Crystal Lake brings Friday the 13th back to 1972 on Peacock
All eight episodes of Crystal Lake arrive on Peacock on Oct. 15.
The series is a prequel, meaning a story set before the original films, centred on the origin of Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th franchise, according to Variety. It will stream exclusively on Peacock, the platform says on its Peacock blog.
The story opens in 1972, eight years before the events of Friday the 13th. Camp Crystal Lake sits in New Jersey. That is where Pamela Voorhees works in the kitchen.
Pam is characterised as a grieving single mother in Peacock’s materials. Her son Jason is 11 years old in the series. Peacock describes the show as a new take on the character of Jason’s mother.
Linda Cardellini plays Pam Voorhees. Callum Vinson plays Jason. William Catlett plays Chief of Police Levon Brooks.
The wider cast includes Davin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins and Gwendolyn Sundstrom. Sundstrom plays Grace, a fellow outcast and friend of Jason, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Behind the camera, Brad Caleb Kane is the creator, NBCUniversal says. Kane oversees Crystal Lake and is also the showrunner of It: Welcome to Derry. The series comes from Peacock and A24.
Peacock has released a trailer and first-look cast photos for the season. Peacock TV and A24 also held an exclusive first-look screening of the premiere episode at New York Comic Con.
All eight episodes land at once. Most run at least 50 minutes. No weekly wait.
Early reviews point to a slower, character-led approach. Variety calls the series thoughtful though overlong, grisly and gory but working more as a psychological thriller than a horror series, and a brilliantly detailed prologue to a bloody and haunting tale. The Hollywood Reporter’s bottom line states it “bloody well exceeds the low bar set by the movies,” and calls Cardellini’s turn the best Friday the 13th-adjacent performance to date.
For fans, this means familiar ground with a longer build. The closing episodes include a reworking of the events of the first Friday the 13th film.
