road.
When you see her car driving upthe road, like honk, so I know
(42:26):
that she's on her way and thencome join me inside the hotel.
But like I don't want youwalking around the hotel any
longer than you need to be,because this place is hella
scary and hella dangerous.
And she's like okay.
So he like goes and he goes downto the basement and he like
turns on the boiler to likeoverdrive and then Abra honks
and they make they go inside andin the book, once he and Billy
are at the campground, dan usesConchita's steam diseased steam.
Again, she had cancer, so it'sdiseased steam.
He's been holding it this wholetime and he releases it once
(42:47):
they reach that area and itkills all the True Knot except
for Rose.
With Rose, he and Abra arehaving a psychic battle amongst
the three of them and then, withthe help of Billy Freeman and
the ghost of Jack Torrance's dad, they are able to push Rose off
of a cliff and she falls to herdeath.
(43:09):
But in the film, oh, it's a lotmore satisfying because he and
Rose are fighting and then atone point she's like
overpowering him and she startslike getting his steam and she's
like, oh, are you going to killme?
She's like taunting him.
I don't remember exactly whatshe says, but she's like, oh,
are you gonna kill me?
She's like taunting him I don'tremember exactly what she says
which is like, oh, are you gonnakill me?
Like you, there's nothing youcan do about it.
And he's like no, but they are.
And then he like releases allthe ghosts that he has in his
(43:32):
the lock boxes in his head, allthe ghosts he's had locked up in
his mind.
He releases them all and theyall go for rose and they kill
her and or like they come closeto kill her, but they don't like
kill her completely, becausethen Rose attempts to possess
Dan and he starts like chokingAbra, and Abra's like this isn't
you?
And then he's like I'm beingpossessed.
(43:53):
So he's like Abra run.
And then.
So she like runs out of thehotel and Dan goes down to the
boiler that's turned up andreleasing boiler gases and he
like lights a lighter and theOverlook Hotel goes up in flames
.
And that is how the Shiningbook ends.
It's actually Jack Torrance,who's been fighting his demons
the whole time, that eventuallyhe's able to come to enough
(44:14):
senses to allow his wife and hisson to escape the Overlook
Hotel, before he goes down tothe basement and lights up the
gases that the Boilers isreleasing and causes an
explosion that makes theOverlook Hotel go down in flames
.
So that is actually how theShining book ends and that so
clearly.
I'm not going to spoil theending of the Shining film, but
(44:36):
just know that by spoilers Ijust meant you're going to find
out that this is not how theShining film ends.
So, yeah, so that is how theShining ends, but in the book
the Overlook Hotel is long gone,so they kill Rose and instead
be cut to a few years later,when Dan is essentially part of
the family.
So they're a nice, big, happyfamily.
He's celebrating Abra'sbirthday and he tells her, like
(44:59):
we have a history of alcoholismin our family and we have a
history of alcoholism in ourfamily and we have a history of,
like, anger issues in ourfamily.
Don't give in to either one ofthose.
And she's like I won't.
And then he goes to the hospicewhere he works and provides one
last peaceful death before thebook ends.
But in the film, since Dan dies, he becomes he kind of becomes
(45:20):
what did Caloran was to him.
He becomes Abvery's mentor,just as a ghost.
And that is the film versus thebook.
So, yeah, there are a lot ofchanges, but there are a lot of
things that they like.
I'm very impressed with how MikeFlanagan balanced the like,
staying true to the book whilealso staying true to the film
(45:42):
adaptation, which is the mediumthat most people are going to be
the most familiar with when itcomes to these characters and
the Overlook Hotel andeverything.
So I thought he balanced it allreally, really well.
He redeemed the Shining forStephen King by ending it the
way the book ended and, yeah,stephen King I think that's what
(46:02):
allowed him to give such anenthusiastic blessing to this
adaptation was that MikeFlanagan fixed what Stanley
Kubrick ruined essentially.
So, yeah, what I really likeabout the book is that we get
more of the Dr Sleep aspect.
So I said Dan is called DrSleep because he works at a
(46:23):
hospice and the cat Asriel knows.
Essentially he's like one ofthose cat like I'm pretty sure
Asriel is inspired by that catwho actually lives in a nursing
home, I don't remember where,but essentially when this cat
visits you you know that you'regoing to die.
Like this cat just knows whenyou're in your final moments,
and so he's.
This cat has provided a lot ofcomfort to elderly nursing home
(46:44):
patients' final hours.
So I'm pretty sure that's whatAsriel is inspired by and so we
get a lot more of those scenes,those moments in the book.
In the film it's brought uponce.
We see him teaming up withAsriel once and him earning the
nickname Dr Sleep.
That's the only time it'sbrought in Again.
It's kind of not as importantto the storyline of the film,
(47:04):
which is why I can see why theydidn't spend too much time on
that.
But I really really like that.
The book really, really focuseson how he got the name Dr Sleep
.
We see him go through the cycleof being Dr Sleep several times
and the book ends with himbeing Dr Sleep by providing
comfort to one last patient.
And then the book ends andthat's our final image.
(47:25):
It's Dan Torrance as Dr Sleep.
So I really really like thataspect of the book.
Now, I am not.
I do like Stephen King's books.
I do like Stephen King as anauthor, but his books are kind
of hit or miss for me.
Some books I really really like, some books are okay.
This one started off reallyreally strong for me.
I would say like the first twothirds I was really, really
(47:48):
enraptured and really into thestory.
And then the last third of thebook I was kind of just like
will this ever end?
This is going on forever.
I feel like we can like cutsome of these things and just
get to the point, and I feellike that's how I feel Like the
Stephen King books that I thisone I thought was better than
(48:08):
okay this one.
This one is not just an okayread for me, but most of Stephen
King's books that I find to bejust okay.
There reaches a point where I'mjust like let's keep going.
Let's get to the point wherewhy are we still here, like,
come on, let's keep it moving.
So, yeah, I feel like sometimeshis books can be a little bit
too long for my liking and Ifeel like sometimes they get,
(48:29):
yeah, that there, there's just.
There just gets to a pointwhere I'm like let's keep it
moving, like I don't like thisis, I'm just not interested in
this.
So, yeah, so I did reach thatpoint, like I said, at on the
last third of the book, which islike a shame because that's
that's where, like most of that,the action is happening.
But it did start losing me alittle bit towards the end and I
will say there are certainaspects of Stephen King's
(48:52):
writing, especially when itcomes to his female characters,
that I'm like it's just veryobvious that it's a man writing
a female character.
So, like there was now I willsay disclaimer to what the point
I'm about to make to this, andthat is there does reach a point
in any.
There does reach a point inwhich anyone that can get a
period like you reach that age,you reach puberty, and there
(49:15):
just comes a point in which, nomatter what, you're pregnant.
Oh, I feel nauseous today.
Are you pregnant?
No, I just feel nauseous.
Oh, my stomach hurts.
Oh my gosh, are you pregnant.
No, my stomach just hurts.
Uh, it's just like, no matterwhat, no matter what.
It's really really annoying andreally, really frustrating
because, no matter what you'repregnant and it's just like,
just because I'm a child bearingage doesn't mean I'm pregnant.
(49:39):
Like, please can you take myconcern seriously?
And it's just like I feelnauseous because I just ate
something bad, not because I'mpregnant.
My stomach hurts because I justate too much cake yesterday or
whatever, not because I'mpregnant.
So there just reaches a pointand it's just really annoying
because that's always.
It's like are you pregnant?
(50:00):
No, I'm not pregnant.
I just don't feel good andsometimes, just like people who
can't give birth don't feel good, I don't feel good.
So that is a very bigfrustrating and I feel like a
lot of people can relate to thatbecause, yes, there just comes
a point in which, like, nomatter how you feel, you're
pregnant and it's just like I'mreally um, but that being said,
abra is think like 12 or 13 inthe book, so, and I know she can
(50:25):
technically get pregnant atthat age.
Unfortunately, there have beencases where really young girls
get pregnant at that age.
So I'm not saying it'simpossible, but, that being said
, even okay, my caveat Onceyou're like puberty, in high
school, like middle school,people don't suspect that you're
pregnant as much.
