This post contains spoilers for “A House of Dynamite.”
Stephen King isn’t just a prolific author, he’s a prolific social media reviewer who never hesitates to share his terse takes on the latest releases. King’s two-sentence “Black Phone 2” review was more than enough to get horror fans excited, and throughout 2024 he provided a steady supply of TV show recommendations that included several overlooked gems. Now, the master of horror himself has gotten all scared after having watched Netflix thriller “A House of Dynamite.”
The author delivered his verdict on the Katherine Bigelow-directed film via Bluesky, where he revealed that he’d found it “terrifying, especially given the unprincipled, waffling nitwit in the White House.” That seems to be a fairly widespread opinion on “A House of Dynamite,” which similarly gave /Film’s Chris Evangelista anxiety and has solidified our fear of nuclear annihilation after a brief post-Cold War period of calm.
Much like the bleak ending of Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer,” Bigelow’s movie ultimately suggests that the mere fact of nuclear weapons existing is enough to ensure our inevitable destruction. It isn’t the most cheery message, but it’s an increasingly urgent one as global tensions rise and, like our 1950s forebears, we’re all forced to contemplate the imminent threat of complete and utter destruction on a daily basis. What’s somewhat interesting about King’s take, however, is that he’s not so much scared by that gloomy inevitability but by the current U.S. leadership, which he seemingly feels is likely to bring on the events depicted in the film.
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Stephen King’s take on A House of Dynamite highlights the real horror
Tracy Letts’ General Anthony Brady looks concerned in closeup in A House of Dynamite – Netflix
Nuclear war is scary enough — just watch any of the movies on /Film’s 12 best movies about nuclear apocalypse (maybe steel yourself before watching “Threads,” though). But Stephen King’s take points to something particularly unsettling about the current state of affairs. As terrifying as “A House of Dynamite” is, with its fatalistic take on our imperiled existence as a species, it’s also frightening for anyone wishing the real-life authorities depicted in the movie were populated by similarly competent people. Regardless of your political leanings, there’s an undeniable sense that expertise and competency are less valued today than they ever were, and it’s this element King evidently finds the most troubling.
In 2016, the BBC produced a documentary on the Obama administration: “Inside Obama’s White House.” It was a remarkably candid look at the work of the Commander-in-Chief and left one with the feeling that President Barack Obama was just a man trying to get things done like anybody else with a job. He was not some superhero or omniscient leader, just a man leading a staff and trying to enact change. With “A House of Dynamite,” Katherine Bigelow seemingly wanted to elicit a somewhat similar feeling from her audience. The officials depicted in the film are rendered as no more prepared for nuclear annihilation than anybody else, and merely do their jobs to the best of their ability when faced with impossible decisions. That was supposed to be the disturbing part, but King’s take points to something even more upsetting. In a way, it might have perhaps been worse if President Idris Elba had saved the day, if only because we’d all be wishing for similarly capable leadership in the real world and failing to find it.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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