'Castle Rock' Season 2 delivers gripping, Stephen King–worthy horror

There are two kinds of Stephen King fans: those who primarily love his books, and those who love the television and film adaptations of his work. It’s possible to love both, or have a preference regarding one specific book vs. its adaptation, but the camps still exist. Castle Rock Season 1 felt like a TV series for the book people. Even with adaptation-only easter eggs like Sissy Spacek (from 1976’s Carrie) and Bill Skarsgård (from 2017’s It) starring in the series, Season 1’s extended mystery, ambiguous ending, and mounting tension expertly evoked the feeling of reading one of King’s novels.

Castle Rock Season 2, on the other hand, is for the adaptation people. It serves them very well.

Season 2 evokes the best Stephen King adaptations by ramping up the pacing, dread, and slasher flick fun in a way the first season didn’t. Gone is the season-long mystery that kept the audience returning each week for answers, and it has been replaced with jaw-dropping horror movie moments that rival any of the better Stephen King movies already released. As a result, this season feels better suited for television than Season 1, and is completely gripping to watch.

One of the reasons Season 2 feels more steeped in the popularly recognizable King-iverse is its high-profile cast of characters. At the heart of the season is Lizzy Kaplan as Annie Wilkes, a character memorably played by an Oscar-winning Kathy Bates in the 90s movie Misery. This Wilkes is younger but still unhinged, with many of her book-to-movie quirks and affectations perfectly preserved. Opposite Wilkes is Paul Sparks as John “Ace” Merrill from The Body, which was adapted as Stand By Me in 1986 (Keifer Sutherland was Ace in that one).

Early in the season, Annie Wilkes faces off with Ace Merrill in a scene that feels like fanfiction gone right, and every time the characters appear on screen the audience’s familiarity with the characters adds layers of tension and humor to their interactions. It’s a unique pleasure, one that truly accomplishes Castle Rock’s mission of blending King’s iconic stories in wild and spooky new ways.

Even though this season is heavier on the King references than the previous season (both Pop Merrill’s Emporium Galorium and the Marsten house from Salem’s Lot are prominent locations), Castle Rock still manages to be more than the sum of its source material. Season 2 introduces a community of Somalian refugees living in Jerusalem’s Lot, two of whom are Ace Merrill’s adopted cousins and are central to the ongoing plot. It also gives Annie Wilkes a teenage daughter named Joy, whose childhood was so warped by her mother’s paranoid that spending time in a haunted-ass town seems like a haven of normalcy.

Like many anthology series, Castle Rock Season 2 doesn’t carry over any cast members from Season 1, but the new actors are all fantastic. As mentioned before, Lizzy Kaplan is masterfully sinister and almost (almost) sympathetic as Annie Wilkes and Paul Sparks is delightfully grimy as Ace Merrill, but their other cast members are equally good. Barkhad Abdi and Yusra Warsama are Abdi and Nadia Howlwadaag, Ace’s successful Somali cousins, and Eighth Grade star Elsie Fisher plays Joy Wilkes’ growing distrust of her mother with admirable vulnerability.

Castle Rock Season 2 is a true celebration of spooky season, regularly delivering thrills and chills on par with any Halloween classic. Its refocus on straight horror should satisfy both sides of Stephen King's fanbase and entertain anyone who just wants to celebrate this time of year with a few goosebumps...and maybe a few nightmares.