‘Doctor Sleep' Director Teases 3-Hour Director's Cut We Didn't Even Need in the First Place

The intimidating challenge for a sequel was given to writer-director Mike Flanagan (“Hush”), who was unafraid to open “Doctor Sleep” with flashbacks of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” and little Danny Torrance spinning his big wheel tricycle all around the hallways of the infamous Overlook Hotel. Referencing specific sets and shots, the film had Flanagan taking his time (the film clocked in at an overwrought 152 minutes) to set up all the action and characters he needed to make his opus. The result, however, was disjointed and lacking in momentum. It just fell flat.

And so, did we really need a 3-hour director’s cut, which Flanagan is now hinting at a possible Blu-Ray release of? Of course not. The film’s 152-minute runtime was already more than a half an hour too long. The whole film felt laborious, directionless and had none of the intrigue that Kubrick had brought to his 1980 horror classic.

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The over-reliance on borrowed inspiration was a problem for the film. Ditto Flanagan deciding to mimic Kubrick’s style—even reshooting scenes from the original film with lookalike actors—in misguided continuous attempts to remind his audience that what they are watching is a sequel to the “The Shining.”

As I wrote in my review on 11.07.19:

In the end, the shallow “Doctor Sleep” ends up believing it is deeper than it actually is. A more persistently firm creative vision would have helped it enormously, but the inconsistent tone renders it devoid of shine.

Does this sound like the type of movie that needed a lengthier cut?

And yet, in a new statement (via Collider), Flanagan is praising Warner Bros. for allowing him to make this new 3-hour cut of the film:

“They really let us do this right – it’s a finished, complete, fully polished new cut of the movie. Nothing in it is temp,” said Flanagan.

He added, “We shot a LOT of material for this movie, and I always knew it wouldn’t all fit. I was reticent to call this a ‘Director’s Cut’ at first, as I absolutely love and stand by the cut I made for our theatrical release. But there was stuff I actively decided to remove from that cut that I missed, and that I would think about even weeks after the fact.”

The“Doctor Sleep” Director’s Cut will accompany the regular release of the film on digital in January and will later be available on 4K & Blu-ray in February.