That's still not like the firstthing that comes to their mind.
Once you're in high school,it's like you're pregnant.
(50:45):
It's like I don't even have aboyfriend.
How do you expect me to bepregnant?
But anyway, so, yeah, so she's,she can technically get
pregnant at that age.
But like, she is still at thatage where she's still young
enough where most people wouldnot think automatically you're
pregnant.
So there comes a point in whichshe tells her dad like I need to
talk to you about somethingserious.
(51:06):
And her dad's like oh my gosh,are you pregnant?
And she's like no, I'm notpregnant.
And she's like she finds itfunny, and I guess it is funny
like the first time someone asksyou that.
But after that it's just likeno, I'm not Okay, sorry Enough.
(51:26):
Clearly, clearly, like, clearly, so, yeah, so the.
And that's like the first thingher dad asks her.
And I'm just like again, notthat she can't be pregnant at
that age, but like why is thatyour first instinct?
Like I, like if my nieces cameto me at that age and said they
had something serious to tell me, my first thought would not be
they're pregnant.
It just, it just wouldn't be.
If they ended up revealing thatthey're pregnant, then I'd be
very, very shocked.
I'm like, okay, but that wouldnot be my initial thought, but
(51:47):
anyway, just just wanted.
So there's like that aspect.
And then there's, there was likeso at one point abra ends up.
So, as I said, when dan and herdad and john pediatrician are
going to the campground toambush the true, not abra stays
behind at a friend, a friend'shouse, with Billy Freeman just
staying outside to like watchher.
And then she reaches, she getsoverconfident and she's like
(52:08):
everyone's dead, I'm good to gohome.
So she goes home and BillyFreeman's like what the hell,
abra?
And she's like we're good.
And then so obviously she's notgood and she ends up getting
kidnapped at her house.
But anyway.
So there there's also a point inwhich she like, while she's
staying at her friend's house,she's just like oh, I just feel
really sick.
And the mom is like, oh, is itthat time of month, sweetie?
(52:29):
And she's like, yeah, that'swhat that is, I don't know.
It just didn't ring authenticto me.
Mind you, I never felt sickwhen I stayed with my friends,
but I and like I would feelcomfortable enough telling my
friends' moms that if I was likeon my period I'm not feeling
well because of that, but justthe way like the whole
conversation went, I was likethat just doesn't ring true to
(52:51):
me as someone.
That just doesn't ring true tome.
I don't know what it was aboutit, but it just didn't ring true
to me.
So there's just like certainthings that I'm just like and
like.
This is not the first like andlike.
This is not the first like.
This is like a very minoroffense in all of Stephen King's
history.
There are a lot more glaringissues with his writing of
female characters in other books, but it's just something that
(53:13):
stood out to me because it's notthe first time that I've had an
issue with his like thedialogue or the way female
characters are written, butanyway, dialogue or the way
female characters are written,but anyway.
But what I really really reallyliked about the film is I
really liked how Rose the Hatwas defeated and I just like
(53:33):
because in the book Dick and inthe film Dick also tells Dan
like these if these ghosts arehaunting, you just lock them up.
And he locks them up and theyjust live locked up in his head,
but they just stay there.
So I really like that.
In the film, mike Flanagan founda way to bring it back to the
(53:54):
ghosts that are locked up inDan's brain by having him
release them back into theOverlook Hotel and that's how he
defeats Rose, like I thoughtthat was.
I really really really likedthat change and I thought that
was really really good changeand I'm glad he made that change
.
Like I just thought that wasbecause I missed that.
(54:14):
Like I'm kind of sad that inthe book they kind of just stay
locked up and they don't comeback in any shape, way or form.
But in the film film we see himlocking up the characters and
we see the amount of lock boxesin his head just grow longer and
longer and finally he finds away to use them, these ghosts
that have been haunting him.
He finds a way to use them tohelp him conquer the Overlook
(54:36):
Hotel.
So I really really liked thatchange.
But, that being said, I ratedthe film 3.5 stars and I rated
the book four stars.
So the winner is the book.
Yeah, despite my issue with thelast third of the book, I felt
like the book was really, reallystrong and I really liked
(54:58):
meeting all the differentcharacters and seeing Dan team
up with Billy and John and herparents and finding that family
that he thought he had lost oncehis mom died and it's.
And yeah, and as much as I lovethat change I think that's my
favorite change that locked theghosts coming out and killing
Rose.
It just I do have to go withthe book.
(55:19):
So the winner is the book.
Thank you for tuning in to thisepisode of Books vs Movies.
If you liked it, please leaveit a rating and a review and be
sure to follow for to know whenthe next episode comes out.
And I don't know what I'mreviewing next time, but I'm
excited for everything that'sheaded your way, so be sure to
(55:40):
follow to see when thoseepisodes are released and I will
see you next time.
Bye.
Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set
out to answer the age-oldquestion is the book really
always better than the movie?
I'm Yuvia, an actress and booklover based out of New York City
, and today I will be talkingabout Doctor Sleep by Stephen
King and its 2019 adaptation,doctor Sleep, directed by Mike
Flanagan and starring EwanMcGregor and Rebecca Ferguson.
(00:21):
Hi, everyone, happy Oscars Eve.
At the time of this recording,it is the night before the
Oscars and all I can say is Ihope Amelia Bettis doesn't win
anything.
That's all I'm gonna say onthat.
But anyway, hi, happy to beback.
(00:42):
I'm so excited to be back withyou with another episode.
I only caught up to anotherbook and film and here it is.
Here's the episode on that.
So let's go ahead and getstarted, because I have a
feeling this might be a long one.
So Dr Sleep by Stephen King is asequel to the Shining, and in
(01:04):
this one we meet a tribe ofpeople called the True Knot.
They are a band of travelersthat live in Arby's, and they
travel all over the countrysearching for a particular kind
of sustenance.
However, that substance comesin the form of steam that
(01:25):
children with the Shiningproduce when they are slowly
tortured to death.
Meanwhile, dan Torrance, whowas a little boy when the events
of the Shining took place, iscurrently battling alcoholism,
settles in a New Hampshire townwhere he finds an AA community
that sustains him and a job at anursing home where his shining
(01:49):
helps provide comfort to thosethat are dying, with the help of
a cat by the name of Asriel.
He becomes known as Dr Sleep.
Dan then meets Abra Stone andher spectacular shining it is
the most powerful shining thatDan has ever experienced and Dan
teams up with her to save herfrom the True Knot.
(02:10):
The 2019 adaptation of DoctorSleep takes place years after
the events of the Shining from1980, in which a now adult Dan
Torrance, must protect a younggirl with the Shining from a
cult known as the Chunot, whoprey on children to remain
immortal.
So, as you can see, it is apretty faithful adaptation For
(02:33):
the most part.
There are some big, big changesand well, let me just start off
by saying, if you are familiarwith the Shining the film, which
I am, I've never read theShining book, but I have seen
the Shining film.
I really, really do enjoy thatfilm.
I think it's great and a lot ofpeople, overall, objectively,
(02:54):
just looking at the film itself,think it is a great film.
Overall it's a great film.
It is, however, a horribleadaptation so horrible that
Stephen King hates the Shining.
Like the adaptation of theShining, he absolutely hates
that film.
He has essentially disowned itand does not claim that Shining
(03:18):
as his Shining.
It is such a bad adaptation, itis so far off from the book.
Stephen King hates itcompletely.
So Mike Flanagan, the writerand director of Dr Sleep, had
quite a lot of work to do.
So hardcore fans of StephenKing and his book, the Shining
(03:39):
specifically, also hate theadaptation, also hate the
adaptation.
So Mike Flanagan had to come upwith a way of essentially
fixing the Shining adaptation,like all the things that Stephen
King hated about the Shininglike, fix that for Dr Sleep the
film, but while also remainingtrue to Dr Sleep the book.
(04:00):
So he did talk to Stephen Kingabout how he like what changes
he was going to make to the filmto make up for the horrible
adaptation of the Shining thatStephen King hates.
Now there is there is anotheradaptation of the Shining.
It was a TV miniseries.
I'm not too familiar with thatversion, but that's the version
(04:25):
that Stephen King approves of,but it's just not well known.
