Locke&Key: A primer

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Netflix has announced that they will show a first season for the adaption of the graphic novel "Locke&Key" starting in February. For those unfamiliar with it, "Locke&Key" is a series of six graphic novels (at least in the edition I own) that tell a full story from beginning to end. It's a mild horror-fantasy story.

The general synopsis is this. After the brutal murder of the family father, the Lockes move out of the city - now connected with trauma - to the old family estate, the Keyhouse. It's in rural Massachusetts, so if you expect this to have some tie-ins with American Revolutionary history, this series has you covered. 

The family consists of the mother, who spirals down into alcoholism and neglect FAST, and the three kids who are forced to grow up rather quickly and adapt to their new surroundings. 

In the beginning, this plays out as a traditional high school story for the two elder Locke kids, Tyler and Kinsey, who need to navigate the troubled waters of puberty in a new high school and find a way to cope with their trauma. The youngest, Bode, is basically going off the rails totally, exploring the grounds of the mansion and enjoying his freedom without really grasping what's going on around him. 

From there, Bode discovers the first of what will turn out be many keys that open secret passages and...more. Of course, being an 8-year old in a family wrecked by trauma, his story doesn't exactly fall on fertile ground, and frustrated, he starts to befriend a spirit living down in the well who says it can't escape without Bode's help, and if he would ever be so kindly, it surely has no bad intentions...

I don't want to spoil much of the plot, so I want to leave it here for now and talk a bit about characters and story arcs. The main cast consists of the three Locke kids, and I want to concentrate on them, although the general cast is much larger and grows with every issue (and, to be honest, also shrinks in rather horrible fashion). 

Tyler Locke is the oldest of the kids, around 17, and he takes the death of his father the hardest for very personal reasons that only gradually become apparent. Being a seventeen-year old boy who never had a positive role model - as we later learn, he and his father had a rather troubled relationship - he acts out by brooding, skipping school and getting into mischief out of sheer apathy. His story arc is to assume responsibility as the new head of the family and oldest of the children, a responsibility he doesn't want and isn't prepared for and continually fails because of the aforementioned puberty and trauma whacking him around. 

Kinsey Locke is around 15 or 16, and she has the healthiest psyche of all of them, which, unfortunately, doesn't say much. She tries to cope with the trauma by shutting it out, generating a whole new, outgoing personality for herself and aggressively trying to move on. Of course, it doesn't work like that, and she is hit by the trauma several times. However, all things considered, she copes best and forms the emotional core of the story as well as the most proactive when it comes to fighting the evil of the Keyhouse. 

Bode Locke is around 8 years old. He doesn't really understand what's happening around him, and the way he copes is mostly by shutting reality out and inventing stuff. So it's not exactly ideal that when the metaphysical horror stuff hits the fan he is the crown witness, because he's not exactly having a history of being a reliable one. Bode for much of the story will be more of a vessel, but at times, his character comes out in full force, and in the end, he will prove vital. 

As this summary will have shown you, there is a lot going on even before the metaphysical plot hits, and that's the greatest strength of this series. You really care about these characters, and the horror and interdimensional stuff is woven into it in a way that reinforces, mirrors and comments their characters arcs instead of just running in tandem. This becomes especially poignant later on in the series, when additional timelines are introduced and the lore of the keys gets explored in more detail. Instead of falling into the trap of just adding lore because it's cool or something, here, it informs the character work and the story, as it should. 

The story also doesn't overstay it's welcome. The six volumes of the series gradually escalate the stakes and the depth of the magical side, but in the end, it remains tightly focused on the Keyhouse and the adjacent town and that's pretty much it. This tightness works much to its advantage, allowing some freedom of maneuver and a clear ending. 

So, how horror horror is it? I characterized it as light, and not being exactly a fan of horror stories - even the Hollywood standard fare gives me nightmares for several nights -, I can stand this. It's just in the sweetspot that I can handle, but if you're a real horror fan, you will most likely only get a small tickle from it. It's more fantasy than horror, really, but hey, it's just right up my alley. 

And who knows, it might also be up yours. So check out the graphic novels, the audiobook (it's a full dramatized recording with a huge cast) and in February the series. And then come back here, and we discuss it together.