‘Life of Chuck’: New Stephen King Movie Is Surprisingly Heartwarming
TORONTO, Canada—Mike Flanagan has made his name in the horror genre, and yet like his greatest spiritual inspiration Stephen King—whose work he’s brought to the screen with Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep—he’s first and foremost a dramatist with an abiding interest in the things that make us tick, bring us together, and haunt us both in the bright morning and the dark of night.
Thus, though The Life of Chuck is an intensely faithful adaptation of a King novella (from 2020’s If It Bleeds), it’s a film that’s as sweet as it is scary, and whose frights are the sort that come from all-too-relatable fears about being alone, being apart, and being unable to hold onto the people and memories that matter most.
Split into three acts that proceed in reverse chronological order, The Life of Chuck—which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival—is a story about finding the beat, the path, the rhythm, and the magic of life, and if that sounds hokey, well, it is, at least as often as it is moving.