Like I didn't know that this TVminiseries adaptation of the
Shining existed.
I shouldn't be surprised,because a lot of Stephen King's
books were made into miniseriesto accommodate His books are so
long, so to accommodate everydetail, or as much details found
in the books, makes sense tomake them into miniseries.
(04:47):
So I wasn't aware that thatadaptation existed until moshi
was like oh, are you going totalk about, like the miniseries?
That's actually the versionhe's seen, if I'm not mistaken.
And I was like I didn't knowthat that existed.
So I'm talking about the morewell-known stanley hubrick film
is the one that Stephen Kinghates.
So, knowing Mike Flanagan,knowing that the Shining film,
(05:10):
stanley Kubrick film, is the onethat people know and recognize
and love, he had to appeal tothe fans of the film.
Since it is a sequel to theShining and people may not be
familiar with the Shining book,he had to create a sequel that
fans of the Shining film wouldlike but that was also approved
(05:32):
of by Stephen King and peoplethat hated the Shining
adaptation.
So he had quite a complicatedtask and this is how he did it.
So I'm going to go ahead andgive my spoiler alert for Doctor
Sleep.
You're going to get spoilersfor the book and the film, but
in some roundabout way you'realso going to get a spoiler for
(05:54):
the Shining book mainly, butalso the Shining film.
So if you haven't seen thoseand you want to read those, just
know there's going to be, likethere's going to be, spoilers
for all of those involved.
There just has to be because,in order to talk about the
adaptation, I have to talk aboutthe changes that were made to
appease Stephen King and fans ofthe Shining.
And so, as I said, mikeFlanagan did have this
(06:16):
conversation with Stephen Kingand he told him how he was
planning on making up for theShining film and how badly that
was screwed up and how heplanned to fix it in the sequel
while also being faithful to thebook.
And Stephen King heard hispitch.
He gave his seal approval.
So Stephen King does not hatethis adaptation.
(06:38):
It has Stephen King's seal ofapproval.
So, that being said, the biggestthing that Mike Feinig did in
order to continue the sequel ofthe shining Stanley Kubrick
shining and appease Stephen Kingwas change the ending of the
film.
So I will go into a little bitmore detail once we get to the
(07:01):
end and I will go into thosedifferences.
First thing I want to saybefore we kick it off is that
the ending of the Dr Sleep filmis actually the ending of the
Shining the book.
So the way that Dr Sleep thefilm ends is actually how the
Shining book ends.
Yeah, so he gave the OverlookHotel the ending it should have
(07:24):
had in the Shining.
So that's that.
So let's go ahead and kick itoff.
So one thing, that again,because this is technically also
a sequel to the Stanley Kubrickfilm.
It has to be a sequel to theStanley Kubrick film because
that is once again theadaptation that people are
familiar with.
So Mike Flanagan did have tocontinue some of the things that
(07:45):
were started in with.
So Mike Flanagan did have tocontinue some of the things that
were started in the Shiningfilm and bring them over into
the Doctor Sleep film, and oneof those is that Dick Halloran
dies in the Shining film.
So yes, in the Shining filmDick Halloran dies, but in the
Shining book he doesn't.
(08:05):
He's still alive, he survives.
So in Doctor Sleep Dick isalive.
Dick also has the Shining, andif anyone's not aware what the
Shining is, it's a psychicability, essentially, or psychic
abilities.
Yeah, that can manifest indifferent ways, but if you're
psychic you have the Shining.
So since Dick is alive in thebook, he survived the shining
(08:26):
book.
He's alive at the beginning ofthe Dr Sleep book and he is
Dan's mentor.
So Dan continues to betraumatized by the events of
things he experienced while atthe Overlook Hotel.
He continues to be haunted bythe citizens of the Overlook
Hotel, so like the differentghosts are making themselves
known to him, citizens of theOverlook Hotel, so like the
different ghosts are makingthemselves known to him.
So Dick shows him how to createlike psychic lock boxes in his
(08:49):
mind and trap the ghosts there,and so they can essentially stop
haunting him.
Dick continues to do that inthe Doctor Sleep film.
However, he is doing this as aghost.
He's now a ghost himself.
He's a nice ghost that Dantrusts, and so they still have
that like mentor relationshipwith each other.
(09:10):
Except in the book he is alive,but in the film he is a ghost
and obviously the book spends alot more time developing each
person, a lot more than the filmdoes.
So we get a lot of Dan'sbackstory before we ever even
get introduced to the True Knot,which makes sense.
(09:32):
Again, in a book you can takethe time to really expand on
each idea and spend as manypages or as many chapters as you
want, and it doesn't reallyaffect our ability to like,
relate or know who these becauseyou're spending so much time.
So we spend like a good chunkon just Dan we get it.
(09:53):
We spend a good chunk on justAbra.
We spent a good chunk on justthe true knot before the events
that bring all three of thosetogether in the, the film.
Obviously you have to do this ina lot more time and in films
especially, you want tointroduce all major players as
soon as possible.
If you wait too long tointroduce them, like we've
(10:14):
already grown attached tocertain characters, certain
things that they've experienced,things like that.
So to introduce this to someonetoo late into the film and
expect us to just accept theminto the fold, it's not
impossible but it's a little bitmore difficult.
So you want to introduce allthe main characters that you
want the audience to be familiarwith as soon as possible, even
(10:34):
if you just introduce them andthen don't bring them back until
later and you like you do acallback to like remember when
we first introduced you to thisperson, it's like, okay, yeah, I
remember them from thebeginning.
You want to introduce all themajor characters as soon as
possible so the audience canwrap their minds around who the
story is going to focus on andwho they should be rooting for
or against.
So our introduction to the TrueKnot obviously, as I said, in
(10:58):
the book happens later, but inthe film obviously it happens
within the first 10 minutes.
I think it may be 15, but it'sdefinitely not any later than
that.
And the way we are introduced tothe true knot and kind of what
their deal is is we see a littlebit of little boy, dan torrens,
after the events of theoverlook hotel, and then we cut
(11:20):
to a little girl, just this cutelittle girl, spending time with
her family in the park or inthe woods, camping or whatever,
going on a picnic something,something along those lines, and
she's attracted to these people.
They kind of find a way to lureher over.
She goes over to them and thenRose the Hat, who is the leader
(11:41):
of the True Knot, does a magictrick.
The little girl's veryimpressed and then Rose the Hat
grabs her and that's when thelittle girl gets scared and she
looks around and more and morepeople start appearing, and so
now she's really freaking out.
And then we know that somethingbad is about to happen to this
little girl.
And then we cut back to danlittle boy dan and then he has
(12:01):
an interaction with dick and wesee what, as they're talking, it
like pans away from them.
And then we see a missingposter of the little girl that
we just saw with the true knot.
So we know that they're notgood people, because we last saw
this little girl with them andnow we know she's missing.
So the film, obviouslyunderstandably, introduces us to
all our main players a lotsooner and we get the ball
(12:23):
rolling about their intentionslike right off the bat.
While Stephen King definitelytakes his time, Like I said, we
spend a lot of chapters andpages just really focusing on
Dan and the events after theOverlook and his battle with
alcoholism and then until heeventually ends up where he's
(12:43):
been sober for a little bit, andthen we turn to the True Knot
and just their deal, and then alot of time with Abra and
finding out who she is as alittle girl.
So, yeah, so as I said in thebook, you can definitely spend a
lot more time really drawingeach of these things out, and
then he brings them all togetherin the book and in the film you
(13:04):
just got to do all of that, butjust a lot faster.
So one thing that's mentionedin the book, but we don't see it
.
So this is more of a tell don'tshow that happens in the book,
while in the film we get theshow don't tell.
And in film especially, showdon't tell is very important.
It's a lot more interesting tosee the events, even if they are
(13:25):
difficult to watch, as you willfind out what I'm talking about
as opposed to being told.
So in the book we find out thatthere is an Abra senses and her
shining is the most powerfulshining out of any character
we've ever met, or that we meetin the book, in this book in
particular, and so she gets asense that there is a boy named
(13:45):
Bradley Trevor who is in troubleand she knows what happened to
him.
She knows that he's tortured,but it doesn't.
