TIME TO SHINE

YOU’D BE FORGIVEN for wondering if Mike Flanagan is some sort of glutton for punishment. A year ago he was unveiling The Haunting Of Hill House, the Netflix show based on Shirley Jackson’s classic 1959 horror novel. That came with obvious daunting challenges – like expanding a very contained story into 10 hours of TV – and a heavy burden of expectation from fans of both the book and Robert Wise’s 1963 film. Tough gig.

But all that pales into insignificance compared to the task he took on next (writing the script while shooting Hill House): adapting Stephen King’s 2013 novel Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining centred on a grown-up Danny Torrance. It’s a job that’s involved not just the usual challenges of bringing a book to the screen, but also meticulously recreating one of cinema’s most iconic spaces, and marrying two fictional universes in a way that keeps both the estate of Stanley Kubrick and the author – who famously loathes Kubrick’s 1980 film – happy. “That tug of war and tightrope act has been a bleeding ulcer for me for two years,” the writer/director tells SFX, with a wry laugh.

King’s book is mostly set 36 years after Jack Torrance, winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, flipped out and tried