Honourable Mention: Castle Rock

This was a TV series that ran for two seasons between 2018 and 19. The Castle Rock of the title is a fictional town featured in several Stephen King stories and the seasons featured characters and locations from, as well as references to, Stephen King’s books.

The first season, for instance, had Shawshank prison as a primary location, as well as a subtle reference to The Green Mile, and (now retired) Sheriff Pangborn (Scott Glenn) who features in a couple of novels. There is reference to Cujo a couple of times and one particular mention that I want to cover before looking at season 2, which is the primary reason for the article.

Jane Levy  as Jackie Torrance

One character we meet is Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy). She is a taxi driver who wants to be a writer and thus laments the days when, the now socially deprived, Castle Rock had rabid dogs and serial killers – as you should write about what you know. She did have an uncle who went mad with an axe in the Overlook hotel, though her parents won’t discuss it, and she changed her name from Diane to Jackie after him. Yes, her uncle was Jack in the Shining and during the season she ends up having to wield an axe herself and, in a credit coda to the season, we see her working on her book and undertaking to visit the Overlook – a trip we don’t see.

the lot

The first Season was really strong and saw overlaps of alternate timelines and a particular episode from the point of view of Ruth Deaver (Sissy Spacek), a character suffering dementia. The episode moved with her perception as she fell through memories and she tried to piece a puzzle together; it was really cleverly done. Season 2 took place in both Castle Rock and nearby Jerusalem’s Lot – which is, of course, Salem’s Lot. There is no evidence that the vampire incursion took place in this world – and unlike Chapelwaite there wasn’t a need felt to include vampires – though we do get the returning dead.

Ace's body

The primary reason for the mention is that the Marsten House looms large, just as it does in the Salem’s Lot story. Before we get there Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan, True Blood) kills temporary landlord Ace Merrill (Paul Sparks) for threatening her and her daughter (Elsie Fisher), and uncovering her true identity. She tries to get rid of the body but falls through the earth in a building site, into an underground cavern with two ornate and several plain coffins. Ace’s body ends up in one of the ornate coffins, where it would become host for the occupant’s spirit and starts the main thread of resurrecting the French settlers from New Jerusalem – the original settlement that eventually became Salem’s Lot.

Annie at the Marsten House

Annie finds a way from the cavern into tunnels that lead eventually to the Marsten House. At the time as decayed as described in King’s novel, though the returning settlers (who are killing town-folk to take their bodies and reanimate more of their colony) soon start renovating the ill-fated house. Once again, the Lot is threatened from an undead menace that emanates from the House. But I won’t spoil it further. As Season 2 started I was curious as to why there was a large number of Somali refugees in the area, as a story choice, and soon discovered that this was to reflect real world tensions that occurred when a large number of Somali refugees settled in Maine, so there was an interesting social commentary that touched on US foreign interventionalist policy also.

No vampires but a town and a house that both have an enduring connection with vampires. The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK