Stephen King’s The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep slapped with R-rating

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and GERALD'S GAME director Mike Flanagan's upcoming adaptation of DOCTOR SLEEP – Stephen King's sequel to THE SHINING –  is coming this November. And today we hear the movie has been slapped with an R-rating via the MPAA for "disturbing and violent content, some bloody images, language, nudity and drug use." 

Sounds about right to me considering these are about the same reasons I'd say Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING was handed an R-rating when it first split the big screen in half with an axe way back in the summer of 1980. Bring it on!

DOCTOR SLEEP has the following synopsis: 

Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the “shine.” Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality.

Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abra’s innocence and fearless embrace of her shine compel Dan to call upon his own powers as never before — at once facing his fears and reawakening the ghosts of the past.

The much-anticipated flick also stars Kyleigh Curran as Abra Stone, Carl Lumbly as Dick Halloran, Alex Essoe as Wendy Torrance, Bruce Greenwood as Danny's friend Dr. John Dalton, Rebecca Ferguson as cult leader Rose the Hat, Zahn McClarnon as her right-hand man Crow Daddy, and Jocelin Donahue in an unspecified role. Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Stephen King's DOCTOR SLEEP shines into theaters on November 8, 2019.