We don't like we're told like.
We know that he's tortured, butit isn't like a graphic scene
the way it is in the film and itis an intense scene.
My roommate, who she cannotwatch that scene Like she's very
like.
She cannot handle any kind ofviolence towards children
(14:09):
whatsoever and she really hatesit when films or TV shows or
anything like that include anykind of like abuse towards
children.
Like that's definitelysomething she would prefer to be
told and not shown.
But overall it is better toshow things, no matter how
distressing they are.
There is a limit, there is alimit, I will say there is such
a thing as being tooexploitative.
(14:29):
I think this film does a goodjob of being distressing while
not being too exploitative,because we see, like we know,
that this little boy is beingtortured and we see the only
thing we see is Rose.
I think we see like one sliceon the arm and like blood coming
out and then he starts yellingand then we don't see any.
(14:51):
We hear the yelling and we dosee like we're cutting back and
forth between his torture and,yeah, we mainly see his screams
and his and his screams of painand just like these, like these
horrible, horrible screams.
Which brings me to my favoritebehind the scenes story
concerning this film.
So Rebecca Ferguson, who playsRose the Hat, is very much like
(15:14):
my roommate.
She does not like participatingin any kind of child abuse
storylines and she made anexception for this film because
she really loved the script.
So she did make an exceptionfor this film, knowing that she
would have to torture a littleboy at one point.
And the little boy, bradleyTrevor, is played by Jacob
Tremblay, who is phenomenal.
(15:35):
Like he is so young.
He is so young and he is sogood.
Like I'm so jealous of thetalent this kid has.
Like now he's 18 and I feellike it's been a while since
we've seen him.
The last time we heard him wasin the Little Mermaid.
He voiced Flounder, the liveaction Little Mermaid, and he
voiced Luca in the Pixar film,luca, but we haven't seen him
(15:58):
since.
I forgot the name of the film.
I wasn't interested in that onebecause that one I felt was
like Good Boys, something likethat.
But that one, like it felt likevery vulgar humor.
I feel like it's a rated R film,but the three leads of that
film are like were like 12 or 11.
Like this took place.
These kids are like middleschool kids and like I'm not
saying that, like that's notwhat middle school kids are like
(16:20):
.
But that's just, personally,where I draw the line.
I don't necessarily like seeingchildren in like rated R
storylines for film, because atthe like I know they're acting,
but at the end of the day Idon't know.
That's where I draw the line.
I don't know what that saysabout me as a person that I can
see these child torture scenes.
But I think, like the childtorture scene, like I know, that
is like obviously I knowthey're not actually torturing
(16:43):
Jacob Tremblay and, no matterhow mind-bogglingly impressive
his performance was, it's fake.
Like that little boy was neverbeing tortured.
But like with the rated r stuff, it's like they're actually
saying all these vulgar thingsand being exposed to all these
things in reality.
And yeah, so I think that's howI can differentiate the two.
(17:04):
But anyway, back to my favoriteon screen behind the scenes
story.
So, yes, jacob Tremblay, so, sotalented, like like one of the
most talented little boys ever.
And well, he's not a little boyanymore.
But if you've seen Room withBrie Larson, he plays her son,
so it's literally Brie Larsonand him like carrying the entire
film.
So he's just, he's great, he'sfantastic, and so in this scene
(17:28):
he is able to like I can see whymy roommate is unable to watch
this film because he, like hisperformance, is like you, like
it's so good and it was so goodwhile they were filming it, that
like, so he's essentially beingtortured by nothing but adults.
All these adults are watchinghim get tortured and as he,
(17:48):
every time he screams, a littlebit of steam gets released,
which is what the true knockfeeds on.
And that keeps them immortaland young.
Well, not young, I guess,because there is an old man
there, but anyway it keeps themimmortal.
And so, like his performance isjust so damn good and it was so
damn good that when they werefilming that, like all the
adults that were quote unquotetorturing him were like, oh my
(18:10):
God, like they kept filming, butthey were really, really
affected by his performance, butthey were.
They were like, oh my gosh,like we're hurting this poor
child.
Like those are like legitimatescreams of pain.
This is horrendous.
Like why are they not yellingcut this kid is in.
Like serious pain.
Like they were, like everyonewas so into the performance and
(18:33):
they were so into hisperformance and it was so
believable that, even thoughthey weren't torturing him and
they knew they weren't torturinghim like his performance was so
convincing that they were likethis like someone needs to yell
cut.
This kid is not okay.
Someone needs to yell cut thiskid is not okay.
Finally, the director yells cut.
All the adults are just like,in shock of like, is this kid
(18:55):
okay?
Meanwhile, the director yellscut.
Jacob Tremblay sits up likenothing happened with the
biggest smile on his face, goesover to give his dad a high five
for a great performance andstarts digging into Crafty.
Yeah, that is probably myfavorite behind the scenes story
.
I think that's great.
I think that like good forJacob Tremblay for being able to
(19:15):
get in and out of roles thatfast and to have such a
believable performance that eventhe actors were more freaked
out by the performance, by thefact that they were torturing
him than he was like.
They were apparently like hewas totally fine.
Like I said, he got up, he duginto crafty crafty for those of
you that don't know, it's justlike craft services, it's the
(19:37):
food and snacks that's on set,like the.
But like rebecca ferguson andall the other actors that were
doing the torturing were kind oflike had to take a moment and
just sit and like he's OK.
Yeah, he's OK, he's fine.
I'm not fine, but he's fine.
So like they actually had totake a moment to like I love
that story and that just speaksto Jacob Tremblay's talent.
(19:58):
So I can't wait till we startseeing him more often on screen
again, because he like if he wasthat good back then, imagine
how he is now.
And he's still very young.
I think he's only like 18 or 19, so he's still very, very young
, but still like it's been awhile.
It's been a while.
So we have we have that.
But yeah, I think that's likemy favorite behind the scenes
story ever, any film.
(20:19):
That's just incredible and justspeaks to his talent.
But enough about me fangirlingover Jacob Tremblay.
Okay, so in the book Abra seesBradley Trevor getting tortured
and then like she kind of notthat she shakes it off, but like
she kind of forgets about itand like her parents are kind of
just like, oh, they'renightmares, whatever.
(20:39):
So she like she just doesn'tthink much about it and until
two years later later, when shecomes across the newspaper and
she sees a picture of bradleytrevor also under like the
missing children's page and thatcauses her to physically throw
up, and that's when she's likewe need to do something about
the true knot.
So two years pass betweenbradley trevor getting kidnapped
(21:01):
and tortured.
In the book and the rest of theevents of the book, while in
it's immediate in the film shesees that torture, she knows
that she has to do somethingabout it and she starts
contacting Dan immediately,which again makes sense.
There's a little bit more timeto develop what happens in
between those two years In thefilm.
We have to keep the action goingor else this is going to be
(21:21):
like a five hour long film andnot a lot of people want that.
I don't want to sit through afive hour film personally, but I
mean I guess I've well, I'vesat through a four hour film
cause I've sat through Gone withthe Wind several times, but
anyway, not the point.
Gone with the Wind is also likethicker than the Bible and Dr
Sleep was probably not thatthick.
Like it's thick, I listened toit on audio and it was 19 hours
(21:42):
long, so I don't know how manypages that would translate to,
but it's wait, let me look it upreally fast.
How many pages is this?
531 pages, so it's not as thickas the Bible, it's like thinner
.
So, yeah, anyway, sorry, I wasthinking I was like to make a
book that's as thick as theBible long, and these cuts so
much out of Gone with the Windand still four hours long.
(22:03):
But that makes sense, causelike is long.
But that makes sense, causelike is that a sticker than the
Bible, but anyway.
So in the film Abra sees BradleyTrevor getting tortured and
immediately she like goes to theNew Hampshire town where Dan is
and surprises him and is likehey, I'm Abra.
And he's like Whoa, okay, likeyou're a little girl, you can't
just come up to a strange manLike first we'll just like
stranger danger.
But also, like, people know mein this town and what are they
going to think when they see metalking to like a random little
(22:24):
girl?
And she's like, oh, we'll justtell everyone, you're my uncle,
make note of that.
