CRYSTAL LAKE Gives Beyond Fest an Early Look at Peacock’s FRIDAY THE 13TH Prequel
Updated: 1 day ago
More Horror correspondent Diana Prince checked into Crystal Lake early as Beyond Fest at the Egyptian Theatre at American Cinematheque screened the first two episodes of Peacock and A24’s new Friday the 13th series.
By Seth Metoyer | More Horror
There are certain places in horror where you already know something terrible happened before you even see the blood. The Bates house. Elm Street. That lonely stretch of Texas highway where picking up hitchhikers remains a terrible life choice.
Then there’s Crystal Lake.
More Horror correspondent Diana Prince was repping More Horror at Beyond Fest in full glam, Jason plush and mask in hand, for an early look at CRYSTAL LAKE, Peacock and A24’s new Friday the 13th prequel series.
Beyond Fest screened the first two episodes October 2 at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre, followed by a Q&A with series creator and showrunner Brad Caleb Kane. The evening then took things back to 1980 with a 35mm screening of Sean S. Cunningham’s original Friday the 13th.
For a franchise built around returning to the same cursed patch of New Jersey wilderness, that pairing feels appropriate. First, a look at where Kane wants to take the Voorhees mythology. Then, straight back to the movie that started carving it into horror history.
An Early Trip Back to Crystal Lake
Diana came away from the first two episodes impressed, particularly by how quickly the series establishes both its body count and a larger mystery.
“I was so excited to see this, and I was not disappointed! In just the first two episodes, there are already some fun kills and plenty of intrigue to make me curious about where they’re taking it. It’s in good hands with showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, so I’m super hyped to see the rest of the series.”— Diana Prince, More Horror correspondent
That “where they’re taking it” part may prove to be the real hook.
CRYSTAL LAKE moves backward through Friday the 13th mythology and puts Pamela Voorhees at the center of the story. Linda Cardellini stars as Pam, still consumed by the drowning death of her young son Jason nearly a year earlier. When two strangers arrive asking questions about her past, things begin to unravel around Crystal Lake and the people living there.
Anyone who has seen the original Friday the 13th knows where Pamela’s story eventually leads. That foreknowledge gives the series an interesting problem to solve. Kane isn’t working toward a mystery whose answer has remained buried for 46 years. Horror fans already know Pamela Voorhees. We know Jason. We know the camp. We know what happens when teenagers start behaving like teenagers anywhere near that lake.
The unexplored territory lies in everything surrounding that mythology.
What happened to this family before Camp Crystal Lake became synonymous with slaughter? Who was Pamela before grief swallowed her whole? What else was happening in this town before a hockey mask became one of the most recognizable objects in horror?
That’s where CRYSTAL LAKE gets room to wander into the woods.
Pamela Voorhees Takes Center Stage
Cardellini leads the eight-episode series as Pamela Voorhees, with Callum Vinson appearing as young Jason. William Catlett, Devin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins and Gwendolyn Sundstrom round out the principal cast. Kane serves as creator, writer, showrunner and executive producer after previously serving as co-showrunner on IT: Welcome to Derry.
The official trailer makes the connection to the original film immediately recognizable. Summer camp optimism gives way to Jason struggling in the water, Pam’s grief and the creeping sense that something much uglier already lives beneath the postcard surface of Crystal Lake. Peacock has leaned heavily into the atmosphere of early slasher cinema, right down to the late-’70s/early-’80s texture surrounding the characters.
And according to Diana, viewers won’t have to wait six episodes for the blood to start flowing.
You can expand the mythology, dig into family history and build a long-form mystery, but sooner or later somebody has to make an extremely poor decision near a sharp object.
Camp Opens October 15
CRYSTAL LAKE premieres Thursday, October 15, exclusively on Peacock, with all eight episodes arriving at once on Peacock TV.
For now, Beyond Fest audiences have seen only the first two chapters. Diana’s reaction suggests Kane has found a way to play with a mythology horror fans have spent decades dissecting while still leaving enough unanswered questions to drag us deeper into the woods.
After more than four decades of sequels, resurrections, fake-out deaths, Manhattan detours, trips to Hell, trips to space and one particularly hostile encounter with Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th is going home.
CRYSTAL LAKE premieres October 15 on Peacock.
Photo: Diana Prince at Beyond Fest.
CRYSTAL LAKE production imagery courtesy of Peacock.
