[Spoilers for the show]
If, back in 1980, you had told director Sean S. Cunningham or writer Victor Miller that their modest slasher film FRIDAY THE 13TH would, in 2026, inspire a big-budget eight-part TV series, they might have thought you had indulged in a little of that waccy-baccy so beloved of horny camp counsellors. Yet CRYSTAL LAKE, whilst dividing opinions amongst fans, has been a streaming hit and has largely been celebrated by critics.
So, does A24 production—a studio known for its quirky, prestige-leaning genre output—hit the mark? As a fan of the franchise since I saw the original in the early 80s, I can say I really enjoyed the show—albeit with a few caveats I’ll get to later. As many know, the project—like the franchise itself—has, if not a death curse, at least a faint aura of the doomed. The much-publicised copyright feud between (the now-late) Miller and Cunningham has kept Jason off the big screen since the 2009 quasi-remake. CRYSTAL LAKE itself had a relatively tortuous journey to production after A24 parted ways with original showrunner Bryan Fuller in May 2024 (best known for the boundary-pushing show HANNIBAL (2013-2015)). Details remain murky, but one sticking point was a per-episode budget projected to be just shy of twenty times the cost of the first movie.
I don’t want to delve too much into the production battles; rather, I'll concentrate on what we got with new frontrunner Brad Caleb Kane. Given the series’ infamously convoluted timelines, it perhaps isn’t a shock that Kane switched things up, moving the defining moment from Jason’s 1957 drowning to 1971. Possibly, this switch was to have a timeline (the permissive early 70s) that worked better than the buttoned-up 1950s, specifically the loved-up, acid-loving hippies who fall foul of the camp curse (which neatly feeds into the then-current post-Manson-era paranoia). That said, the series was decidedly light on the t&a that peppered the early entries (although the showstopping gore effects are plentiful). Despite a reduced budget (still sub $5 million per episode), the attention to early ‘70s period detail is spectacular (although I'm not sure Pam Voorhees would have sported bangs in 1971, but I digress).
And that brings us to Linda Cardellini’s powerhouse performance as the pissed-off Pam. She is so good in the role where she only rarely (and purposefully) mimics Betsy Palmer (the actresses were 51 and 52 years old, respectively, playing the homicidal, bereaved matriarch). However, we are largely directed not to necessarily fear her but to sympathise with her, and that could be a problem. All good movie monsters should generate a little pathos, just not too much.
This is Pam and Jason’s origin story. I think the reasons given for why Jason is how he is (medical experiments to create a superhuman who could survive a nuclear war) and why Pam is dangerously unstable (when she escapes with Jason and disappears to Crystal Lake, she no longer has access to experimental mood-stabilising drugs) are clever retrofitting, considering that the character of Jason Voorhees was pretty much an afterthought in the first movie.
Some fans criticise CRYSTAL LAKE for not being a 7+ hour slasher movie, essentially an elongated version of the 1980 film. Somewhat ironically, Fuller’s version may have been closer to that vision. Personally, I have no problem expanding the story arc in myriad directions to fill in establishing details—and nothing detracts from the fact that we still have the movies themselves (and the TV series still regularly hits the gory beats of the films and is jampacked with franchise Easter Eggs). Many of the new characters are a welcome addition, although—as good as the actress is and despite our learning that she kills Barry and Claudette, not Pam—Grace, the young girl Pam takes under her wing after killing her mother, seems otherwise superfluous to the story's ultimate direction, and her character is largely jettisoned by the series’ close.
CRYSTAL LAKE arguably risks derailing itself with an ending that could paint the series into a corner if it continues beyond its freshman effort. A supercharged Jason has grown to near-adult size in a year or so (and, in a fashion forward move, now sports the one-eyed burlap sack from the 1981 film). In the last episode, Jason vanquishes the last of the shadowy corporation pursuing him and Pam—killing his father, Elias, who is part of the cabal, in an eye-popping death scene paying tribute to the 1982 second sequel. However, we are eight years from the events of the first film, and now that Pam knows her son is alive, unkillable and stalking the woods, what motive does she have to massacre the camp counsellors when Camp Crystal Lake reopens in 1980? Also, why would Jason be a passive observer during this murder spree, as he is already establishing his killing grounds? Then there is the thorny issue of Pam staying in Crystal Lake for another eight years after multiple corporate heavies have been offed (it is barely believable that the first two killed in the opening episode didn’t tell anyone where they were going, but it stretches credibility to the breaking point that the second lot didn’t either). Add to that the local sheriff and his journalist sister now know about Pam’s past, and Crazy Ralph knows Pam knows Jason is still out there. Well, I guess as the old saying goes: time heals (even machete wounds). The biggest question, perhaps, is how you keep a series going if you have built the entire narrative around Pam and, if you stay true to the movies, you are going to kill her off in series 2.
Still, in the FRIDAY THE 13TH universe, as mentioned, timelines have always been fluid and, at times, nonsensical. Despite these caveats, I really enjoyed CRYSTAL LAKE, and I’m excited to see where it takes us next —especially whether Pam gets to keep her head attached to her shoulders.
JA Kerswell
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