Locke and Key

 

Imagine you could unlock a door and go anywhere! Or look inside someone’s head and find their memories! This is the slightly eccentric premise behind the series Locke and Key which recently completed a three-season run on Netflix. The story is based on a comic book series penned by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son) and Gabriel Rodriguez and came to the screen after two previously failed attempts at a tv series (one even had a pilot filmed) as well as a projected film trilogy. Aficionados say this series dilutes the darker elements of the comic, but it seems to have gone down well with a lot of people plus unlike many streaming shows it even went beyond one season and got to finish its story with a third! And, really, when you hear the words `magical keys`, you must give it a try don’t you think?

 

 

Following the violent death of Rendell Locke at the hands of a former student in circumstances that seem to make little sense, his widow and three kids move back to the family home of Keyhouse in the town of Matheson in Massachusetts. It doesn’t take long for them to be drawn to whispering voices which lead the kids to a series of unusual keys each of which has a different magical function. The series’ narrative explores how these keys affect each of the kids – adults cannot remember them- driven by an antagonist from another dimension who seeks them for dark ends.

After those previous failed attempts, the show finally got made when it arrived in the lap of Netflix who wanted to focus more on the fantasy rather than horror elements theoretically making it more commercially viable though author Joe Hill was involved with the production. This starts with the location- big old fashioned houses are a trope of horror movies but in a 2020 interview Meredith Averill, one of the producers said: “We wanted Keyhouse to feel warm and inviting and whimsical, and like a place that you might want to Airbnb.”  Fellow producer Carlton Cuse said that the Head Key sequences were the most difficult to realise  “In the comic, there are splash panels, where the characters heads literally tilt open and you can see inside their brain, and that did not seem like it was going to translate very well to television. So, Meredith and I had to reconceive how to metaphorically take a journey through someone’s head and figure out how to do that, in a way that we could actually pull off, on a television schedule and budget, with visual effects.”

An alarming opening to the first episode may suggest viewers are in for a terrifyingly brutal series and while some of the results of the keys’ powers are on the frightening end of viewing, Locke and Key is essentially a character driven show. Often the dilemmas tap into the relationships of the characters and however bizarre things can get inside Key House, beyond its wooden doors there is still a relatively normal world going on. The writers manage to attain that difficult balance of having increasingly strange goings on yet keeping the characters identifiable and also adaptive. If they were to spend their whole time screaming or running away it wouldn’t be much of a plot! So, the scripts lean into children’s curiosity and fascination. Before too may episodes have passed teenagers Kinsey and Tyler plus younger brother Bodie are walking into people’s heads, popping from one place to another through a door and soon learn how to use the keys to protect themselves.  Bode in particular is saucer eyed at almost all of the magical happenings even right to the end when he’s been in peril so many times.

The flip side is that adults don’t even comprehend what the kids are telling them – this portrayed by the picture blurring and the words distorting when we hear what they hear. As the backstory unfolds the need for too much exposition is side stepped by handy flashbacks when the modern-day characters can just go and look at what happened. The kids soon discover their father knew all about the keys- he and his teenage friends had created a key that would enable this- but he never mentioned it. They also found a strange doorway in a sea cove, a portal to the dimension from which our antagonist emerged. It also spat out pieces of `whispering metal` from which new keys could be made. Its one of those ideas that, as a writer, I kick myself for not having thought of though the real skill here is the way those keys are utilised to drive the story.

What I really enjoyed watching it was the way it utilized elements we’ve seen before in various productions but created a new spin on the idea while the central idea of the keys is something I’d never seen before. While the loud echoes of Stranger Things and further back Buffy loom Locke and Key creates an alchemy all its own. It may be home to ghosts, demons and magic but it still feels fresh and original. The series deploys it developments carefully with the initial keys seeming more fun than fearful and it is only the mistakes that the kids make which draw them closer to danger. Dealing with their father’s death they are also hurting in different ways.   

