SHOULD THE OVERLOOK HOTEL EXIST WITHIN THE MOVIE VERSION OF DOCTOR SLEEP?
The answer is both yes and no. I will explain exactly what I mean by this, and what I feel was a truly missed opportunity. First, however, for those who may not be fully aware of all iterations of the stories, some back story is necessary. There will be spoilers, so beware.
If you have never read the novel of The Shining, seen Stephen King’s miniseries of the same name, or heard any of the countless discussions surrounding the book versus the film over the years, then you should know that at the end of the novel, the Overlook Hotel gets blown up by a faulty boiler. Although the characters do travel to the location in the novel Doctor Sleep, the hotel does not therefore exist.
This was one of my few disappointments when reading the novel: not that the hotel does not exist, I already knew this, but that the location it’s self seemed to lack anything of a special nature. I could understand in theory how the power that would still exist within the location would attract Rose the Hat, but I did not get any sense of this power, this presence, in the novel. It just appeared to be an old run down camp site with a club house that few people, other than the True Knot, seemed to even frequent any more. And yes, in the novel it is Rose who retreats to the location of the old Overlook Hotel and lures Abra (and thus Dan Torrance as well) to the location, rather than Dan and Abra luring Rose there as depicted in the movie.
When I first heard that the Overlook Hotel was going to exist within the film, I was deeply disappointed. While I both understand, and applaud, the desire to connect to the Kubrick film, the idea of the Overlook Hotel existing in an adaptation of the novel in which the hotel does not exist just feels wrong down to the deepest levels of my gut — even though King himself may have approved this.
Here is what I think should have happened instead, and what I think is the greatest missed opportunity of this film: The Hotel should not exist as a physical structure within the movie. And no, before you say anything, I do not believe that it should have existed just as a mental construction created out of the Shining. I believe that this hotel, which was the home of so many ghosts, should have become a ghost its self. All of the scenes that played out in the hotel in the movie could still have existed as they do, except for it getting blown up by the boiler at the end. Abra and Dan would have had to join forces to blow it up with the Shining instead. All they would have had to change is to provide an establishing shot of the hotel not existing when Dan and Abra first arrived. Here is how the scene plays out in my mind:
The headlights of the vehicle illuminate the ruins of the Overlook Hotel, half buried in snow, as the vehicle pulls into what remains of the old parking lot, and stops. The headlights turn off, throwing the ruins back into impenetrable darkness. In the vehicle, Abra asks Dan about the ruins and the two face each other as Dan shares his memories of the explosion with her. We see the memories. As we see the two of them facing each other, a bright light suddenly lights up their faces. The two slowly turn to look in the direction of the ruins and we cut to a wide shot of the vehicle, with its brake lights lit up, sitting in the pristine parking lot in front of the Overlook Hotel, all lit up and in it’s full former glory.
The Ghost of the Overlook Hotel has been activated by the presence of both Dan’s and Abra’s Shining abilities. The ghost hotel remains just a shell, however, as its residents still remain locked up in Dan’s head. The only difference is that the hotel is vibrant both inside and out, rather than being dilapidated.
In this manner, the film could have remained faithful to the novel (at least as far as the hotel not existing is concerned) while still servicing the Kubrick film.
Do you believe that the Overlook Hotel should have existed physically in the movie? What do you think of my solution? Let me know.