But anyway, it's just likewe'll just tell everyone you're
my uncle.
And then she like tells himeverything and he agrees to help
her out to take down the trueknot, blah, blah, blah.
So in both the film and thebook they do communicate through
with each other psychically andvia.
Uh.
So dan has one of like the roomthat he's renting, one of the
(22:46):
walls is like that chalkboardpaint.
So like sometimes, like growingup, abra would write like
little messages to him withchalk on that wall.
So they've communicated likepsychically, like through their
minds and then through thechalkboard.
So in the book they actuallymake plans to meet each other
and they come up with a way todo that that doesn't make him
look suspicious and she stillsays we'll just say you're my
(23:09):
uncle.
But in the book they actuallyplan it out a little bit more
before they meet each other andin the film she just like shows
up and meets him.
This is kind of like a throwaway, like not important detail I
probably shouldn't have includedit but I just thought it was
interesting and that is thatRose the Hat meditates inside
the RV in the book, while in thefilm she meditates outside.
(23:30):
So she actually gets on theroof of the RV and meditates and
so she meditates.
Essentially she senses again,the whole thing about the Chuna
is that they have to torture andkill children to get this with
the shining.
It can't be any child, it hasto be a child with a shining and
let that their steam releaseand that's how they stay
immortal.
So she senses the shiningsomewhere and then she like
(23:52):
meditates to like get into themind of that child and find out
like what they look like, wherethey live and all that so they
know where to travel to get tothat child.
So yeah, just thought I justthought that was interesting
that in the book she's insidethe trailer and in the film
she's like always on the roof ofthe RV.
Yeah, just again kind of throwaway, but just something I found
interesting.
(24:12):
I think I like that she'soutside cause she's like
grounded in nature, but maybethat's why in the book she's
actually meditating inside,because there's like less
distractions, because she cankick everyone out and just focus
on meditating.
So in the film, dan only, it'sessentially only a team of three
.
It's Dan, billy Freeman, who isthe first person that Dan ever
(24:32):
met when he moved to NewHampshire, and Billy's the one
that recommended like the AAcommunity that he himself, billy
, goes to, and then Abra andthen her dad gets involved for a
little bit.
But it's really just Dan andBilly Freeman and Abra, and then
in the book it's actually abigger team, like it's Dan and
John who is Abra's pediatrician.
(24:55):
They do some major taskstogether and then sometimes it's
depending on the task that theyhave to do.
So it's like Dan and John thedoctor do one task together
major task together.
Dan and David, who is Abra'sfather, do one important task
together and then Dan and BillyFreeman team up to do another
(25:16):
task together.
So it's a much bigger team ofadults in the book versus the
film.
It makes sense, I guess, in thefilm to not include the
pediatrician.
You don't really miss him inthe film.
I mean if they added him itwould have been fine.
But I think it makes sensebecause I think, like the True
Knot, there's so many moremembers of the True Knot that we
have to know.
(25:36):
I think, just to keep it a lotmore simple, we focus on just
Dan and Billy, because those arethe two characters we see the
most in the film and then, yeah,so I think just to clean it up,
make it easier I think that'sprobably why they got rid of
John, but you also, he provides,he's a great help in the book,
but like it makes sense to justhave Billy take over for some of
the stuff that Dan does witheither the dad or with Billy.
(25:59):
So the thing that Dan does withJohn the doctor, that, like I
said, in the film it's like Danand Billy doing everything.
So Dan and Billy go drive toIowa to where Bradley Trevor is
buried, because Abra's like weneed to like his parents don't
know where he is.
We need to like tell hisparents and the police where his
(26:20):
body is so they can like getsome peace in terms of like
getting the closure of knowingwhere what happened to their son
and being able to bury him.
But they're also going to get abaseball glove that like
Bradley Trevor's baseball glove,and they're going to bring that
back to Abra and I believe Abrais going to use that to help
keep track of, like, the trueknot because, like they all
(26:40):
touched it.
So, yeah, that's like thesafest way to do it without
getting into their minds,because if you get into
someone's mind, they can feelyou in there and they can fight.
It's just a lot more dangerous.
So, yeah, so Billy and Dandrive from New Hampshire all the
way to Iowa and they make itseem like it's such an easy trip
which, all things considered,it wasn't that bad.
I did look it up.
I think it was like 12 to 14hours, which, like all things
(27:04):
considered, isn't that bad of adrive.
Like it's a long drive, butit's not that bad.
Something I could be very wrong, but it was.
It was like less than a day, Ithink, I don't know, but anyway.
So they drive to Iowa and thenthey drive back immediately,
which again is like they made itlook so easy In the film, in
the book, sorry Dan and John thepediatrician actually fly to
Iowa while Billy stays behind towatch over Abra, and at this
(27:27):
point her parents have no ideawhat is going on with Abra.
So Billy stays behind to watchover her and make sure she's
safe while Dan and John are outof town, and since her parents
have no idea he's involved, haveno idea Abra is even doing this
, yeah, they.
Billy like is watching over herand make sure she's safe while
they fly and then fly back,which expensive but probably a
little bit less tiring, I don'tknow.
(27:49):
Anyway, in the book the TrueKnot doesn't know which little
girl they're looking for.
So Rose the hat like knowswhere the shining is and she's
kind of like these are threeoptions.
We have Abra, we have thisother little girl name that's
like close, who's like Abra'sfriend and then Abra's other
friend.
So they know it's one of thosethree little girls, but they
don't know exactly which onethey're looking for.
(28:11):
In the film they know andthat's because they, rose and
Abra do have a little bit of amind battle and at point Abra
accidentally like revealsherself to Rose.
So Rose knows exactly what Abralooks like and how to get to
her and all of that she knows.
Like she can sense where theshining is and like which
(28:32):
general direction to go in.
But, like in the film, theyknow exactly which little girl
they're looking for.
And again, that's just excesscharacters that we don't need
included in the film.
Let's just cut the friends.
So what happens?
Is that?
So in the book Rose has a lotmore followers, like there's a
lot more members of the TrueKnot than there are in the film.
(28:53):
Like in the film, pretty muchso.
Like once Rose reveals herself,rose and Amber have their like
battle of their psychic battlein their minds.
Billy the Crow is like listen,I know you don't you want like
this little girl, but you likeyou need to stay behind because
she's going to be able to senseyou coming, since you have that
connection.
So you need to stay behind andthe rest of the true not will go
(29:15):
to New Hampshire and get herand bring her back and Rose
reluctantly stays.
So in the film it's just likeRose.
And then like I don't know, notas many followers Like they,
like Rose is the only one tostay behind, and then all the
rest of the followers go to NewHampshire to get Abra.
But in the book there's like somany more followers Like Rose
stays, like is a lot morewilling to stay behind in the
(29:36):
book than she is in the filmbecause she still has so many
followers that stayed behindwith her, while in the and and
only like a select few go to newhampshire, including billy the
crow.
But anyway, in both the book andthe film abra lures the true
knot into to the woods likecampground, and she's like this
(29:57):
is where I'm gonna be, come getme, this is where I am, come get
me.
And so they all go to thecampground.
So it's just Dan and BillyFreeman that go to the
campground, while in the filmwhile Abra and her dad stay at
her house and they like at thispoint, like obviously they've
already talked to Abra's dad, hecan't say he's on board, but it
means keeping his daughter safe.
(30:17):
Like he's gonna do that, he'sgonna help watch over her.
So Dan and Billy Freeman go tothe campground and Abra and her
dad stay at home and Abra isessentially like astral
projecting or making it seemlike she's at the campground but
she's actually safe at home thewhole time.
In the book, actually, dan John, pediatrician, and Abra's dad
(30:39):
all go to the campground WhileAbra stays behind at her
friend's house and Billy staysbehind to watch over her.
So in the film, like I said,all the followers end up at the
campground and they get caughtby surprise because they're like
, oh there's Abra, let's get her.
And then it turns out to justbe like a vision that she's
making them see, and then sothey're caught by surprise and
(31:01):
Dan and Billy end up killing allof them except for Billy the
crow, because it turns out thatBilly the crow knew Abra was at
her home the whole time and hegoes to her house and kills her
dad and knocks her out andkidnaps her and starts driving
back to Rose.
