Crystal Lake - Camp Crystal

Cody dives into the first episode of the Friday the 13th prequel series.

The 1980s were a glorious time for entertainment, and one big reason I consider them the glory days is that there was a new entry in my all-time favorite movie franchise, the Friday the 13th slasher series, almost every year. The original Friday the 13th arrived in 1980, introducing Mrs. Voorhees, a vengeful mother murdering the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake because the camp was being reopened years after her young son Jason drowned there. One year later, Friday the 13th Part 2 jumped ahead five years and introduced an adult, woods-dwelling Jason, who was now killing counselors-in-training to avenge his mother (just go with it). Part III arrived in 1982 - in 3D! - and gave Jason his iconic hockey mask. The franchise skipped 1983, my birth year, before Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter attempted to end it in 1984. That movie was such a success that A New Beginning followed in 1985, only for fans to reject its copycat killer and get Jason resurrected for 1986’s Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI. Another year was skipped before The New Blood in 1988 and Jason Takes Manhattan in 1989 closed out the decade.

Then, the troubles began. Paramount, distributor of the first eight movies, had their fill of the franchise and passed it to New Line Cinema. Despite plans for Jason to eventually cross paths with New Line’s Freddy Krueger, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday became yet another attempt to wrap things up, arriving in 1993, four years after Jason Takes Manhattan. Freddy vs. Jason spent so long in development hell that another Jason movie (Jason X, which launched the character into space in the year 2455) was made in the interim, but it didn't arrive until 2002, with Freddy vs. Jason finally following in 2003. In a perfect world, that would have led to a series of direct follow-ups, but instead it essentially marked the end of the original iterations of both characters. Friday the 13th was rebooted in 2009 (and that movie can be slotted into the existing timeline if you really want to), while Freddy got a poorly received remake in 2010. Paramount and New Line had teamed up for F13 ‘09, and its success quickly led to an announced 3D sequel for 2010. But we don't live in a perfect world, and that sequel fell apart because Paramount and New Line didn't want to split the profits on another movie.

Years passed with no progress. Then Christopher Nolan, who Warner Bros. had worked with on the Dark Knight trilogy, set up his sci-fi film Interstellar at Paramount. WB wanted in, so in exchange for being allowed to participate in the Nolan movie, Warner Bros. handed the Friday the 13th rights to Paramount for five years, giving Paramount the opportunity to make as many F13 movies as it could between 2013 and 2018. The Paramount of the ’80s would have produced three or four movies in that window. The modern Paramount made zero, instead dragging the franchise through another five years of development hell and generating a stack of unused scripts, including ones by Nick Antosca and Aaron Guzikowski.

Things only got worse from there, although we did get an excellent Friday the 13th video game in 2017. Unfortunately, updates on that game stopped earlier than expected when original F13 screenwriter Victor Miller sued Sean S. Cunningham for the copyright to his script in the United States, as permitted by U.S. copyright law after 35 years. The lawsuit dragged on for what felt like half an eternity, but Miller ultimately won the U.S. copyright. The rest of the franchise rights remain with Horror Inc., headed by Robert Barsamian, an investor in the original movie. Miller (who, unfortunately, passed away earlier this year), Barsamian, and Miller’s lawyer Marc Toberoff then joined forces to build what they call the “Jason Universe,” promising “new Friday the 13th activations” across entertainment, games, immersive experiences, merchandise, and more. Jason Universe also decided to give us some fresh Jason action, sixteen years after his last movie, in the short film Sweet Revenge, sponsored by Angry Orchard hard cider.

But the first major F13 project to come along in this new era is a streaming series called Crystal Lake - and since Miller won the lawsuit, it's no surprise that it focuses on the character that really mattered to him and his script, Pamela Voorhees. On Halloween 2022, it was announced that Hannibal TV series creator Bryan Fuller would be developing a Friday the 13th prequel series called Crystal Lake for A24 and Peacock. The road to production turned out to be complicated, which came as no surprise to longtime fans of the franchise.

Fuller and frequent collaborator Jim Danger Gray were originally set to steer Crystal Lake, with production scheduled to begin in July 2024. Charlize Theron was considered for the role of Jason’s mother Pamela Voorhees. Claire Danes was offered the role and turned it down. Cube director Vincenzo Natali and Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Peirce were attached to direct episodes. Peacock had committed $85 million to an eight-episode first season, with each episode budgeted at $9.6 million, and $300,000 had reportedly been spent on securing Canadian soundstages.

Then A24 decided to “go a different way” and removed Fuller and Gray from the project. TheWrap reported conflicting accounts involving unpaid writers, inexperienced executives, bookkeeping issues, and disagreements over Fuller and Gray’s vision. A24 reportedly wanted to cut the budget substantially, while the production was said to be millions over budget. 

