This may be the largest difference between the books and the show, and it's an extremely effective one.

And I think that we felt like horror was an element, but we were much more interested in structuring the show on the fantasy axis.' And we wanted to have that be reflected in the story, in our adaptation of it. ' Meredith, we worked on Haunting of Hill House, and I had done Bates Motel before this, and I think that for both of us, we loved the kind of inviting, warm, heartfelt undertones to Joe 's comic.

'It's sort of an intuitive process,' Cuse continued. It's a major tonal shift that might seem jarring to fans of the comics, but it was no accident: Speaking to GameSpot, executive producer Carlton Cuse said he and Locke and Key's other adapters tried to strike a ratio of 'three cups fantasy to one cup horror.' But while the comics lean more toward horror, with ample body horror and gore throughout the series, the show is much more concerned with the fantasy. The Locke and Key comics strike a remarkable balance between the magical fantasy of Keyhouse as discovered by teenagers and kids, and the horror of the murderous, otherworldly forces who want the keys for themselves. If you want to know more about the comics, check out every key from the books (and our explanations of what they all do).Īnd for some Locke and Key news, check out the fact that work on Season 2 has already begun, not to mention Joe Hill's recent announcement of a new Locke and Key one-shot issue called Locke and Key: Pale Battalions. We also wrote down as many Easter eggs and references as we could spot throughout the season-there were so many, we had to break it into three separate articles (here's Episode 1, Episodes 2-5, and Episodes 6-10). Here's your spoiler warning: We'll discuss events from throughout the show and the comics below. Most fans understand this, and the changes Locke and Key has experienced on its journey from comic book pages to streaming on Netflix are more a source of fascination than frustration.Īs fans of the Locke and Key comics ourselves, we couldn't help but jot down all the big changes we noted as we watched the series. Netflix's Locke and Key really is the perfect storm of an adaptation, with a passionate, dedicated fanbase, a volatile mix of horror, fantasy, and drama genres, and a cogent beginning, middle, and end to the story that's already written and set in stone-unlike some other recent high profile adaptations.īut even near-perfect source material can't be adapted word-for-word (or in this case, panel-by-panel) to a completely different medium.

Lock and key comics