Book Versus Movie: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

It has been a while since I have done one of these so here goes…

For Christmas I received the movie and book of Doctor Sleep my usual rule is read the book then watch the film, however due to the dire lack of anything worth watching on the TV hubby insisted we see the film. This was a new experience for me and I am not sure how it has influenced my feelings.

Firstly if you have only seen the Stanley Kubrik version of The Shining prepare to be confused as the book continues from the book not the film. (honestly what were you expecting) The film meanwhile will not confuse you so much.

Seeing the film first meant I already had the characters in my head and this was not a bad thing despite not all of them matching King’s descriptions. For me personally Rose the Hat is spot on King describes her as being incredibly beautiful and honestly I could gaze at Rebecca Ferguson with her hat all day long.

The film (as you would expect) simplifies the story which is a good call for the medium as I am not sure how some of the scenes could have been translated to film. Some of the characters are also morphed into 1 character instead of the multiple characters from the book. Other than this and the ending the film follows the book in broad strokes.

While the book gives you a more detailed look at the makeup and background of the True Knot I actually prefer how the film handles them and their ultimate fate. To put it simply the film makes more sense than the book given how long the Knot has existed.

This is very difficult to write without spoilers but I would also say the film also ended in a more timely manner the book went on past the point where everything had naturally concluded.

Overall I really enjoyed both book and movie however much as I hate to say this in this case the movie wins. That said I would recommend reading and watching The Shining and the reading and watching Doctor Sleep. If nothing else this will provide a fun way to fill a few hours. In case you haven’t guessed I now plan to read and watch The Shining both movie versions so watch out for the next book versus movie.

Have you read/watched this? What did you think?