When Locke & Key hit Netflix, it was something fans had been anticipating for what seems like forever. There were false starts on both network TV and Hulu, and even Joe Hill’s NOS4A2 hit TV before Locke & Key finally showed up. Luckily, the Netflix comic book adaptation mostly delivered what fans had hoped for from the story.

Locke & Key is a horror story about a demon trapped under the mysterious Key House and the Locke family, whose father had the skills to create special keys that performed magical feats. Anyone who watched the Netflix series and is looking for a movie to follow it up with, here are 10 movies for fans to watch after finishing Locke & Key.

HORNS (2013)

The first place to start is with a lower budget horror movie from Canada called Horns. The connection to Locke & Key is clear from the start. Both were from the mind of author Joe Hill. While Locke & Key was a comic collaboration with Gabriel Rodriguez, Horns was based on Hill’s novel.

Alexandre Aja (Haute Tension) directs with Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role. Radcliffe plays a young man suspected of murdering his girlfriend, who has no memory of the night and starts to realize that horns are growing out of his head.

IT, CHAPTER ONE (2017)

The idea behind Locke & Key was that three children, and their friends, faced a demonic presence that was trying to control them and force them to allow it to escape captivity so it could kill again. If that sounds familiar, it might be because author Joe Hill’s father, Stephen King, also specializes in demonic presences haunting children.

The best example is It, which received a new adaptation in 2017 and a sequel in 2019. It, Chapter One, focused on the children in the Loser’s Club who battled the demon Pennywise to try to save their town.

DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)

Blink and you might miss him, but Tom Savini is actually in the movie in a cameo role. Savini is the man who George Romero hired to make his zombies more than ashen walking corpses like they were in Night of the Living Dead.

That movie was Dawn of the Dead, and it cemented Savini as the true master of gory horror special effects, to which he built an impressive career. Seeing his work in Dawn of the Dead is impressive, as both he and Romero were still young in their careers and created a masterpiece.

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996)

Keeping with Savini, in Locke & Key, not only did Savini appear as a pawnshop owner who gave Bode antique-looking keys that could be used to fool Dodge, but he was also a considerable influence. Remember, Kinsey’s close friends who were working on a horror movie were the Savini Squad.

They worshipped Tom Savini and patterned the movie they were making after his work. For those who thought it was fun to see Savini appear, check out the Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez horror flick From Dush Till Dawn to see Savini in the role of Sex-Machine.

HALLOWEEN (1978)

Kinsey had a massive argument with Scot in Locke & Key as he told her that the best thing about the Final Girl in a horror movie was that she didn’t hide, but was the one that fought back.  However, Kinsey said that in real life, you had to hide if you wanted to survive, based on her real-life experience.

With that said, Scot was wrong about the Final Girl. In the movies, they eventually fought back, but they also had to hide to survive, and that is nowhere more evident than in Halloween.

CUBE (1997)

Several directors shot episodes of the first season of Locke & Key. However, one name stands out above the rest. Vincenzo Natali directed the final two episodes of the first season, “Echoes” and “Crown of Shadows.” If that name is familiar, it is because he is the man who directed the cult classic horror movie Cube.

Released in 1997, Cube told the story of a group of people who wake up in a room shaped like a cube. When they try to escape, they find more rooms shaped like cubes and booby traps that kill anyone who makes a wrong move.

THE SHINING (1980)

Moving back to Stephen King, it was clear that Joe Hill has great respect for his father’s work. There are even moments in other works, such as NOS4A2, where Hill shows that the world of his fiction, including Locke & Key, lives in the same universe as King’s.

It is also blatantly obvious that the filmmakers behind the Netflix adaptation are also fans of King. There are moments where the film camera flows through the Key House, similar to Stanley Kubrick’s camerawork on The Shining. The fact that the house is its own character in both works is the icing on the cake.

INSIDIOUS (2010)

One of the things that Locke & Key on Netflix was missing that the comic book offered was the possession and control of Bode by the demonic Dodge. Out of the four members of the Locke family, Bode was the only truly innocent one. That made the torture he went through so hard to read.

It is similar to the torture and torment brought upon the young child in the James Wan horror movie Insidious. That film showed a possession that inflicted great torturer on a child, and not even leaving home could help save him from the demon within him.

THE CROW (1994)

Fans who watched Locke & Key, without any knowledge of the story or history, might be surprised that the series is based on comic books.  Locke & Key is a horror comic book that breaks so many rules and succeeds on every level. It is one in a long line of similar works.

Based on the horror comic book series by James O’Barr, The Crow hit theaters in 1994 with Brandon Lee taking on the role of a musician murdered after watching his fiance brutalized. With so much anger in his soul at the time of his death, he returns and seeks revenge.

THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973)

There was an interesting change from Locke & Key in the comic book to the Netflix series based on the story. In the comic books, the first book was called “Welcome to Lovecraft,” which was the name of the town. Of course, that is based on horror author and icon, H.P. Lovecraft.

On Netflix, they changed the name of the town, and the premiere was titled “Welcome to Matheson,” named after horror author Richard Matheson. For fans who want to learn more about Matheson, he has several movies based on his novels, including the haunted house film, The Legend of Hell House, based on his 1971 book, Hell House.