At this year’s NYCC, a special screening of the rejected pilot for Locke & Key was screened to an absolutely packed room of fans. All of us were curious to see one of the best comics out on the market right now brought to life, and to find out why it wasn’t picked up for a full series given the quality of the book.
Let’s figure that all out after the cut. Some spoilers for the comic are discussed, and definite spoilers for the show are discussed, so keep that in mind before reading on.
Locke & Key the comic started when the father of Tyler, Kinsey and Bode Locke was murdered, their mother raped, and their lives shattered by two selfish boys for seemingly no reason. Forced to move to their family mansion in Lovecraft, Massachusetts and enter into new lives all but Bode are ready for, the comic puts the children on a journey of discovery and horror in what is arguably one of the most entertaining comics you can read on a monthly basis. With a mysterious girl in the well outside and the discovery of a key that gives its wielder powers if used in the right door, the Locke’s have since found themselves in a century spanning saga of good versus evil as evil seeks to fight its way into our reality.
Locke & Key the pilot starts out in a similar fashion, with Mark Pellegrino getting shot by Harrison Thomas. The basic shell of the comic is there: Lockes move to a mansion, there are keys, and the pilot episode essentially follows the entire plot of the first six issues of the book muted down to forty something minutes; things are dropped (less violence, less character focused stories) and new elements are introduced, such as a mysterious tree in the backyard that is revealed to have greater importance by the end of the episode. The main focus of the issue, however, outside of all the cool things with keys, is on the family and their quest to survive in this new environment. What was a horror comic with a family has now changed into a show about a family with horror elements, and I still question if that change is for better or for worse.
One of the things that makes Locke & Key the comic so intriguing is its focus on the individual characters spread out over issues. On average, each issue of the book takes time to really develop the various characters of the title; for example, the fourth issue stars Sam Lesser entirely, the young man who shoots Rendell Locke under the influence of Dodge (the girl in the well), and explains how he came to “meet” Dodge and why he eventually ended up murdering Rendell. In the show, Harrison Thomas is given a little under ten minutes for the entire issues worth of content to act out the events of that issue and make us care about Lesser and the unfortunate predicament he found himself in. Given that this pilot chose to condense an entire arc’s worth of content into such a short time, that is one of the first things taken away.
There are other little things as well. Nina Locke is no longer an alcoholic, Dodge never changes sex, Duncan is barely a character, and a lot of things about Ty and Kinsey are changed as well. This is generally the sacrifice of such massive condensation, though. I’d love to see Kinsey start with dreadlocks and for Ty to debate what “personality” he now wants to assume, but without the time to do that, we’re left in the dark about a lot of the character elements. It’s basically like Josh Friedman, who wrote the teleplay, took a copy of the graphic novel, wrote down what happens from a story perspective and just kept the bigger scenes at expense of some of the more poignant little ones.
However, none of this is ostensibly that bad of a thing. Yes, as a fan of the comic, I lament the loss of certain scenes and elements, but as a regular television watcher, I actually lament more the fact that this won’t be a TV show. All things consider, the pilot itself is rather well done. It moves away from the book by the end, leaving itself rather open ended but with enough familiarity to follow the same basic path and perhaps hit the same final goal. The acting and directing is all solid, and this is perhaps one of the more faithful transitions from page to screen a la the Walking Dead on AMC. My biggest issue with the pilot is that it used up for the first arc in an episode, when each issue really could’ve been an episode unto itself and the sixth episode could’ve been the season finale as opposed to the pilot finale, but the more I think about it, the more it seems like a fanboy gripe than a legitimate one (as well as a moot point regardless). So some of the little things I love about the comic are lost, yes, but they’re replaced with things that still work ultimately.
Some of the elements of the comic translate absolutely wonderfully to the big screen as well. Many of the horror elements play up well in the pilot; Dodge’s manipulation of Bode as “his echo” all equate to some of the best scenes in the episode, right through the finale and the return of Lesser. Bode’s ghost scenes as well are a big triumph, capturing the innocence and wonder present in the original version of character and boiling that down to its essence for the duration of the scene. It stands as completely noteworthy that despite dropping and changing so much, what is here is quite good and all would’ve served to make an interesting horror-based program, infinitely bette rthan the horror program we’re given today on FX (American Horror Story, which gets a three word review of “oh, come on“). While I’m not sure what things would be kept and what would hit the cutting room floor, I can certainly think of a list of things that I’d be interested in seeing played up on the big screen, all of which would assumedly be done quite well with the cast and crew assembled.
I suppose the biggest factor is the final question the Locke & Key pilot asks me: if I was given the option to watch this show on TV, would I? In a heartbeat. It’s not the comic, but in relation to other pilots I’ve watched this season it is certainly one of the better pilots. An intriguing mix of horror and family, the Locke & Key pilot offered up a lot of promise to the viewers. It would’ve been very interesting to see the rest of the season play out, and to see where the showrunners would’ve taken it in relation to the comic. There are many things in the comic that probably would never translate to the screen (the Bill Watterson issue, to say the least), but there is enough here to make a decent TV show.
Which, I suppose, is the challenge I ultimately put forth: someone should pick this up and make a TV show out of it. This series is a hit waiting to happen. It’s just a question of who is smart enough to do it first.
