'The Life of Chuck' might leave you brushing away tears -- or scratching your head
Justin Chang
June 06, 2025 / 8:00 am
The writer and director Mike Flanagan has become a well-regarded name in modern horror, known for his TV versions of The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher . He's also made a couple of Stephen King adaptations, including the films Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep , and he's currently working on a new series version of Carrie .
Flanagan's latest movie, The Life of Chuck , is both a continuation of this trend and a bit of a departure from it: It's based on a 2020 King novella that draws on horror conventions without quite becoming a full-blown horror story. King's work can be unabashedly sentimental as well as genuinely scary