From “The Haunting of Hill House” to “Midnight Mass,” Mike Flanagan has often woven religious themes throughout his work, whether it’s exploring purgatory through ghosts or interrogating forgiveness through fear.
But in his latest project, “The Life of Chuck,” the 47-year-old director, who grew up in the Catholic Church, Flanagan turns from horror and dread to devotion and hope, focusing on the beauty of a single life, fully lived.
Based on a novella from Stephen King’s 2020 collection If It Bleeds, “The Life of Chuck,” hitting theaters on June 13, is a genre-bending meditation on memory, mortality and meaning.
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Told in reverse, from death to childhood, the film traces the life of Charles Krantz (played at different stages by Tom Hiddleston, Jacob Tremblay and Benjamin Pajak) as the world around him quite literally disappears. There are no monsters, demons or hauntings in the story; only time — and the questions left behind.
“I read it in April 2020, right after the COVID lockdown had begun, when I felt like the world was ending,” Flanagan told The Christian Post. “I was kind of overwhelmed with stress, dread and anxiety, and I started reading the story that felt like that.”
“It felt so close to home that I couldn’t even kind of finish it,” he added. “But by the end, I was amazed that I felt joyful, optimistic, bittersweet and hopeful. And I wanted very much for that movie to exist in the world for my kids, when they inevitably get to a place where they might want something to create that feeling in them, and I may not be here anymore to try to help them through it.”
Flanagan said he didn’t initially set out to leave horror behind, but King’s story “burrowed into my heart so quickly and so deeply” that he had no choice.
“There was never a moment where I said, ‘Oh, I’d like to leave the genre,’” he says. “It was really just that this particular story burrowed into my heart so quickly and so deeply that I very much wanted to be a part of trying to bring it up onto the screen.”
The project earned the seal of approval from King himself, who called the film “wonderful” and praised its star, Tom Hiddleston.
“[Stephen King] has been my hero since I was a kid. [He] is and always has been my favorite author. And I’ve been lucky enough — he’s let me play in his sandbox three times now, and has been happy enough with me to keep letting me come back so far,” Flanagan said, referring to his film adaptations of “Gerald’s Game” and “Doctor Sleep.”
“This one was really important to me, though,” he adds, “because I knew this one was a tough hill to climb, and could have gone either way. But I’m really grateful and overwhelmed that he likes it as much as he does.”
Though not a faith-based film (it’s rated R and does include crass language), “The Life of Chuck” is, according to Flanagan, a “life-affirming film.” It’s not about death, but what remains. The film builds toward a powerful moment in which Chuck, as the world flickers out around him, has one final thought: I love you.
For Flanagan, that scene, adapted directly from King’s novella, became the spiritual center of the film.
“When I contemplate eternity, life, death and everything else, I think about what Stephen King had Marty think for his last thought,” he said. “And the last thought on his mind is, ‘I love you.’”
And what it crystallized for me was: if I could be that fortunate — to live a life where the last thing that crosses my mind is, ‘I love, I’ve been loved’ — that’s the most important thing.”
Flanagan, who often writes about addiction, grief and loss, said “Chuck” gave him overwhelming peace.
“I’ve never felt more joy on set at the monitor watching a movie be made,” he said. “Spiritually, all the rest of this stuff that we get mired into — the stress, the anxiety, the sense of the world rising and falling and beginning and ending — all of these other things, to me, kind of drop away against the imperative mission to just love each other, to allow ourselves to be loved, and to connect with each other.”
“That,” he added, “is the whole thing.”
Alongside Hiddleston and Pajak, the cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay, and Mark Hamill as Chuck’s grandfather. Kate Siegel, Flanagan’s wife and frequent collaborator, also stars.
With “Chuck,” Flanagan said he was excited to create something earnest at a time when so much art leans toward irony or despair. He wants to remind audiences, he said, that life is a valuable, fleeting gift.
“I thought this story was so beautiful that way,” he said. “It was so simple, pure and utterly un-cynical in its messaging. It’s very rare that stories like that exist at all. Even rarer for me to have an opportunity to be part of a story like that.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
