Stephen King praises 'life-affirming' The Life Of Chuck movie

Stephen King hasn’t always had nice things to say about adaptations of his work. He famously hated The Shining. But the latest movie based on his writing has been given a King thumbs-up.

The Life of Chuck just had its debut screening, and has drawn kind comments from the legendary author.

“This is one of the good ones,” King wrote on X. “It's sad, has a touch of the paranormal, but it's also joyful and life-affirming. Maybe not what you'd expect from me, but there ya go.”

THE LIFE OF CHUCK bows tomorrow evening at the Toronto Film Festival. This is one of the good ones. It's sad, has a touch of the paranormal, but it's also joyful and life-affirming. Maybe not what you'd expect from me, but there ya go.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) September 5, 2024

The Life of Chuck is directed by Mike Flanagan, who also directed Doctor Sleep, an adaptation of the prequel to The Shining. He’s picked up a lot of attention in recent years for his horror-themed TV series, though, including The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher.

This movie is a little different. It’s not a pure horror story, despite being written by Stephen King.

The world is falling apart in The Life of Chuck, and Charles Krantz is dying. But in three parts, three acts, we get to look through his life, reaching further into the past as the story progresses. It’s based on a 120-page story that was part of King’s If It Bleeds collection of novellas from 2020.

Tom Hiddlestone stars as Charles Krantz, while Jacob Tremblay plays the character in his early years. Other notable cast members include Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Matthew Lilllard and frequent Mike Flanagan collaborator Rahul Kohli.

It’s packed with names, and was shown at TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival.

When will we get to see it? That part is not clear yet. Despite being finished, reviewed and shown in a cinema, at the time of writing the film has not secured distribution deals.

This isn’t an uncommon situation for a film to find itself in, and we hope to hear of where the film will end up shortly.

Did critics like The Life of Chuck as much as King? The film has had a mixed response so far.

There are folks who buy into the more earnest, contemplative style of the movie. And those who find its attempt to be overtly meaningful just that bit too schmaltzy for comfort.

IGN’s unenthused 5/10 review calls The Life of Chuck “a hokey metaphysical fable about life, death, the end of the world, and dancing like nobody’s watching,” that the story sees “Stephen King at at his most metaphysically soggy.”

At the other end of the scale, TheWrap describes the film as “not only his best film yet, but it’s the work he’s been building up to over his entire career.” That’s referring to Flanagan’s career, not King’s.

We'll be keeping an eye out for news of The Life of Chuck coming to cinemas or streaming, which we expect to hear about soon.

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