Lockwood & Co review: Fun, inventive – and a little bit Doctor Who-Josh Stephenson-Entertainment – Metro

Cameron Chapman as Anthony Lockwood, Ruby Stokes as Lucy and Ali Hadji-Heshmati as George (Picture: Parisa Taghizadeh)

It’s strange. For all the ubiquity of ghosts in modern horror – from Paranormal Activity to Netflix’s own The Haunting Of Hill House – there’s precious few ghost stories about ghost hunters.

Yes, you’ll always get paranormal investigators who’ll run some tests, get spooked about a bit and solve the mystery in the end – but it’s more about the ‘if’ of paranormal activity rather than the ‘get this ghost out of my damn house’ variety. Essentially… why aren’t people trying to do a Ghostbusters?

Lockwood & Co isn’t Ghostbusters – it’s not really a comedy and it’s much darker than the 80s favourite ever dared to tread – but it does capture the excitement of hunting the supernatural, has a wise-cracking trio of likeable young heroes and a distinctly British feel that makes you wonder if Ghostbusters would have been better if it was set in London.

Perhaps this isn’t a surprise when you consider this Netflix series comes from Joe Cornish, who previously made aliens cool again in Attack The Block and pulled a similar trick for fantasy in the vastly underappreciated The Boy Who Would Be King, and who has managed to complete his hat-trick here with this smart, surprisingly scary, adaptation of a popular YA book.

The plot? OK strap yourselves in. Back in the late-70s/early-80s the ‘ghost plague’ descended upon Britain, terrorising the population by night, stopping the technological revolution in its tracks and keeping everything indoors once night fell.

It was soon discovered that younger people were the only ones who could sense, see and detect the ghosts and so a bunch of adult-supervised ghost-hunting agencies were set-up to combat the ghosts with the only things they are weak to: iron and steel.

Lockwood & Co. is on Netflix (Picture: Parisa Taghizadeh)

The story picks up in the modern day, Lucy Carlyle (Ruby Stokes, who left Bridgerton for this) is a psychic-sensitive hunter who has left her northern home to seek fame and fortune in London when she stumbles into the only ghost-hunting agency in town without adult supervision.

It’s run by the cocky Anthony Lockwood (Cameron Chapman) alongside his geeky best mate George Karim (Ali Hadji-Heshmati). Cue adventure.

That is, let’s face it, a lot to take in. And there’s a little bit of grinding in the early going as the plot struggles to get a lot of moving parts into position – but give it that little bit of time and Lockwood & Co quickly starts to combine frights, thrills and detective intrigue into a very satisfying whole. A cracking gothic soundtrack, too, doesn’t hurt.

Most of this is down to the very present danger that every encounter with a ghost entails – in this universe a single touch from a ghost can kill you ramping the stakes up higher – and so they counter this with old-fashioned weaponry such as swords and chains (and the occasional magnesium bomb), which is both stylistically fun and also leads to some inventive fight scenes.

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The CGI budget, naturally, won’t be giving Disney any sleepless nights but it’s used inventively enough to be effective and certain scenes – including a horrifying one with a bunch of ghostly monks – will certainly have you reaching for the nearest cushion to hide behind. It’s a little bit Doctor Who.

Netflix is a fickle beast and good shows can easily slip by the wayside in favour of safer dross – hopefully Lockwood & Co can avoid such a fate and find an audience because those who give this British supernatural thriller a try will find a scarily good time.

Streaming on Netflix from Friday 27

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