Key Takeaways
- PLOT: The series explores the backstory of Pamela Voorhees and her son Jason at Camp Crystal Lake.
- REVIEW: Crystal Lake is a highly anticipated prequel to Friday the 13th, aiming to expand the franchise.
- CHARACTERS: Linda Cardellini delivers a strong performance as Pamela, showcasing her maternal bond with Jason.
- THEMES: The show hints at darker themes involving a shadowy organization linked to Jason’s condition.
PLOT: The backstory of Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini) and her son Jason, and their misadventures at Camp Crystal Lake.
REVIEW: Crystal Lake is one of the most anticipated shows among horror fans, being the long-awaited Friday the 13th prequel. This series is part of an ambitious plan by A24 and Peacock to expand the franchise in the absence of any actual Friday the 13th movies in theaters due to a complicated rights situation (all we got was a divisive short film). The creators are attempting to build a mythology around the Voorhees family, which is only hinted at in the first two episodes screened at TIFF (all eight episodes drop on Peacock on October 15th).
Watching TV episodes at a film festival is still a strange experience, especially since the screening I attended seemed to have the screener letter attached that critics often receive. However, it cannot be denied that this is a pretty ambitious show, filmed in cinematic 2.35:1. A flatter aspect ratio might have been truer to the original films, but I digress. The pilot is filled with nods to the original movies, featuring Harry Manfredini’s score along with the famous “ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma” motif.
However, Crystal Lake, while punctuated by moments of gore (each episode has one), isn’t strictly horror. It starts on a sensitive note, introducing us to Jason as a smart, kind kid and his devoted mother, Pamela, played by Linda Cardellini. She excellently evokes Pamela’s love for Jason, reminiscent of her single-mom role on ER. Despite their inevitable fates, there’s nothing “weird” about either Jason or Pamela. Unfortunately, due to his appearance, poor Jason faces bullying at Camp Crystal Lake, where his mom works as a cook. The townsfolk are mostly portrayed as harmless, with Pamela friendly with the town’s police chief, a widowed cop from Newark (William Catlett).
Of course, things quickly go awry, leading us into a continuing story that hints at a slasher menace (which figures more prominently in the second episode) and Pamela’s violent past. This aspect may be divisive since it appears they are setting up a storyline where Jason’s condition is blamed on some shadowy organization that Pamela is fleeing from.
The debate continues on whether Jason’s indestructible nature needed an explanation (in my view, prequels are almost always unnecessary). However, Crystal Lake, set in the early seventies, effectively uses some of the more shadowy aspects of that era. People were indeed experimented on by programs related to the CIA, with MK-Ultra being the most famous—whether that’s what’s happening here remains to be seen. The second episode surpasses the first, much of it set at a seminar Pamela attends based on the controversial EST therapy popular during this time.
Throughout it all, Cardellini shines; her performance is so compelling that she keeps the show engaging even when—at times in the first episode—you wonder if this will work as an ongoing series. The segments focusing on Pamela are strong, but I was less impressed with more Friday the 13th-like moments featuring camp counselors behaving poorly. Will this franchise succeed on television? It’s too early to tell since we’ve only seen two episodes, but there’s enough intrigue here—particularly in episode two—that I want to keep watching.
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