The Life Of Chuck

Mike Flanagan is fascinated by the blending of stories of the living and the dead. Not surprising when you were born in Salem, Massachusetts, which is surrounded in the lore of witch trials in the late 17th century. He is known for his horror shows The Haunting of Hill House (2018), The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), Midnight Mass (2021), The Midnight Club (2022), and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), which I've all gleefully watched.

Life Of Chuck is a beautiful, melancholic look about life and death. The take-away for me was that we are all going to die at some point, so there's no point waiting for that day to come. Even if you knew the exact date, your days should still be wonderful. That's very poetic, and for some viewers, that may be too sappy. But for me, the elegy was poignant about the fragility of life. OOF.

The mind-bending tale follows the life of Charles Krantz, starting with his final days in a hospital bed surrounded by natural disasters, collapsing infrastructure, and mass panic, followed by different times in his life. The reverse chronological order is used to examine a few world-building moments that defined Chuck for who he was. It's an adapted story from a Stephen King novella of the same name.

I love Mike Flanagan's movies and shows, and this one felt like two jigsaw pieces fitting perfectly together. King's ability to describe pure joy rivals his ability to terrify us, and Flanagan's ability to evoke sentimental feelings when terror is nearby.

I adored this poetic look at the comforting hallucinations that can occur before death. It reminded me of the show, 'Dying For Sex', which touches on the 'The Rally' and the final seconds before terminally ill people pass on. In Life of Chuck, the interpretation of this ultimate hallucination is sad and comforting. The film acknowledges the inevitability of death but doesn't wallow in dread. Instead, it argues for joy and wonder in every day things, and the completative exercise was a breath of fresh air for me.

It's a lovely mashup of vivid memories and external stimuli coming together for the final experience. Wow.