20 Horror Films Where Humans Are The Real Monsters

16. Doctor Sleep (2019)

Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep may not be everyone’s favourite Stephen King adaptation, but it’s about as good a sequel to The Shining as we were ever going to get, and manages to translate King’s middling novel into something generally worthwhile.

We find “Dan” Torrance (Ewan McGregor) grown up and alcoholic, still living with the trauma of his stay at the Overlook Hotel, but now using his shining to comfort dying patients in a hospice, where they call him Doctor Sleep. Meanwhile, Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) leads the True Knot, a band of misfits with the ability to magically consume the essence, or “steam”, released by torturing and slaying those with psychic abilities.

Being a Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep couldn’t help but return us to the Overlook and release the spirits of the first film from Dan’s psychic lockboxes. But though they are literal monsters, they are not the true monsters of the film.

No, because while the spirits of the Overlook are an evil presence operating on base instinct, Rose is a human who makes the choice, time and again, to prey on the vulnerable to feed her own need and desire for immortality. Including – repeatedly and viciously – young, innocent, terrified children.