20 Horror Movies So Good You Overlook Huge Flaws

All great horror flicks should be scary, right? Well, not necessarily, and Doctor Sleep, Mike Flanagan's decades-later sequel to The Shining, reaffirms this.

Despite following up one of the scariest movies of all time, Doctor Sleep just isn't frightening at all. There are some thoroughly disturbing moments, including a particular scene involving the death of a child (played by Jacob Tremblay) that apparently reduced many crew members to tears, but in terms of actual scares, there's hardly anything at all. And you know what? It doesn't really matter. 

Doctor Sleep works beautifully as a character-driven supernatural drama in which the adult Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor), now a recovering alcoholic just like his late father, tries to use his supernatural abilities for good and overcome his childhood trauma. The lack of scares might be distracting at first, but Mike Flanagan's brilliant visuals and screenplay, as well as the terrific performances from the entire cast, ensure that this questionable absence is quickly forgotten. 

As such, Doctor Sleep joins the club also occupied by works such as Carrie, Get Out, Dawn of the Dead, The Wicker Man, Saw, It (2017), and more: it's a kickass horror movie that isn't actually scary, at least not in the traditional sense of the word.