Hulu’s Castle Rock has done a fantastic job at taking many of Stephen King’s classic stories and mashing them together into one narrative, but season 2 worked a very iconic location, the Marsten House, from King’s texts into the series.

Hulu jumped in on the Stephen King craze at the perfect time, but their anthology series Castle Rock takes a different approach than many other television series and films that have adapted King’s works. Castle Rock mashes together different characters and plot threads from King’s universe into a new story that’s able to not only comment upon the original works, but also reinterpret them in new ways. This format resulted in a very successful project where the passion towards Stephen King is palpable. Castle Rock season 1 was a delight, but season 2 improves upon the formula.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

Castle Rock season 2 pulls most heavily from Misery and Salem’s Lot and it explores the stories in a frightening new ways. Lizzy Caplan’s portrayal of Annie Wilkes is as startlingly unhinged as Kathy Bates’ iconic performance and Castle Rock turns the character into a single mother, which leads to some fascinating material. The Salem’s Lot content doesn’t turn to vampires like the original story does, but it’s still heavily concerned with bringing the dead back to life and a kind of communal hypnosis over the community. This season also introduces an iconic location from Stephen King’s universe into Castle Rock, the Marsten House, a famously evil landmark.

How The Marsten House Connects To Stephen King’s Universe

In Castle Rock’s second season, Annie Wilkes falls into an underground crypt that she’s able to follow back above ground into a creepy building. This is revealed to be the Marsten House. It’s no coincidence that these tunnels link back to the Marsten House and it turns out that a powerful evil infests this place. A murderer named Hubie Marsten used to live in the building until he killed his wife and then himself. This negative energy permeates and infects the rest of Salem’s Lot, but the town itself has a wicked history that’s built on witchcraft and Satanism.

See also  Who Trained Yoda To Be A Jedi?

Ace Merrill, a major character in both The Body (Stand By Me) and Needful Things, is made the major conduit for ancient evil in Castle Rock’s second season. Merrill uses the Marsten House as the headquarters for his cult as he hypnotizes the citizens of Salem’s Lot and Castle Rock into becoming vessels. It’s fascinating to see how Castle Rock takes characters from Stand by Me and Misery and has them interact with this famous location from Salem’s Lot. It even contains allusions to “Jerusalem’s Lot”, the short story prequel to Salem’s Lot that is featured in Night Shift.

In Stephen King’s novel, Salem’s Lot, the Marsten House is occupied by Kurt Barlow, the lead vampire of the community and he uses the building’s evil energy as a suitable hangout for his vampiric kind. Of course, with how Salem’s Lot connects with other Stephen King stories, especially The Dark Tower, the Marsten House technically exists and is on the radar of the characters from that series once vampires become their concern. Even though the house has the same backstory and purpose in Castle Rock, it technically connects to different worlds due to the series’ direction.

The Batman’s Sequel Tease Proves Nolan’s TDKR Joker Argument Wrong

About The Author


Daniel Kurland
(373 Articles Published)

Daniel Kurland is a freelance writer, comedian, and critic, who lives in the cultural mosaic that is Brooklyn, New York. Daniel’s work can be read on ScreenRant, Splitsider, Bloody Disgusting, Den of Geek, and across the Internet. He recently completed work on a noir anthology graphic novel titled, “Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Noir: A Rag of Bizarre Noir and Hard Boiled Tales” and he’s currently toiling away on his first novel.

See also  10 Quotes That Prove Gambit Is The Best X-Men Member

Daniel knows that “Psycho II” is better than the original, that the finale of “How I Met Your Mother” doesn’t deserve the hate that it receives, and that Garth Ennis’ run of “Animal Man” may be the best superhero story of all time. He’s a fan of white grape juice and appreciates a good Fuji apple.

The owls are not what they seem.

More From Daniel Kurland