Fuller’s version was intended as a Hannibal-style reinvention of the franchise, with each season deconstructing one of the first four Friday the 13th movies while incorporating elements from later sequels. His six-week “think tank” included writers and authors such as Tommy Pico, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, along with three of Fuller’s longtime collaborators. They meticulously plotted the episodes before scripts were written. Scream writer Kevin Williamson was set to contribute an episode described as an hour-long chase taking place on a frozen Crystal Lake, with the camp cabins buried beneath snow. Williamson praised Fuller’s pilot script as a “gorgeous” portrait of a mother unraveling in grief, while Natali called the planned series another Hannibal-level reinvention that would be beautiful, sad, poetic, funny, and horrifying. 

It remains unknown how much of Fuller’s material survived the change in creative leadership. After Fuller departed, the showrunner job went to Brad Caleb Kane, who is also co-showrunner and executive producer of It: Welcome to Derry. Kane is credited as the creator, writer and executive producer of Crystal Lake. And under his guidance, the production moved away from a planned shoot in Canada and returned to the area where the original movie was filmed: New Jersey.  Summer camp scenes were filmed in West Milford, lake scenes in Ringwood, and Blairstown was used as downtown Crystal Lake, as it was in the original movie. Some filming also took place in South Orange Village. 

Production began in June 2025 and wrapped in late October... and now, Crystal Lake has finally made its way out into the world. Was it worth the long wait, the legal issues, the creative problems, and everything else that has been holding up the franchise for years? Let’s find out by looking over the entire first season of the series, episode by episode.

Forty-five years after the character was first brought to life by Betsy Palmer in the original Friday the 13th, Linda Cardellini took on the role of Pamela Voorhees in this project – and the first image we see of her is a striking one. She’s standing in front of a mirror, so completely soaked with blood that she almost looks like she’s been skinned, asking herself, “What did you do?” and picking someone’s shattered tooth out of the back of her hand.

Jump back in time nine months and we see the last night Pam spent with her 11-year-old son Jason (Callum Vinson), a child with severe hydrocephalus and other birth defects. His head is misshapen, he has a cleft lip, and he’s prone to headaches and seizures. So, one of the first challenges Kane had to face was, how do you present Jason as a child? Do you make him silent and creepy, like some of the novelization writers did? Do you have the kid speak, since Pamela’s hallucinations and flashbacks in the original film indicated that he was capable of talking?

Kane chose to present Jason as a regular 11-year-old, aside from his appearance and his health issues. He can hold conversations and doesn’t appear to have had any learning or behavorial problems. Some fans might not go along with this version of the character and maybe Jason shouldn’t have been quite as high-functioning as he is here, but I can accept this version of child Jason. In fact, I find him to be a likeable kid.

Pam is working as the cook at Camp Crystal Lake and takes Jason to work with her, even though he’s had his fill of the place because some of the other kids pick on him. While Pam works in the kitchen, Jason is given swimming lessons by teen counselor Claudette (Danielle Kotch) – and when Claudette leaves the kids under her care in the shallows while she goes off to get some equipment, we see that there is one kid at the camp who’s nice to Jason: his friend Grace (Gwendolyn Sundstrom), who is around one year older than him.

Standing up for Jason against his bullies, Grace tosses the ball one of them was playing with out into the lake, past the safety line in the water. The bully threatens to have Grace thrown out of camp for doing that... so when another counselor ushers the kids away from the lake (Claudette has gotten distracted, having sex with her boyfriend / fellow counselor Barry (played by Phoenix Parnevik) in the equipment shed), Jason makes the fateful decision to stay behind and try to swim out to that floating ball. He’s not a very good swimmer, but he doesn’t want Grace to get thrown out of camp.

Pam hears Jason calling for help. She jumps into the lake and tries to save him, but she can’t reach him in time. Jason slips beneath the surface and doesn’t come back up. He drowns... but fans know his body will never be recovered from the lake.

Giosuè Greco composed the score for the majority of the episodes, but the musical track for the title sequence – which is reminiscent of the early films in the Friday the 13th franchise – was provided by Harry Manfredini, who created the music for most of the movies. It’s a perfect, nostalgic throwback to the glory days.

I would actually say that the entire first 34 minutes of this premiere episode managed to achieve a state of absolute perfection, establishing that this show will, at times, be closer to the old school Friday the 13th vibes than anything we’ve gotten in decades. We have Jason and Pamela at Camp Crystal Lake, the place looks great, local oddball Ralph (Nick Cordileone), a character from the first two films, is hanging out in the woods, there’s Manfredini music over the title sequence, and there’s even a moment where Pamela finds a rattlesnake at the camp, which brings to mind scenes in the first and third films.

This episode was directed by Michael Lennox from a teleplay by Kane, with Kane sharing a story credit with Fuller, so apparently his script kept enough elements from Fuller’s original pilot episode teleplay that Fuller earned a credit, although Kane did a substantial rewrite. Both scripts are known to have included Jason’s drowning, a grieving Pam, and bears – although the bear element is different here than it would have been in Fuller’s version.