In the book, abra's dad has togo to the campground with Abra
and, sorry, abra's dad has to goto the campground with Dan and
(31:25):
when John's just there forbackup, essentially.
But the dad has to go becauseAbra's essentially like I'm just
gonna call it possessing, eventhough that's not really what it
is, but like Abra's taking overDan's body so that anyone that
gets into her see what Dan'sseeing.
So Dan is like if he's lookingout the window they see the
campgrounds that they're goingto, and then he looks at the dad
(31:47):
and so they think that they'reinfiltrating her mind and that
they're seeing what Abra'sseeing.
But they're actually seeingwhat Dan is seeing.
So it's a little bit morecomplicated, I feel like in the
book, but it still works.
And everyone goes to thecampground and again they're
caught by surprise and they'rekilled, except for Billy the
Crow who, on a whim so one ofthe characters who they I forgot
(32:09):
the name of him, but hisnickname is the Chink, which I
was just like it even feelswrong for me to say that.
So that's going to be the onlytime I say that I don't know why
Stephen King named him, that Idon't like that he named him
that, or why his nickname isthat I don't like that, that's
his nickname.
And then at one point Abra evensays you know the, but he's not
Asian.
And it's like I don't.
It's not really not helping.
(32:30):
So because it's okay to callsomeone that because they're not
actually Asian, I don't know.
That still feels I don't know.
I didn't like that, butcharacter is, he's the one
that's like tracking Abra forthem and he's like I can't, I
like as he's dying because allthe true knots in the book
contract measles from BradleyTrevor, so they start like dying
(32:50):
off little by little.
So as he's dying, he's like Ifeel like she's at the
campground, but I don't know.
I have a feeling she's actuallynot like.
I feel like she's actually ather house, which is here, but I
I'm not sure, like I'm dying andI'm like slipping in and out of
my powers here.
So I can't be sure.
So everyone's like but you'reseeing her at the campground, so
let's go to the campground.
(33:12):
And Billy the Crow's like justto be safe, I'll go to her house
.
So everyone's like okay, and sothat is how, again in the film,
billy the Crow just knows thatshe's lying to them and goes to
her house.
In the book he has a reason tosuspect that she's at home this
whole time.
Yeah, so at the campground.
(33:33):
In the film there's no.
So there are no deaths in thebook.
There's a lot of deaths in thefilm.
Like a lot.
I don't necessarily agree withthe killing off of definitely
one of the characters.
I don't know that it wasnecessary to kill off Billy
Freeman.
Billy Freeman does die at thiscampground battle.
So there's one of the membersof the True Knot.
(33:54):
Like she has, her shiningability is her power of
persuasion, which is why, eventhough they could have killed
her because she wasn't like alittle girl, but she was still
really young, they decide toturn her into a member of the
True Knot because that power isjust so like, so special and so
like, so so helpful that theydecide to keep her alive.
So, essentially, she has thatlike power where she's like,
(34:17):
jump off that bridge and you'lldo it.
Like you have no way offighting.
Like, if she tells you to do it, you're going to do whatever
she says, no matter what.
So at one point in the finalbattle, right, she's shot and
she's dying, but with her finalbreath she tells Billy Freeman
to shoot himself.
So he shoots himself andobviously he dies.
(34:38):
That doesn't happen in the book.
Like I said, billy Freeman isover at Abra's house and there's
no deaths, is over at Abra'shouse and there's no deaths.
Abra's dad and John thepediatrician, don't die during
this battle.
The only casualties are thetrue-nots.
So again, I don't necessarilyagree with Billy Freeman's death
, but I can kind of see how thatdoes amp up the stakes a little
bit, because we have grown,there is a certain attachment we
feel towards Billy and we don'twant to see him die and we see
him die.
So that's really sad.
(34:58):
The death that I reallydisagree with is that of Abra's
dad, especially because hedoesn't die in the book, and
it's just one of those thingsthat so in the book Abra is
white, but in the film she isbiracial, she has a white mom
and a black dad and so whenBilly the Crow shows up to
(35:19):
kidnap her, he kills her dad andkidnaps her.
In the book, when he shows upto kidnap Abra, he knocks Billy
Freeman out, but he doesn't killhim.
Like I said, billy Freemansurvives.
So he knocks Billy Freeman outand then kidnaps Abra.
So yeah, I don't like.
Once I found out that Abra's dadhad no reason to die, it's just
I was like I really wish theyhadn't killed him off in the
(35:42):
film, especially because he isplayed by a black man.
Just there's that trope where,like, if you're watching a
horror film, who's going to bethe first character to be killed
.
This is going to be the blackman.
Black man is always the firstone to die, so that's kind of
like my thing.
It's like we could have knockedhim out and still continue the
story, especially because wedon't really see Abra's.
We see Abra's mom at the end ofthe film.
So killing him off reallydoesn't add anything to the
(36:06):
story.
Yeah, with Billy Freeman, likeI said, it kind of ups the
stakes a little bit and we havemore of an emotional attachment
to Billy Freeman than we do withAbra's dad because we haven't
spent that much time with him.
But yeah, it's just one ofthose things.
It's like, because of who theycast as her dad, it's just like
(36:26):
there's already that trope.
Let's work on fixing that trope.
You know he's not the firstcharacter to die.
So no, like the black man didnot die first in this particular
instance, but he still diedwhen there was no reason to have
him be killed off.
So anyway, in the book, afterAbra is kidnapped by Billy the
Crow, obviously David Abra's dadis like pissed off, like
promise me she'd be safe, blah,blah, blah, and they have this
whole thing.
And then so he's like you needto take me to see her Momo.
(36:48):
So she calls hergreat-grandmother and so she
goes to.
So David's like why?
And he's like, just take methere, I need to talk to her.
And so he like him to seeConchita, who is the
great-grandmother, and he meetsAbra's mom and Conchita has
cancer.
She's on her deathbed.
So again, he's known as DrSleep, which I haven't really
(37:08):
touched upon, but yeah, that'sfine, we'll talk a little bit
more about it later.
But yeah, so he's known as DrSleep.
So he helps her die peacefullyand as, after she's dead, he
absorbs her steam, he absorbs itand is holding it for later.
He's not using it for immortalpowers, he's just holding that
steam for later.
But as she's dying, he findsout that he and Abra's mom are
(37:30):
actually related.
They're actually half brother,half sister.
They have the same dad.
So Abra, without realizing it,was calling him Uncle Dan.
So there's where that Uncle Danties in.
So, yeah, so it turns out thathe really is her Uncle Dan.
So there's where that Uncle Danties in.
So, yeah, so it turns out thathe really is her Uncle Dan.
But we never this connection isnever made in the film Like
they never.
We never ended up finding outthat they're actually related,
(37:50):
anything like that.
So, yeah, just throwing thatout.
And then after that he's able,he kills Crow Daddy.
I will say the way that CrowDaddy is killed in the film is
like so satisfying.
So it's one of those thingswhere Abra is drugged but like,
as she's like coming back intoconsciousness, dan reaches out
to her and is like hey, I know,I told you to never let anyone
(38:13):
into your mind, ever.
That is the most precious partof you.
But I need you to trust me andlet me into your mind.
And she says okay, and so atthat point he takes over her
body and he's like taunting CrowDaddy as Abra.
And then along the way CrowDaddy realizes whoa, like, have
I been saying Billy the Crowthis whole time?
There's no Billy the Crow,there's just Crow Daddy and
(38:35):
Billy Freeman.
So let me correct that now.
I'm sorry, that's like goingback and listening to it.
Just know that if I say Billythe Crow, I meant Crow Daddy,
and Billy Freeman is a good guy.
Crow Daddy and Billy Freeman,crow Daddy, billy, but anyway,
anyway.
So, yeah, so he there's a lotof the blanks, like Rose, the
Hat, whatever his name, the ch,and then we have Crow Daddy.
So yeah, anyway, so that's whyI say the Crow.
(38:56):
But anyway, moving on, so, yes,he's taunting Crow Daddy.
And then, along at some pointCrow Daddy realizes like, oh
damn, like this is not Abra,this is Dan Torrance.
