Stephen King’s Quiet Sci-Fi Fantasy on Hulu Is the Best Film You Haven’t Watched Yet

When it comes to quality, the combination of Mike Flanagan‘s writing and direction and the foundation of Stephen King stories really is a safe bet, isn’t it? With Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep being solid movies and the looming promise of adaptations of The Mist and The Dark Tower being in the works, Flanagan has become the go-to filmmaker for bringing King’s work to life. There’s no better (or more recent) example of that being the case than last year’s The Life of Chuck.

While it has the branding of King’s name in the credits, it leans more towards The Shawshank Redemption than The Shining when it comes to cinematic equivalencies, forgoing horror and, instead, presenting human drama and feel-good moments. That is, once you get past the fatc that it’s also one of the most somber apocalyptic movies you’ll ever see. To quote Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer, “It’s paradoxical, and yet, it works.”

What Is Stephen King and Mike Flanagan’s ‘The Life of Chuck’ About?

The film is based off of the novella of the same name from Stephen King’s novel If It Bleeds, and it follows the titular Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), as we witness key moments told in reverse chronological order that showcase the heartbreak — but more importantly, the elation and euphoria — that life can bring.

We also follow a teacher named Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) as he manages his way through an exceedingly morose world that’s seemingly heading towards what may be the end times. Those two characters sound like they’re in two entirely different movies, but the bittersweet message to be gleaned from them, combined with the ending, will have you feeling optimistic rather than pessimistic.

‘The Life of Chuck’ Explores Apocalyptic Dread Differently

If there’s a subsection of the apocalyptic genre that explores the looming threat of doomsday, rather than the event itself, The Life of Chuck would get a gold star sticker, because it tackles the feeling of dread from a far different angle than movies would usually go. Rather than a place of chaos and anarchy, the movie tackles it in a far more bleak and melancholic way. The story takes place in a small suburban town (probably somewhere in Maine) and is seen through the eyes of Marty and his ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan). Both are bearing witness to the ravenous elements that are afflicting the world, such as catastrophes, natural disasters, and the steady loss of everything that people have become accustomed to. Things like the internet have begun to fall into entropy, and it’s happened rapidly within the last 14 months. Everything progressively gets worse and the cause of it seems to be beyond anyone’s control or understanding.

It’s incredibly bleak, with the people in town forgoing any attempt at looting or rioting and instead coming to grips that everything is falling apart, and they’re powerless to stop it. As it’s said by Marty’s neighbor Gus (played by the walking embodiment of warm hugs himself, Matthew Lillard), “We’re going through the five stages of grief. Don’t you get it? I mean, we just landed on the final stage: acceptance.” People stop going to work or school since they all see the futility in it, and that’s where the underlying, and almost monotonous, horror comes from — them knowing they’re all going to die and then having to wait for it to happen. As it’s said in the movie, it’s the waiting that’s the hardest part, and it leads to the chapter’s final moments, which is one of the most haunting things ever put in any Flanagan or King project.

‘The Life of Chuck’ Is the Most Unusual Stephen King Project

Image via USA Today

You wouldn’t think that a movie that spends so much time on the fall of civilized society would also make you feel warm inside, but The Life of Chuck is an anomaly. It helps that it’s narrated by Nick Offerman, who adds a degree of warmth and enchantment to the way he describes the world of the film. Not to mention that Flanagan’s flowery dialogue blends seamlessly here to create wholesome set pieces and character moments, like Miss Richard’s (Kate Siegel) deconstruction of Walt Whitman‘s “Song of Myself” or Albie (Mark Hamill) talking about the purity and artistry of math. In the hands of another filmmaker, these could feel so trite and forced, and the same could be said for the dance sequence between Chuck and Janice (Annalise Basso). However, everything feels true to the characters, and gives the movie a sense of positivity and wholesomeness.

That’s the word that really separates The Life of Chuck from other Stephen King stories: Wholesomeness. While a lot of his stories have an air of cynicism about the nature of people, this one isn’t afraid to be unabashed about the goodness they’re capable of too. Unlike other Stephen King works, there’s no malicious force or a character you despise. The threat of the story is the inevitability and unexpected nature of death, but that leads back to the endearing message of the film, which is to embrace that uncertainty and live life to the fullest with what time you have. That’s not what you’d expect from the author who’s known for putting Lovecraftian bugs and clown spider aliens in his stories, but that’s what helps it stand above the rest.