'Doctor Sleep' Footage Offers An Early Look At The Sequel To 'The Shining' [CinemaCon 2019]

Doctor Sleep is an odd book, but it could be an even odder movie. Stephen King's sequel to The Shining catches up with a grown-up Danny Torrance decades later as he finds himself embroiled in a battle with psychic vampires. It's not what you'd expect and it leans heavily on the original Shining novel, which is very different from Stanley Kubrick's iconic film adaptation.

So what is director Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) going to do with this material? /Film's Peter Sciretta and Ben Pearson were on hand when the first footage played to the audience at CinemaCon and what they saw certainly seems intriguing.

We got a glimpse behind the scenes, with Ewan McGregor (sporting a beard as the grown-up Danny) explaining that the film directly addresses his character's traumatic stay at the Overlook Hotel. Specifically: "How does he deal with that terrible experience from his childhood?" Naturally, the presentation also noted that Stephen King is very involved in the production.

The sneak peek itself featured snippets of intriguing footage. A car driving through the woods in the beginning was clearly reminiscent of the opening sequence from The Shining. A group of people gathered around a campfire – possibly the villains of the film, a nomadic group of people with powerful psychic abilities who prey on those who can "shine." We also see Danny touch hands with a young girl (possibly Abra Stone, a psychic kid played by Kyliegh Curran). Then there's a shot of a woman walking with a needle hidden behind her back. Could this be Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), the main villain of the film?

Finally, the kicker: Danny stands in a filthy bathroom and "redrum" is scratched into the mirror.

We're not sure when the full trailer will arrive, but this is certainly more than enough to have our attention. Doctor Sleep opens on November 8, 2019.