And Dan is like oh yeah, it'sDan Torrance, by the way, didn't
anyone ever teach you to wear aseatbelt?
Crow Daddy realizes he's notwearing a seatbelt and in that
instant Dan uses his psychicpowers to like turn the wheel
(39:17):
and crash into a tree.
So Crow Daddy is thrown out ofthe van and he dies.
And then Dan is like wait forme, they're like in the middle.
So again, they're in NewHampshire.
By this point Crow Daddy haddriven them.
They're somewhere in New York.
So Dan is like I, like you'regoing to be waiting for me for a
while.
I'm sorry about that, but I'mleaving my house now and I'm
coming to go get you.
So Abra is waiting like in thewoods for Dan to come get her,
(39:47):
but obviously, like that's thelast thing we see.
And then we cut to.
They're in the car together,driving to Colorado to go to the
Overlook Hotel.
There's a lot of driving inthis film.
I just realized they do driveto the location where the
Overlook Hotel was in the book.
But anyway, and yeah.
So at this point Abra in thefilm, abra's mom, comes home and
she finds her daughter missingand her husband dead.
And so Abra gets in touch withher at one point and is like I
can't tell you where you are,where I am, but I'm safe.
And then she hangs up on herand then so we're at peace with
(40:09):
the mom.
Until for now, I mean, themom's not at peace, but like the
audience is like all right, themom knows what's going on.
But in the book Abra doesn't goto the location of the Overlook
Hotel.
She challenges Rose to a battlethere, but it's just Dan and
Billy Freeman that go there.
Abra stays behind and Astroprojects to the location where
the Overlook Hotel used to be.
So we're getting to the endingof the film, which is the ending
(40:31):
of the book.
So just know that in the bookthe Overlook Hotel is long gone
and where the Overlook Hotelused to be is now the campground
of the True Knot.
So Dan and Billy Freeman are ontheir way to the campground,
while Abra is with her mom anddad and just astral projecting
to the campground, which this isthe second time I've talked
(40:52):
about astral projection in thispodcast and I really don't like
it.
I don't know, I just don't likeit.
I think that it's not a commontrope but it is like a mini
trope and I'm discovering.
I don't like it, I don't likeit, let's stop.
I like it much better that Abrawent physically with Dan, and
now I understand it would be alot more difficult for the
parents to allow her to travelphysically with them, which is
(41:14):
why, which is why Dan just tookher in the film, essentially.
But yeah, I guess, but so, yeah.
So her parents, like even it'sstill dangerous because, like,
like battle of the minds, badthings can happen but at least
physically, like your parentsknow where she is, they can keep
an eye on her.
So she astral projects to theold location of the Overlook
Hotel, as I said, that's thecampground of the True Knot and,
(41:35):
as I said, rose is there with alot more followers.
In the film, rose and herfollowers are well well, it's
just Rose at this point, becauseall her followers are dead but
they do travel and live atdifferent campgrounds.
I don't know what campgroundthey're staying at in the film,
but she knows to go to theOverlook Hotel.
So like they get to theOverlook Hotel and Dan is like I
(41:55):
need to go inside the hotel,like the hotel is very dangerous
, so I'm going to go inside.
You have to wait out.
Like you're going to stay inthe car and be a lookout.
Like there's only one road toand from the hotel.
So like there's no way she cansurprise us, even though she's
like, at this point, blocked hermind.
Like there's no surprising usbecause you're going to see her
car driving up the road.
When you see her car driving upthe road, like honk, so I know
(42:26):
that she's on her way and thencome join me inside the hotel.
But like I don't want youwalking around the hotel any
longer than you need to be,because this place is hella
scary and hella dangerous.
And she's like okay.
So he like goes and he goes downto the basement and he like
turns on the boiler to likeoverdrive and then Abra honks
and they make they go inside andin the book, once he and Billy
are at the campground, dan usesConchita's steam diseased steam.
Again, she had cancer, so it'sdiseased steam.
He's been holding it this wholetime and he releases it once
(42:47):
they reach that area and itkills all the True Knot except
for Rose.
With Rose, he and Abra arehaving a psychic battle amongst
the three of them and then, withthe help of Billy Freeman and
the ghost of Jack Torrance's dad, they are able to push Rose off
of a cliff and she falls to herdeath.
(43:09):
But in the film, oh, it's a lotmore satisfying because he and
Rose are fighting and then atone point she's like
overpowering him and she startslike getting his steam and she's
like, oh, are you going to killme?
She's like taunting him.
I don't remember exactly whatshe says, but she's like, oh,
are you gonna kill me?
She's like taunting him I don'tremember exactly what she says
which is like, oh, are you gonnakill me?
Like you, there's nothing youcan do about it.
And he's like no, but they are.
And then he like releases allthe ghosts that he has in his
(43:32):
the lock boxes in his head, allthe ghosts he's had locked up in
his mind.
He releases them all and theyall go for rose and they kill
her and or like they come closeto kill her, but they don't like
kill her completely, becausethen Rose attempts to possess
Dan and he starts like chokingAbra, and Abra's like this isn't
you?
And then he's like I'm beingpossessed.
(43:53):
So he's like Abra run.
And then.
So she like runs out of thehotel and Dan goes down to the
boiler that's turned up andreleasing boiler gases and he
like lights a lighter and theOverlook Hotel goes up in flames
.
And that is how the Shiningbook ends.
It's actually Jack Torrance,who's been fighting his demons
the whole time, that eventuallyhe's able to come to enough
(44:14):
senses to allow his wife and hisson to escape the Overlook
Hotel, before he goes down tothe basement and lights up the
gases that the Boilers isreleasing and causes an
explosion that makes theOverlook Hotel go down in flames
.
So that is actually how theShining book ends and that so
clearly.
I'm not going to spoil theending of the Shining film, but
(44:36):
just know that by spoilers Ijust meant you're going to find
out that this is not how theShining film ends.
So, yeah, so that is how theShining ends, but in the book
the Overlook Hotel is long gone,so they kill Rose and instead
be cut to a few years later,when Dan is essentially part of
the family.
So they're a nice, big, happyfamily.
He's celebrating Abra'sbirthday and he tells her, like
(44:59):
we have a history of alcoholismin our family and we have a
history of alcoholism in ourfamily and we have a history of,
like, anger issues in ourfamily.
Don't give in to either one ofthose.
And she's like I won't.
And then he goes to the hospicewhere he works and provides one
last peaceful death before thebook ends.
But in the film, since Dan dies, he becomes he kind of becomes
(45:20):
what did Caloran was to him.
He becomes Abvery's mentor,just as a ghost.
And that is the film versus thebook.
So, yeah, there are a lot ofchanges, but there are a lot of
things that they like.
I'm very impressed with how MikeFlanagan balanced the like,
staying true to the book whilealso staying true to the film
(45:42):
adaptation, which is the mediumthat most people are going to be
the most familiar with when itcomes to these characters and
the Overlook Hotel andeverything.
So I thought he balanced it allreally, really well.
He redeemed the Shining forStephen King by ending it the
way the book ended and, yeah,stephen King I think that's what
(46:02):
allowed him to give such anenthusiastic blessing to this
adaptation was that MikeFlanagan fixed what Stanley
Kubrick ruined essentially.
So, yeah, what I really likeabout the book is that we get
more of the Dr Sleep aspect.
So I said Dan is called DrSleep because he works at a
(46:23):
hospice and the cat Asriel knows.
Essentially he's like one ofthose cat like I'm pretty sure
Asriel is inspired by that catwho actually lives in a nursing
home, I don't remember where,but essentially when this cat
visits you you know that you'regoing to die.
Like this cat just knows whenyou're in your final moments,
and so he's.
This cat has provided a lot ofcomfort to elderly nursing home
(46:44):
patients' final hours.
So I'm pretty sure that's whatAsriel is inspired by and so we
get a lot more of those scenes,those moments in the book.
In the film it's brought uponce.
We see him teaming up withAsriel once and him earning the
nickname Dr Sleep.
That's the only time it'sbrought in Again.
It's kind of not as importantto the storyline of the film,
(47:04):
which is why I can see why theydidn't spend too much time on
that.
