2025 has offered a lot of tantalizing horror already, with such freaky films as the rom-com slasher Heart Eyes, the ultra-violent Stephen King adaptation The Monkey, and Ryan Coogler’s awe-inspiring vampire thriller Sinners. But the biggest surprise for horror fans this year might be that The Life of Chuck, the upcoming collaboration between horror auteur Mike Flanagan and prolific author Stephen King, which is not really a horror movie at all.
While Flanagan’s previous two King adaptations, Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep, were deeply creepy, The Life of Chuck is an uplifting story of love, joy, and letting go. Based on a King novella, this movie blends genres in three chapters to explore the life of an average guy (Tom Hiddleston) and his profound impact on the world.
Joining Hiddleston in peopling this world is a crackling ensemble cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Annalise Basso, Benjamin Pajak, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Matthew Lillard, Carl Lumbly, Samantha Sloyan, Harvey Guillén, Jacob Tremblay, Kate Siegel, and Mark Hamill.
Early reviews out of the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall were ecstatic. In my review for Mashable, I cheered, “The Life of Chuck is a perfect marriage of Mike Flanagan and Stephen King’s talents, but not in the way you might expect….There are some movies that really deserve to be seen in a big theater, surrounded by people — a community – tied to each other in the heady experience of cinematic art, and The Life of Chuck is one of them. It is glorious.”
But hey, this is still Stephen King we’re talking about. So while The Life of Chuck is more Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me than It or Carrie, it still features some spooky elements. Horror fans might not see this as a horror movie, but they will likely relish in its suspense all the same.
The Life of Chuck opens in theaters June 6.
