#i could go on about dan and abra too but i'm so tired i gotta go to bed

[quicksiluers]

seeing doctor sleep a 3rd time and listening to the audiobook throughout the day really got my mind working and i know i feel like lingering around the ending but it just left me with thoughts! (spookyyy spoilers hahah)

what i think mike flanagan did so well in this movie is tying everything together. the shining book, the movie (even bits of the mini-series!) and the doctor sleep novel. one of the things that stands out about the movie is that it’s not like most sequels where....it’s essentially the same movie again. you know the ones. 

it’s such a hard task because there are crucial things that were left out of the 1980 movie. i think the biggest is obviously the relationship danny has with his father. i haven’t finished the doctor sleep audiobook yet but i know at the end that jack is there. and he’s there i believe to help danny. 

where, as in the movie...jack can’t do that. not that he can’t, but the movie also acts as a sequel to the shining movie of course. so he can’t be that loving father...he’s cold. aggressive. and i love that they brought in the bit of danny having to “take his medicine” a great callback to the book. and i adore this scene, their back and forth. ewan does such a great job because it hits home for dan that...his father is truly gone, in a sense. just another figure of the hotel.

anyway, all the rambling has got me to this point at the end. when dan is taken over by the ghosts/the overlook itself. when i see that sequence, it shows how different dan is from his father. his movie father at least. dan, to me, is only taken over by the hotel when he’s weak. rose has taken away his shine (at least a few good chunks?) and he has a major leg wound. in that weakened state, he’s unable to put them back in their boxes (which was what he intended to do and i love that shot where they boxes creak and you can tell this dread come over dan when he realizes he can’t put them back). but dan, even possed by the hotel, does what his father couldn’t. he’s able to tell abra to run (abra being able to bring dan back for that small moment, brb while i cry?). he saves her in that sense and also in the fact he took control back when he went to the boiler room. if that hadn’t had happened, he may well still be chasing abra. but he’s able to gain that control back. 

he didn’t die like his father did (again, movie jack). jack died alone, frozen to death. stuck to suffer/haunt the overlook for god knows how long. danny dies in a fire (explosion), his mother there to comfort him. knowing that he was able to keep abra safe and take down the hotel. and he could still communicate with abra, he could linger. be with her when she needs him, like dick was for him. 

my point here is....love that boy dan torrance, and i just really love the movie and am really enjoying the audiobook. it’s interesting to see the differences and appreciate them both.