SDCC '11: Review: 'Locke & Key' Pilot

By Don M. Ventura

Friday at Comic Con, the makers of Locke & Key were finally able to air the pilot adapted from the Eisner Award-winning comic by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez of the same name, after Fox decided not to pick it up as a series for the 2011/2012 Fall season.

And I assure you, a mistake has been made. Director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and writer Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds) faithfully adapted the comic book in a way that maintains the book’s dark core themes and characters, while still presenting entertainment that could air on network television. The production on this pilot felt cinematic for certain; one of the more surprising aspects of the pilot is that it covers the first volume of the series, “Welcome to Lovecraft.”



Keyhouse is everything readers of Locke & Key
would expect.



Locke & Key is the story of Locke family—three children and their mother—who have survived the brutal murder of their patriarch to the classmate of the eldest son. Tyler, Kinsey and Bode are the Locke children who move to Lovecraft, Massachusetts, with their mother Nina and their uncle Duncan.   The family has come to stay at Keyhouse, their father’s childhood home. Little time is wasted before we learn that Keyhouse is just oozing with creepy things.

A well that speaks to Bode, the youngest of the Locke children. A doorway that, once passed through, turns you into a ghost while your lifeless body waits for you to return. Pictures can call out to you and cry for help. This is Amityville with genuine chills.

The pilot stars Jesse McCartney (Tyler), Sarah Bolger (Kinsey), Skyler Gaertner (Bode), Miranda Otto (Nina), Nick Stahl (Duncan) and Mark Pellegrino (Rendell). Harrison Thomas plays Sam Lesser, the tragic student who is wholly corrupted by evil, and Ksenia Solo is the mysterious presence at the bottom of the well.

Young Gaertner has the weight of the episode on his shoulders as so much of the pilot, as fans of the comic book would expect, revolve around Bode as he begins to unlock the mystery of Keyhouse. The boy was charming and believable, his character was written precociously and the actor understands well how to play the role. When Gaertner steps out of the door that turns those who pass through into spirits we get our first big laugh as Bode, freaked out at first, curiously steps through a second time so that he may float around Keyhouse and its inhabitants. It's also important to mention that Keyhouse has truly been brought to life here; the set feels pulled straight from the book.

Soon Bode discovers the mysterious well, which offers the pilot’s first jump-out-of-your skin moment. “Are you my echo?” Bode calls out. “Yes Bode, I am” replies the voice from the well to chilling effect. Again, Romanek and Friedman knew exactly the tone to adapt, bringing the humor, wonder and underlying dread of the comic book series.

The rest of the cast are also fine here, especially Bolger as the Kinsey. While we don’t get into the head of Kinsey as much as in “Welcome to Lovecraft”, Bolger perfectly captures the suffering of the Locke daughter. McCartney plays Tyler as the quiet and brooding type nicely (though his tackle cap is missing—I’ll admit, it’s not integral to his character).

Lesser returns to Keyhouse after a violent escape from jail and captures the Locke family in the pilot’s hair-raising climax. Tyler is able to use the mysteries of the house to his advantage to save his family from the boy who murdered his father.

It isn’t until the pilot’s final scene that the story diverges significantly from the book as we learn that Nina may have been to Keyhouse, though she has no memory of it. Fans of the second volume of Locke & Key, “Head Games”, will recognize the bottles filled with memories and feelings—there are hundreds of them hidden at the center of an enormous tree that resides on the estate. One has a small screaming Nina trying to escape her tiny prison as the pilot concludes.

I was surprised at how true to the source material Romanek and Friedman stayed, while demonstrating that they were prepared to take us down another path to create stories separate from the book. Hill acknowledged in a Q & A session after the pilot aired that the show would follow a “Key of the Week” format while establishing a more fleshed-out backstory for its characters—there was clearly more story tell for Rendell Locke. Friedman said the first season would have probably taken viewers through the conclusion of Volume 3, “Crown of Shadows.”

The pilot, while ending on a cliffhanger of sorts, tells a complete story which deserves to find an audience on DVD or in a digital format. Locke and Key kept everything readers have embraced about the gothic comic book, it’s endearing characters, it’s haunting mystery, and its wonder—it would have fascinating to see how the story would have unfolded over the course of a television season.