Jason has drowned by the 15 minute mark, but the feeling of perfection achieved in the opening extends for quite a while. We get a glimpse of downtown Crystal Lake, looking just like it did back in 1980, and then we’re inside Hartung’s Diner, a location visited early in the original film, where characters from that movie – oil supply truck driver Enos (Daniel Stewart Sherman) and waitress Trudy (Bernadette Quigley) – are seen alongside new characters like local cougar Rita (Joy Suprano) and Chief of Police Levon Brooks (William Catlett). 

Brooks and Officer Dorf (Cameron Scoggins), another character from the ‘80 film, are called out to Camp Crystal Lake, which is closed for the season, where Pam stares out at the water, wondering where her son’s body is. Nine months have passed, but Pam still feels the presence of her son at the camp. She drops a devastating line, “He and I were joined at the heart.” Kane does an excellent job writing Pam’s grief, with Cardellini giving a heartbreaking performance. This is exactly how the aftermath of Jason’s drowning should feel.

Flashbacks give us more insight into the Pamela-Jason bond, with a scene showing us the day a box of camping gear was delivered to the Voorhees house: a tent, a flashlight, a machete, a wilderness survival guide that Jason is excited to read. He’s an outdoorsy kid, and Pam says that once he has learned to fish and hunt, the woods will be his. They certainly will be, but Jason won’t be this nice kid by the time that happens.

Brooks is supportive and tries to comfort Pam. He invites her to the Founder’s Day Picnic that the town will be holding, and Pam actually shows up... but that goes disastrously wrong when Ralph decides to advise her that “Crystal Lake doesn’t give up her dead,” Dorf makes a mindless comment (as he is prone to do), the well-meaning Barry and Claudette deliver the troubling news that the owners of Camp Crystal Lake (the Christies) still intend to open the camp that summer, and Pam has a meltdown over some kids, including Grace, swimming in the lake.

Pam returns to her home, and this is where the episode shifted from perfection and made me a little uneasy. Kane is shaking up the mythology a little bit here. It was clear from the start that the timeline had changed; in the films, Jason drowned in 1957. Crystal Lake moves the setting forward and has the drowning take place in 1971. That’s something I would usually be against, but okay, I can sort of accept it. We’re a long time from 1957 now, things change, and at least the timeline shift here was part of a creative decision rather than being completely arbitrary. For example, Nick Antosca’s unproduced Friday the 13th reboot script from the 2010s changed Jason’s drowning year to 1966 for no reason at all. It had no bearing on the story. Kane wanted to set Crystal Lake in the ‘70s so the show could “touch on all the pop-culture artifacts that were tangential to the America from which these movies were born.” He wanted this to be a “mixtape of genre,” covering everything from slasher horror to ABC Afterschool Special drama, martial arts movies (Dorf is a big Bruce Lee fan and likes to practice throwing his shuriken), and paranoid conspiracy thrillers.

The conspiracy thriller angle comes into play when Pam returns home to find two men waiting for her. They say they’re from the New Jersey State Police and have come to inform her that Jason’s body was found, washed up downriver. But Ed Shabani (Aaron Serotsky) and Benny (Don Thomas Dipetta) are not cops, a fact that Pam is able to deduce fairly quickly. It seems that Pam has a troubled history she has been running away from – and her last name isn’t really Voorhees. It’s Wittering, and these guys, armed with guns and syringes of tranquilizer, have come looking for Pam Wittering. News of Jason’s drowning and mentions of his unique appearance have drawn them to Crystal Lake.

Pam is threatened, what would the good people of Crystal Lake think if they knew what Pam and Jason really were? This is where I begin to worry. What is this show going to say they “really are”? Whatever it is, it has something to do with a lab and an “Argonaut” project, with the project name being a nod to the legendary Jason and the Argonauts.

Pam fights back. That machete is put to use. I may not be enthusiastic about the story elements that Ed and Benny have just brought into the show, but I am enthusiastic about the blood-soaked way they get taken out of the show. This is how Pam got covered in blood, with a tooth embedded in her fist. And this is how we get a couple of cool death scenes by the end of the first episode.

Friday the 13th Part 2 and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter established that Crystal Lake is in “bear country.” In Fuller’s script, Pam was shown trying to lure bears to her home so they would eat her and put her out of her misery. Kane took that idea in a different direction – Pam takes Ed and Benny’s corpses out into the forest, places them outside a bear cave, and coats them in tuna and honey so the bear will get rid of these bodies for her. Not a bad way to twist around the set-up Fuller provided.

As the episode comes to an end, I’m happy that the opening 34 minutes were so great. I’m thrilled that we got a couple of bloody kills. I’m worried about where the Argonaut story may be going... And I’m a bit choked up that Pam imagines Jason (wearing an outfit similar to his look in Part 2) holding her hand while the song “Everything I Own” by Bread plays on the soundtrack.

It was a hell of a way to get things started.