Locke & Key is based on an original comic series written and created by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez and published by IDW Publishing.
After the murder of their father, Rendell Locke (Bill Heck, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), committed by high school student, Sam Lesser (Thomas Mitchell Barnet, Run This Town), the remaining members of the Locke family uproot their lives in Seattle and Matheson, Massachusetts and move into Rendell’s childhood home, the Keyhouse. While the now widowed Nina (Darby Stanchfield, Mad Men) tries to find projects to fix up the house and help her family move on, the three children, Tyler (Connor Jessup, American Crime), Kinsey (Emilia Jones, High-Rise), and Bode (Jackson Robert Scott, It), begin to discover mysterious keys within the house that can unlock more than doors in magical ways. However, things take a turn when Bode accidentally helps a demonic entity, known as Dodge (Laysla De Oliveira, In The Tall Grass), escape its prison and also begins to search for the keys for more sinister purposes.
Probably the most unique thing about Locke & Key is that it’s a supernatural story that takes time to address trauma and loss in a realistic way. What I mean is, the Locke family is constantly thinking about their father and the way he died – he was shot to death in front of all of them. Tyler was stuck outside a locked door trying desperately to get in, Kinsey was left to cower in fear keeping her little brother silent as Sam Lesser searched for them, and Nina was also shot but managed to knock Sam unconscious before more death occurred. These things haunt them in their daily lives. Simple things like sounds and smells cause horrible flashbacks during every day activities like class and practice. I can’t imagine being in a situation like that and trying to return to any semblance of normal life, let alone find magical keys and keep a demon at bay in the process.
That isn’t to say the supernatural aspect isn’t incredibly interesting. Outside of the comics (obviously) I can’t think of anything like it. Each key is uniquely designed and has its own ability. For example, the Anywhere Key lets you travel to any door you’ve seen before, even if you’ve only seen it in a picture, and the Mirror Key opens a door to the Mirror Maze which turns out to be a terrible place that no one should ever go.
Laysla De Oliveira is a fabulous demonic entity, I absolutely love her in this role. Dodge is definitely evil and has no qualms with stealing, dine and dashing, murdering, and threating small children, but Dodge doesn’t just go around killing anyone who steps in their path. It’s strategic. Most of the time, demons in these scenarios show up and just start killing willy-nilly and for some reason the police never seem concerned about the sudden murder spree, but Dodge is different. Though it probably could, it isn’t leaving a trail of bodies in its wake, at least for now.
I already loved Locke & Key as a comic series so seeing it come together this well as a show is truly exciting. It’s a show that creates a world even non-comic readers will surely be captivated and enthralled by.
