The Life of Chuck (2024)

Mike Flanagan continues his successful collaborative effort with Stephen King in this spellbinding esoteric mystery revolving around a dude named Chuck.

Truth be told, the less said the better. Go into it blind as I did. It had a profound effect on me, even as I discovered how it all pieced together early in Act III.

This one won't be for the Materialists.

Proves that there are still great King adaptations to come.

4½ multitudes out of 5

V/H/S/Beyond (2024)

The 7th installment in the found footage franchise is actually an improvement on what's come before. While anthology films can often be hit or miss, this one manages to remain somewhat consistent. The highlights here are "Live or Let Dive" (Justin Martinez) and "Fur Babies" (written and directed by Justin Long). The only segment where I started losing interest was the last one ("Stowaway), which I was disappointed to learn was scripted by Mike Flanagan. Overall, it's well made and above average for this type of content, despite the fact that some segments go on a bit too long. However, it's good for a momentary diversion if you're a fan of this series, even if it can't quite reach the heights of the first two entries.

Although I'm not sure why they call these V/H/S anymore. They skipped right past DVD and went straight to streaming.

3 taxidermied dogs out of 5

Gerald's Game (2017)

Gerald's plan to get his wife to their remote lake house for a sexy weekend goes terribly awry. Based on a 1992 Stephen King novel of the same name, it's a scenario that might not sound too terrifying on paper, but for one of the couple it's a horrifying experience that won't ever be forgotten.
The novel doesn't exactly lend itself to the film format, but Dir. Mike Flanagan makes it work, pushing the psychologically strained threads of the tale into dark corners, reversals and POV angles that give the mostly static situation a unique feeling of movement and life. The believability of the story rests largely on the performance, and neither Carla Gugino nor Bruce Greenwood shirk on that aspect. The novel's most terrifying moment is the film's also. And for King aficionados there are references to at least three of his other works.

3½ wrist marks out of 5

OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL [2016]

30 years after Transformers: The Movie, Hasbro finally produces a film that doesn't suck...and it's the prequel to one of the worst movies of 2014.
Director Mike Flanagan's Ouija: Origin of Evil follows a widowed mother & her two daughters who struggle to make ends meet as hosts of phony séances.  It's when the youngest daughter starts getting Aidan Keller creepy that they realize they have actually summoned something with a bit of a grudge.
Like The Conjuring series, Flanagan has a knack for..ahem...conjuring up some pretty creepsome period horror films, dated title cards, reel change signal dots and olde tyme framing & camera trickery.  The build-up is exquisitely timed with some nice jump scares and a surprisingly fleshed-out dramatic pull.  There's absolutely nothing here you haven't seen before but Flanagan does it all with such finesse it really doesn't matter until the watered down finale...but I've almost come to accept there's very few horror films that have a satisfactory conclusion.

3½ vivid descriptions of strangulation out of 5

BEFORE I WAKE [2016]

If you're expecting a shit-your-pants fright-fest from Mike Flanagan's Before I Wake then you're in for severe disappointment.  However if it's a tragic supernatural lullaby you're looking for then you've come to the right place.
It's a slow-burning story of a young couple, still grieving over the loss of their son, that adopts a troubled young boy who's dreams and nightmares physically manifest while he sleeps.
It's a pretty ambitious attempt to take the usual "haunted kid" story and twist it around but unfortunately it falls a bit flat.  It's biggest mistake is casting Kate Bosworth in the leading role as she doesn't seem to have the ability to bring anything remotely interesting or anything worth emotionally investing in, while Thomas Jane and Jacob Tremblay give believable organic performances.  There's a few frightening scenes to please fans of Flanagan's previous films but here he focuses tragedy and heart and that's where it nearly succeeds if not for the blundering Bosworth.

3 butterflies out of 5

HUSH [2016]

Director Mike Flanagan reformats Wait Until Dark for the modern generation with the delightfully tightly woven home invasion thriller Hush.
Instead of a blind Audrey Hepburn, we have Flanagan's wife (and co-writer), Kate Siegel, playing a deaf woman using her handicap to fend off a crossbow wielding psychotic who's taking a fancy to hunting her from outside of her tiny woodland house.
With the main character being deaf it makes for an interesting watch due to minimal dialogue and a delicate nerve-shattering attention to sound design.  Another admiral element to the story is instead of trying to build tension with the whole "where's the killer?" trope, we're treated to an intensely intimate game of cat & mouse through the mind of an established author.  Flanagan's concise pacing and the duo performances keep the film going when it becomes to "slashery" and when it's not it's a deliciously vicious little gem.

3½ B I T C H-y cats out of 5

OCULUS [2013]

Director Mike Flanagan expands his spooky short film, Oculus, into a highly effective feature length.
It follows a young woman trying to prove that a filthy old mirror is the reason for the tragic deaths in her family many years earlier.
We're blessed with a devilishly paced script that  unfolds with perfection as the horror creeps deeper and deeper into our psyche.  Sure there's quite a few jump scares, but much like Flanagan's Absentia, the uber-creepy atmosphere and beautifully executed build-ups justify them.  It's well fleshed-out characters, remarkable camerawork & direction, eerie lighting and confident cast help make it one of better scary movies of the year.  Even if it does deflate in it's final moments with a disappointing and predicable conclusion, I can easily say the journey is well-worth the time.

3½ flavorful lightbulbs out of 5

ABSENTIA [2011]

Writer/director Mike Flanagan's spooky low-budget thriller Absentia never would have happened without the success of a Kickstarter campaign.  

Flanagan does a great job at naturally revealing the main characters of the sisters and their troubled pasts.  With it's tight budget, the film could have easily crumbled but the strong writing and performances from Katie Parker & Courtney Bell hold it all together quite gracefully.  It made me think of a setting just on the edge of a David Lynch world with traces of a Guillermo Del Toro ghost story (me thinks the small role by Doug Jones isn't a coincidence). It's not necessarily scary but provides enough startling scenes and creepy atmosphere to fully absorb my attention, considering it had little to work with.

3 tunnels out of 5