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Flanagan preys on the audience’s nostalgia and our desperate search for something heartwarming, wherever we can find it.

In the first act of Flanagan’s movie — that’s Act 3 for those who need to be reminded that “Life of Chuck” is not your average narrative feature, okay! — the world is ending.

While Flanagan understands humanity’s penchant for complacency in the face of chaos, his script does little to elucidate the reasons people turn a blind eye to their fellow humans’ suffering, much less pose any solutions.

The film’s marketing, which insists this is from “the hearts and souls of Mike Flanagan and Stephen King,” would certainly like you to think so.

Flanagan traces Chuck’s life backward in time, letting us watch as the joy slips away, favored for an existence that prioritizes things that are practical and safe.