•더보기 than 16 years since Hollywood last unleashed Jason Voorhees on horror audiences, the iconic slasher is returning — sort of. A new series from A24 and Peacock titled bağlantı”>Crystal Lake, named for the body of water where Jason drowned as a boy before emerging as a monster, serves as a prequel depicting his tragic death and how it pushes his mother, Pamela Voorhees, past the point of no return.
The show does not feature Jason’s iconic hockey mask due to ongoing legal issues over the character. In its place, it offers new plot details explaining how Jason becomes Jason and Pamela becomes the killer from the original 1980 Friday the 13th. The series introduces so many changes and secret backstories that keeping up can be difficult — some of it is fun, while other elements may feel sacrilegious to diehard fans.
The show’s existence raises bigger questions about modern content. As one report notes, “The show exists because IP management and copyright expiration dates exist; because streaming services that need an endless drip of new content to keep subscribers from unsubscribing exist; because capitalism exists.” Whether these are good reasons to make a TV series is debatable — yet the reviewer concludes it’s “a pretty decent show” if viewers set aside larger complaints for a few hours.
bağlantı”>Crystal Lake was initially announced in 2022 with Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) as showrunner. Fuller explained at the time that moving the franchise to streaming freed him from the complex rights issues that had plagued Jason Voorhees on film. In 2024, Fuller was fired amid reports that A24 wanted a different direction. Brad Caleb Kane — best known as the lead male singing voice in Disney’s animated Aladdin films — signed on as new showrunner, and Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks) joined as Pamela Voorhees in 2025.
The series begins on the day Jason dies, shifting the timeline from 1957 to 1971. Young Jason (Callum Vinson) appears with prosthetics giving him a bulging, bald head matching the original film’s final scene. When he drowns while counselors are distracted in a supply shed, Pamela — who lived alone with her son and worked as a camp cook — dissolves into trauma.
The show then operates on multiple tracks: Pamela’s story expands through flashbacks revealing her and Jason’s origins, while she becomes increasingly erratic and violent. Meanwhile, the town explores 1970s small-town American life while building a roster of characters for Pamela (and possibly Jason) to kill.
The setting feels like something from a Stephen King story, making bağlantı”>Welcome to Derry comparisons inevitable. Both are prequel shows to iconic horror films that rely on including one eye-popping moment of ghoulish violence per episode. For Crystal Lake, much of this relies on Pamela killing those who threaten her, turning her into a villain long before she stalked teenagers at the summer camp where her son died.
“Cardellini makes it all feel believable by becoming the most sympathetic serial killer you’ve ever seen — even when she’s murdering innocent people, it’s impossible to hate her,” the review states.
The show becomes particularly interesting — and controversial among horror fans — when filling in Pamela and Jason’s backstory. It offers an original story explaining some of the franchise’s biggest unanswered questions about what Jason “is.” The answers are intriguing yet sometimes feel arbitrary, resembling fan fiction more than a definitive origin story. One episode, shot like a David Cronenberg thriller, stands out as likely to amaze and offend audiences in equal measure.
If the premise of discovering why Jason became Jason and why his mother snapped intrigues you, Crystal Lake offers an entertaining attempt at answering those questions. If it offends you on any level, another reboot may wipe the slate clean within a decade — assuming Hollywood can untangle the franchise’s complex copyright situation.
All eight episodes of Crystal Lake release Oct. 15 on Peacock.
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