King’s ‘Castle Rock’ starts slow, gets better
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Henry Deaver (André Holland, “Moonlight”) returns to his hometown of Castle Rock, Maine, after he gets a mysterious request to present a habeas corpus— or demand that a person under arrest is brought before a judge—for a prisoner at the local Shawshank State Prison. This prisoner (Bill Skarsgård, “It”) has no name, no background and no affect. He’s deeply strange, and had been secretly imprisoned by the former warden, Dale Lacy (Terry O’Quinn). While back in town, Henry learns about the progressive dementia of his mom, Ruth (Sissy Spacek), and that an old family friend, Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn), has moved in with her. He also re-connects with his childhood pal and next-door neighbor, Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey). Like Pangborn, she knows something about Henry’s own secret—why he disappeared for eleven days back in 1991.
This 10-parter—created by Stephen King, Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason and produced by J.J. Abrams—is set in the King universe, and based in Castle Rock—the town of other novels, like “Cujo”—linking King characters, stories and themes.
There’s something off about the locals, these closefisted Mainers with their pasty complexions untouched by a warm sun, and their souls frozen as hard as the ground in December. Something is evil here, something or someone.
BOTTOM LINE: Starts slow and gets better—while an excellent cast (and lead, in Holland) front a story that’s a little more psychological than supernatural in the early going.
Streaming on Hulu