The narrative has moments to make you wonder where it is going but across a total of twenty-eight episodes everything slots together rather well to give a satisfying story and even an ending which so many shows never get. It’s not afraid to confront loss but in a way that also suggests a practical exit from pain while at the same time not everyone makes it to the end. Some episodes of the second season in which recovering alcoholic Nina falls off the wagon are a cue for some excellent nuanced material that could just as easily come from a straightforward drama. And when Tyler’s girlfriend Jackie starts to forget magical events as she turns eighteen it is handled with a sensitivity you might expect from a drama about mental illness rather than a magical scenario. There is much fun to be had too from the scenario as people get taken over or forced to perform oddly. Care is taken not to allow the magic premise to spill over and somehow make the characters immune to pain or heartache and that’s not an easy thing to do. 

It’s a very well-cast series and everyone get a lot of heavy lifting. As Nina, Darby Stanchfield embodies the protective mother struggling with her own issues so perfectly, she is a lynchpin for the show just as the character is as a mother. She acts with a subtle economy and it’s no coincidence I remember more of her scenes than anyone’s. Its interesting that the producers changed her quite a bit from the comics in which she is a more melodramatic, damaged character. As Tyler, Connor Jessup eschews the archetypal macho older brother for a more thoughtful approach and even though the character makes some poor choices he retains our sympathy thanks to the actor.

Emilia Jones’ Kinsey has an unusual storyline in that early on she goes into her head and expels her `fear`, a personification of which comes back to cause trouble later. It allows the actor to completely change her portrayal from that point and shows her versatility and determination to go beyond the traditional heroine tropes unlocking something more. Generally, characters like Bode (pronounced Bodie for some reason), the youngest son, would be peripheral or just there to get into danger and be irritating. Thanks to Jackson Robert Scott and the writers he is none of those things instead being central to the sense of wonder that the keys inspire. His wide-eyed enthusiasm for everything and the determination and wiles he later shows suggest this is an actor destined for great things.

Though the characters overlap each season essentially features a different antagonist. The first season’s big bad is Dodge, a leather clad temptress played with relish by Laysla De Oliveira who brings a sensuality to proceedings, a contrast to the homespun Locke family. Her ruthlessness leads to some shock moments  and there’s always a sense that we don’t know anything about her. In season 2 what is essential the same demon ends up in the form of Gabe, who has already wormed his way to be Kinsey’s boyfriend much to the frustration of  English student Scot played with a charming British turn of phrase by Petrice Jones. The group’s making of a amateur horror movie `The Splattering` complete with giant lobster is a recurring sub plot.

Griffin Gluck who plays Gabe brews up quite an intimidating switch from friendly to threatening in a heartbeat, it’s a shame the character seems to be always waiting for his moment which in the season two finale he is somewhat robbed of. Still Gluck is a real screen presence and you really worry when Gabe is with Kinsey as to what he may do. Aaron Ashmore is similarly short changed after he does some great work as uncle Dominic who has forgotten magic but then faces returning memories with some poignant scenes before being literally married off and disappearing from the last episodes.

Some of the issues with Gabe’s character are magnified with season three’s Gideon, a resurrected British army captain from the American revolutionary war who was present when the portal was first seen by Rendell and his friends. I would say that the story begins to creak a little in the third season which- presumably because of Covid- shoots with a smaller cast, has shorter episodes and seems somewhat repetitive. Just count the number of times Gideon threatens a family member and says “Now give me the keys”. 

Though shot on a sound stage, the interiors of Keyhouse are vital to creating the curious world of the show. It’s a wonderfully expansive set with a big hall, long corridors, wood panelled rooms with lots of doors obviously and places to hide. There are plenty of impressive visuals for a show that doesn’t have the biggest budget around including the visualization of ghosts which is really good and scenes set in a snowy maze or deep inside someone’s memories. Impressive larger set pieces include a dramatic prison escape in the first season, a sequence involving a giant spider and a race against time chase in the final episode. The scenes in the sea cove are very well realized with a sense of power from the energy in the other dimension. In the literally named season two finale `Cliffhanger` our heroes are inside a house that is falling off a cliff and while it is amusing to ponder why it was even built there the tension is electric.

Some critics didn’t take to the series which is fair enough as the comics do sound far more harsh and maybe that version will be made one day. It does irritate me though when they complain about teenage relationship plots always being the same when adult relationship dramas are equally similar. Surely it is the stuff of life!  Actually, just the other week I actually found an old bunch of keys but after watching this I think they can stay exactly where they are!