An official release date for author Stephen King‘s sequel to the classic 1977 horror novel, The Shining, has been set by Scribner and Hodder & Stoughton.

The last we had heard of the sequel was last September when King read a chapter from it to students at George Mason University. Fittingly enough, King has announced that his follow-up to The Shining will arrive on September 24, 2013.

The sequel, titled Doctor Sleep, is said to follow the little boy from the original, Danny Torrance, into adulthood as he uses his abilities to help the terminally ill to pass on painlessly while working as an orderly at a hospice. Torrance is in for a tad more than that, however, when a pack of psychic vampires shows up looking to feed on the energy of others.

The original book was made into a classic horror film of its own in 1980 that was directed by Stanley Kubrick and starred Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd.

What are your thoughts on a sequel to The Shining and its strange premise?

[Source: Heat Vision]