We’re all excited to see what happens in the latest legacy horror project “Crystal Lake,” as the A24 and Peacock streaming series is set to tackle a new version of the “Friday The 13th” lore with actress Linda Cardellini (“DTF St. Louis”) playing the original franchise killer, Pamela Voorhees, the mentally disturbed and grieving mother of Jason, who drowns at Camp Crystal Lake due to the neglence of camp counsellors advoiding their responspiblies to to keep kids safe. The series is now confirmed to take place AFTER those events, so basically we’re expected to see Pamela’s transformation into the original killer and become more of a reboot of that original 1980 film.
Showrunner Brad Caleb Kane (who took over from Brad Fuller, after his exit over creative differences) and Cardellini recently spoke at an NBC backlot promotional event on Monday to field questions about the new horror show from the press. During that panel (via TV Insider and JoBlo), Kane revealed how the show differs from the films of the 1980s, alongside promising horror fans that the gory/inventive kills will be happening as Pamela won’t be going “full ‘Friday the 13th,’ in the new show with an engaging story to boot.
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“I think the biggest conceptual issue was people know what to expect from a ‘Friday the 13th,’ or at least they know what a ‘Friday the 13th’ movie should be. It’s a teens go out to a place, they are having sex and doing drugs, and then they are hunted by Mrs. Voorhees or Jason in the subsequent films — or Roy in [movie] number five, for those die‐hards. But, thankfully, we weren’t making a Friday the 13th movie,” Kane explained. “This was called Crystal Lake, and we were doing a story about the town and a prequel about Jason’s mom, and it was really fresh snow. We could build it however we wanted. And feeling ownership for the franchise as a long‐time fan and a lover of it, truly die‐hard lover, I knew what I wanted to see as a grown‐up Friday the 13th fan… But I also grew up a little bit and became interested in other films and other themes in films, and I wanted to bring all of that cinema love to my love for ‘Friday the 13th.’ So I was really given carte blanche.”
Kane added there is more than just kills to keep audiences hooked, “You watch the first four episodes, and you go ‘Okay. They are telling a story, and there’s a little bit of paranoid conspiracy thriller here, and it’s a psychological devolution or evolution, however you want to put it; but where’s Friday the 13th?’ Pam goes full ‘Friday the 13th’ in this season, and you will see it….There are a series of kills that are everything the movies do, and, hopefully, it will satisfy the real hunt hack-and-slash fans, too; we build to it, but it’s coming.”
What’s interesting here is that this won’t be the only legacy horror project coming from A24, as they have a series and feature film in works set in the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” universe, the show is being put together by JT Mollner (“Strange Darling,” “Skeletons”) and the new movie is coming from Curry Baker, the breakout director behind the recent box office hit “Obsession.” I think many of us are just as excited to see where that one is going as we are about “Crystal Lake.”
“Crystal Lake” is set to debut on October 15 exclusively on Peacock; other cast members will include William Catlett, Devin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins, and Gwendolyn Sundstrom.
