Ty Watches "Doctor Sleep" and Laments the Demise of Original Stories

On our quarantine date night this week my wife picked "Doctor Sleep" for us to watch. For those that may not know what this movie is, it is pretty much a sequel to "The Shining''. "The Shining'', in my opinion, is the scariest movie ever made. It still freaks me out. I can remember seeing it for the first time so vividly and how much it scared me back then. I have not watched it in my adult life because of how scared of it I truly am. So I was nervous watching "Doctor Sleep". But it was my wife’s turn, we made a rule where we cannot veto the other's choice and so we watched.

“Doctor Sleep” was a solid movie. I was scared. Not as scared as when I saw "The Shining", but there were moments when I jumped on the couch. I appreciated the story, how they developed it and the few tweaks they made. I liked how they went about saving the world that was created and how they showed a grown up Danny. The young lady that played Abra was really excellent, and the bad guys were as creepy as ever. And when they went back to the original hotel in the final scene, that was very cool. But I do not necessarily know that a movie like this needed to be made. Again, I thought it was good, but I think it was unnecessary.

I have been saying for a while now how there are not any really original ideas when it comes to the movie business lately. The studios are doing multiple sequels, giving franchises to almost anything, remakes are everywhere and "sequels" to classic movies are all the rage. That is why I get excited when I see a movie like "Sorry to Bother You" or watch a special like "Inside" or see a movie like "Uncut Gems". These are new ideas. These are fresh. These movies stay with you and make you think. "Sorry to Bother You" is one of the biggest mind f's I have ever watched, and I love that movie because of that reason. So I do not know that we really needed a "sequel" to such a classic horror movie. "The Shining" is right up there with "Night of the Living Dead" or "Misery" or "Carrie". These are the classics people think of when they think of horror movies. The biggest bummer, now that we have "Doctor Sleep", is that all of the movies I just mentioned have far inferior companion pieces to the original. I know they did a "Carrie" remake with Chloe Grace-Moretz that wasn't as good as the original. They've tried to do "Night of the Living Dead" a bunch of different ways but none have even come close to the greatness of the original. And now we have "Doctor Sleep". No one was going to be able to live up to what Jack Nicholson did in "The Shining". That was one of the best performances of all time. I know Stephen King may not be a fan, but most everyone else agrees that Nicholson crushed. Shelly Duval was excellent as well, even though she went crazy after making this movie. This may be Kubrick's best work as a director. I like "A Clockwork Orange" more, but his direction of "The Shining" is amazing. I think what makes a movie like "The Shining" so great is the performances. It is who you remember. And I know that the young kid that plays Danny in the original has a very big part, but I did not recall much from him other than the redrum scene and the scene where he is riding his tricycle through the hotel. "The Shining" was all about Duval and Nicholson. They were the stars. Their stories were what the audience cared about most. When they got to the hotel in "Doctor Sleep" my wife sat up and said, "this is what I have been waiting for". When the scene was over I asked what she thought, and she shrugged. I asked why she wasn't as excited and she said that it wasn't as good as what happens in "The Shining".

I do not want it to sound like I am dumping on "Doctor Sleep". I have said multiple times that I thought it was good. It is a solid B- movie. I think my biggest problem is just the lack of original ideas. I get the want from some people. I understand that some people want to see remakes or sequels to classic movies. I don't. Classic movies are classic for a reason. There doesn't need to be ten different versions of the same story. If you tell it right once, then you may only need a second if it is like "The Godfather Part 2"or "The Raid 2". Most movies do not need sequels or remakes. That is my thoughts on this whole new era of remakes or sequels. One classic movie is more than enough. Go watch the original movies and ignore the remakes and sequels.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty says Boo-Urns to Halloween

AHHHHHHH

Today is Halloween eve.

I don't care for Halloween as I mentioned in my blog yesterday. Today, I'm going to give specific reasons why I dislike this "holiday" but, I'm also going to tell you things that I do enjoy about this time of year.