But I really really like that.
The book really, really focuseson how he got the name Dr Sleep
.
We see him go through the cycleof being Dr Sleep several times
and the book ends with himbeing Dr Sleep by providing
comfort to one last patient.
And then the book ends andthat's our final image.
(47:25):
It's Dan Torrance as Dr Sleep.
So I really really like thataspect of the book.
Now, I am not.
I do like Stephen King's books.
I do like Stephen King as anauthor, but his books are kind
of hit or miss for me.
Some books I really really like, some books are okay.
This one started off reallyreally strong for me.
I would say like the first twothirds I was really, really
(47:48):
enraptured and really into thestory.
And then the last third of thebook I was kind of just like
will this ever end?
This is going on forever.
I feel like we can like cutsome of these things and just
get to the point, and I feellike that's how I feel Like the
Stephen King books that I thisone I thought was better than
(48:08):
okay this one.
This one is not just an okayread for me, but most of Stephen
King's books that I find to bejust okay.
There reaches a point where I'mjust like let's keep going.
Let's get to the point wherewhy are we still here, like,
come on, let's keep it moving.
So, yeah, I feel like sometimeshis books can be a little bit
too long for my liking and Ifeel like sometimes they get,
(48:29):
yeah, that there, there's just.
There just gets to a pointwhere I'm like let's keep it
moving, like I don't like thisis, I'm just not interested in
this.
So, yeah, so I did reach thatpoint, like I said, at on the
last third of the book, which islike a shame because that's
that's where, like most of that,the action is happening.
But it did start losing me alittle bit towards the end and I
will say there are certainaspects of Stephen King's
(48:52):
writing, especially when itcomes to his female characters,
that I'm like it's just veryobvious that it's a man writing
a female character.
So, like there was now I willsay disclaimer to what the point
I'm about to make to this, andthat is there does reach a point
in any.
There does reach a point inwhich anyone that can get a
period like you reach that age,you reach puberty, and there
(49:15):
just comes a point in which, nomatter what, you're pregnant.
Oh, I feel nauseous today.
Are you pregnant?
No, I just feel nauseous.
Oh, my stomach hurts.
Oh my gosh, are you pregnant.
No, my stomach just hurts.
Uh, it's just like, no matterwhat, no matter what.
It's really really annoying andreally, really frustrating
because, no matter what you'repregnant and it's just like,
just because I'm a child bearingage doesn't mean I'm pregnant.
(49:39):
Like, please can you take myconcern seriously?
And it's just like I feelnauseous because I just ate
something bad, not because I'mpregnant.
My stomach hurts because I justate too much cake yesterday or
whatever, not because I'mpregnant.
So there just reaches a pointand it's just really annoying
because that's always.
It's like are you pregnant?
(50:00):
No, I'm not pregnant.
I just don't feel good andsometimes, just like people who
can't give birth don't feel good, I don't feel good.
So that is a very bigfrustrating and I feel like a
lot of people can relate to thatbecause, yes, there just comes
a point in which, like, nomatter how you feel, you're
pregnant and it's just like I'mreally um, but that being said,
abra is think like 12 or 13 inthe book, so, and I know she can
(50:25):
technically get pregnant atthat age.
Unfortunately, there have beencases where really young girls
get pregnant at that age.
So I'm not saying it'simpossible, but, that being said
, even okay, my caveat Onceyou're like puberty, in high
school, like middle school,people don't suspect that you're
pregnant as much.
That's still not like the firstthing that comes to their mind.
Once you're in high school,it's like you're pregnant.
(50:45):
It's like I don't even have aboyfriend.
How do you expect me to bepregnant?
But anyway, so, yeah, so she's,she can technically get
pregnant at that age.
But like, she is still at thatage where she's still young
enough where most people wouldnot think automatically you're
pregnant.
So there comes a point in whichshe tells her dad like I need to
talk to you about somethingserious.
(51:06):
And her dad's like oh my gosh,are you pregnant?
And she's like no, I'm notpregnant.
And she's like she finds itfunny, and I guess it is funny
like the first time someone asksyou that.
But after that it's just likeno, I'm not Okay, sorry Enough.
(51:26):
Clearly, clearly, like, clearly, so, yeah, so the.
And that's like the first thingher dad asks her.
And I'm just like again, notthat she can't be pregnant at
that age, but like why is thatyour first instinct?
Like I, like if my nieces cameto me at that age and said they
had something serious to tell me, my first thought would not be
they're pregnant.
It just, it just wouldn't be.
If they ended up revealing thatthey're pregnant, then I'd be
very, very shocked.
I'm like, okay, but that wouldnot be my initial thought, but
(51:47):
anyway, just just wanted.
So there's like that aspect.
And then there's, there was likeso at one point abra ends up.
So, as I said, when dan and herdad and john pediatrician are
going to the campground toambush the true, not abra stays
behind at a friend, a friend'shouse, with Billy Freeman just
staying outside to like watchher.
And then she reaches, she getsoverconfident and she's like
(52:08):
everyone's dead, I'm good to gohome.
So she goes home and BillyFreeman's like what the hell,
abra?
And she's like we're good.
And then so obviously she's notgood and she ends up getting
kidnapped at her house.
But anyway.
So there there's also a point inwhich she like, while she's
staying at her friend's house,she's just like oh, I just feel
really sick.
And the mom is like, oh, is itthat time of month, sweetie?
(52:29):
And she's like, yeah, that'swhat that is, I don't know.
It just didn't ring authenticto me.
Mind you, I never felt sickwhen I stayed with my friends,
but I and like I would feelcomfortable enough telling my
friends' moms that if I was likeon my period I'm not feeling
well because of that, but justthe way like the whole
conversation went, I was likethat just doesn't ring true to
(52:51):
me as someone.
That just doesn't ring true tome.
I don't know what it was aboutit, but it just didn't ring true
to me.
So there's just like certainthings that I'm just like and
like.
This is not the first like andlike.
This is not the first like.
This is like a very minoroffense in all of Stephen King's
history.
There are a lot more glaringissues with his writing of
female characters in other books, but it's just something that
(53:13):
stood out to me because it's notthe first time that I've had an
issue with his like thedialogue or the way female
characters are written, butanyway, dialogue or the way
female characters are written,but anyway.
But what I really really reallyliked about the film is I
really liked how Rose the Hatwas defeated and I just like
(53:33):
because in the book Dick and inthe film Dick also tells Dan
like these if these ghosts arehaunting, you just lock them up.
And he locks them up and theyjust live locked up in his head,
but they just stay there.
So I really like that.
In the film, mike Flanagan founda way to bring it back to the
(53:54):
ghosts that are locked up inDan's brain by having him
release them back into theOverlook Hotel and that's how he
defeats Rose, like I thoughtthat was.
I really really really likedthat change and I thought that
was really really good changeand I'm glad he made that change
.
Like I just thought that wasbecause I missed that.
(54:14):
Like I'm kind of sad that inthe book they kind of just stay
locked up and they don't comeback in any shape, way or form.
But in the film film we see himlocking up the characters and
we see the amount of lock boxesin his head just grow longer and
longer and finally he finds away to use them, these ghosts
that have been haunting him.
He finds a way to use them tohelp him conquer the Overlook
(54:36):
Hotel.
So I really really liked thatchange.
But, that being said, I ratedthe film 3.5 stars and I rated
the book four stars.
So the winner is the book.
Yeah, despite my issue with thelast third of the book, I felt
like the book was really, reallystrong and I really liked
(54:58):
meeting all the differentcharacters and seeing Dan team
up with Billy and John and herparents and finding that family
that he thought he had lost oncehis mom died and it's.
And yeah, and as much as I lovethat change I think that's my
favorite change that locked theghosts coming out and killing
Rose.
It just I do have to go withthe book.
(55:19):
So the winner is the book.
Thank you for tuning in to thisepisode of Books vs Movies.
If you liked it, please leaveit a rating and a review and be
sure to follow for to know whenthe next episode comes out.
And I don't know what I'mreviewing next time, but I'm
excited for everything that'sheaded your way, so be sure to
(55:40):
follow to see when thoseepisodes are released and I will
see you next time.
Bye.
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