When you think of the Friday the 13th franchise, you think of Jason Voorhees, his hockey mask, and his perpetually bloody machete. But never forget that the original slasher in the first Friday the 13th was actually Jason's mother, Camp Crystal Lake cook Pamela Voorhees.
Now, Pam takes center stage in Peacock and A24's prequel series Crystal Lake, in which she's played by Emmy winner Linda Cardellini.
What's Crystal Lake about?
Crystal Lake revisits classic moments of the Friday the 13th mythology through Pam's eyes. We witness firsthand her grief at Jason's (Callum Vinson) drowning, and the rage that sparks her later killing spree. Notably, showrunner Brad Caleb Kane (IT: Welcome to Derry) moves the timeline up so that Jason drowns in 1971 as opposed to 1957.
Much of Crystal Lake will feel familiar to anyone who's watched Friday the 13th. The series mimics the film's title sequence, POV killer shots, and score, while also managing to capture the summery vibes of Camp Crystal Lake. However, it also conjures up an entirely new backstory for Pam, one that begins to come to light when two strangers show up at her house, ready to ask her questions about her past and spirit her away. Of course, Pam fights back, resulting in the first of many bloody kills for Mama Voorhees.
It's an invigorating sequence, complete with a gnarly set piece I can only describe as "blood balloon." Yet Crystal Lake doesn't follow through on the intrigue of Pam's past — at least, not until its penultimate episode, which appears to be the industry standard for where TV shows cram all their flashbacks nowadays. In the meantime, Crystal Lake follows Pam as she tries to find Jason, whose body was never found. She attends an abrasive self-help summit, develops an obsessive attachment to Jason's friend Grace (Gwendolyn Sundstrom), and yes, stacks up more bodies. All the while, the show emphasizes that there's a hidden darkness to her that she needs to unleash, but Crystal Lake's examination of that feels more like a generalized stab at "female rage is empowering!" than an actual dissection of Pam's psyche.
Linda Cardellini and glorious kills make Crystal Lake a fun watch.
While Crystal Lake's story is thin and familiar, there are some saving graces in the form of Cardellini's performance and the bloody havoc Pam wreaks across Crystal Lake.
From Dead to Me to DTF St. Louis, Cardellini elevates every series she's a part of, including Crystal Lake. Here, she is a ball of righteous fury and grief. In one scene, after camp counselor Claudette (Danielle Kotch) confesses that she and Barry (Phoenix Parnevik) left Jason unsupervised at the lake to go have sex, Cardellini's reaction is one of wordless multitudes. Though she's killed prior to this confession, this moment is when she becomes the vicious Pam we see in the original Friday the 13th.
Crystal Lake also excels on the gore front, cooking up tremendous kills. From the aforementioned blood balloon to a literally eye-popping demise, the series finds new and inventive ways to send many of its ensemble members out with a bang. (There's some classic machete action in there as well.)
Overall, Crystal Lake does deliver on the fronts we expect anything Friday the 13th-related to deliver on: its main villain and its violence. It's just a blood-splattered shame that the story holding it all together isn't quite worthy of its main star.