Let's get to the annoying stuff. First of all, adults dressing up in costumes. This is fine if you have kids and you dress as a family, I get that. For example, my three year old is going as the Hulk this year, so my wife is going as Catwoman, she's wearing kitty ears and will have a bit of face makeup, our three week old is going as a mini Catwoman, she has a sleeper with cats on it, and I'm going as the Punisher, I'm wearing a Punisher t shirt. This is fine in my opinion because, this holiday is for kids, and more specifically, toddlers. Toddlers like dressing up, going house to house showing off their costumes and getting candy. That's what Halloween should be about and parents dressing up with their kids is totally acceptable. The problem I have is the people in their mid 20's and early 30's, kid free, using Halloween as an excuse to dress slutty, offensive or down right stupid. I'm sick of young kids dressing like "sexy kitty cats", or "nurses". Look at the movie "Mean Girls", and you'll know what I'm talking about. These teens use Halloween as an excuse to dress inappropriate. Or, take Julianne Hough last year thinking it was okay to dress in black face because she went as Crazy Eyes from "Orange is the New Black". That's so wrong and extremely offensive on so many levels. Don't use Halloween as your excuse for being a racist Ms.Hough. And guys with their dumbass " God's gift to women" costumes or their "sexy firefighter" bull shit, give it a rest. You're all a bunch of douchebag wannabe frat boys and you make me sick. Halloween is for kids and candy, not for dumbass Millenials that need another excuse to get drunk and act like morons. Grow up.

I also am completely fed up with the stupid Halloween puns. If I have to hear one more time about"spooktacular" savings or "prices so low they'll frighten you", I'm going to destroy my television. I don't understand the marketing for this. Do they want me to be afraid that I'm going to save money? I thought that was a good thing. I've also been watching a lot of Food Network with my wife who's on maternity leave. They have a show called "Chopped" and instead of sticking with this name, which is a pretty good name for a cooking show, they've been calling it "Choppedtober". That doesn't make any sense. Why add tober because it's October? Why don't they call it "Choppedgust" in August or "Choppedcember" in December? Why does October and Halloween only get this treatment? It's totally baffling and pretty god damn stupid.

I also don't enjoy being frightened and I hate scary movies. I've been to one haunted house in my entire life and I had to remove myself from the situation almost immediately because a worker dressed as a clown scared me so much, I thought I was going to have a panic attack. I'm terrified of clowns and during Halloween, people dressed as clowns, especially creepy clowns, scare me more than anything I've ever encountered in my life. I don't like that people prey on other people that are scared of certain things by dressing in a costume as someone's fear. That's the worst thing about haunted houses. They're designed to startle you, and who really likes being startled? It doesn't feel good. And scary movies, no thank you. This is pretty much the same thing as haunted houses. I know that they're fake, but it doesn't change the fact that they scare me. I saw the "Shining" once, at a sleep over when I was a teenager and that movie still haunts me to this day. My wife suggested we watch it during the day on Halloween and I immediately said no. There's no way I'm going to watch that movie because I know the consequences that will come afterward. I'd much rather watch something like "Cabin in the Woods" or "Evil Dead". Sure, those movies are scary, but they're also campy and hilarious. I don't like straight up horror movies. Never have and I never will.

Now there are some good things about this time of year. First of all, the candy. My god it's everywhere, and 90 percent of it is delicious. Give me a Reese's pumpkin or any kind of chocolate treat and I'm happy as a clam. I love all candy this time of year except for the most foul, grossest shit ever created, candy corn. I also really like pumpkin seeds and I love pumpkin pie. Those are two great things that come out this time of year. My wife loves the pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks and that's only available through November. I love the season. Leaves are falling, there's a nip in the air and it's a good time to be out doors. We get a new "Treehouse of Horror" this time of year, as I explained yesterday. We also get to turn back the clocks one hour, gain that extra sleep, and have shorter, colder days. I like this.

There's a lot of bad, but there's also some good. I may hate Halloween, but at least Thanksgiving, Christmas, cold weather and family gatherings are right around the corner. As a lady on a recent "Chopped" said, "my favorite part about Halloween is November 1st". I whole heartedly agree with her and I love this sentiment. Only two more days until this dumb "holiday" is over.

We've almost made it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His fear of clowns was reinforced by a bean bag toss board painted like a clown and a faulty laser tag gun. Ask him all about by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.