As a long time Friday The 13th fan, the fact that we haven’t had any new, official additions to the franchise since the 2009 remake has been nothing short of deplorable. While the likes of Michael Myers, Ghostface and Chucky have managed to keep the narrative lights on, Jason Voorhees proved that even though he can shrug off an axe to the head, he’s virtually powerless when it comes to legal issues concerning movie rights. So it’s something of a miracle that thanks to Brad Caleb Kane and the good folks at A24, we’ve not only got a new show based around the bloody legacy of Camp Crystal Lake, but it’s focusing on aspects of Voorhees lore that we’ve never actually seen on screen before.
Much like how Mike Flanagan’s recent redo of Carrie for Amazon gave us a female horror icon for modern times, Crystal Lake sees us spend a substantial amount of time with Pamela Voorhees as the drowning of her sweet Jason ironically sees her flying off the deep end.
The year is 1971 and at Camp Crystal Lake, kids are having the summer of their lives trying archery on for size, discovering how to make various bric-a-brac and – in the case of poor, disfigured Jason Voorhees – learning to swim in the beautiful waters of the titular lake. His mother, Pamela, is a cook for the camp and as a single parent to a child who is visibly different, she dotes on her son, giving him all the love she can while an unthinking world stares and makes cruel comments about his appearance. However, due to the neglect of some horny counsellors and some poorly timed bullying, Jason attempts to retrieve a ball that’s floated out beyond the safety markers, and before you can say “origin story”, the unfortunate child starts to drown. But despite hurling herself into the water to save her misshapen cub, Jason vanishes below the surface, never to be seen again.
Nine months later, in the late spring of 1972, a grieving Pamela is a broken woman who has become obsessed that her boy can still be found if no one enters the Lake and messes things around. Local sheriff Levon offers her an understanding ear, but camp owners, the Christys, don’t want her hanging around, staring forlornly at the water anymore. But after Levon invites her the annual Crystal Lake Founders’ Day celebration, Pamela starts spiraling when she discovers that the owners are planning to reopen the camp once more.
Her fragile metal state deteriorates even more when she’s visited by two men posing as New Jersey State Police, but who prove to be anything but. It seems that Pamela Voorhees isn’t her given name and she and her son was in hiding from whatever shadowy conspiracy has finally found her. However, with her back against the wall, it turns out that Pam has some inner rage to work through with exceedingly bloody results.
Due to the release of Jane Schoenbrun’s remarkable Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma earlier this year, it seemed that the reverential Friday The 13th love party had already started early – but thanks to Crystal Lake’s determined attempt to marry together new revelations with an entire smorgasbord of laser focused nostalgia, I genuinely think that the first episode of this show alone has successfully scratched an itch that that’s been getting infinitely more infuriating ever since the franchise went silent after the remake. Now, while it may seem strange that some people would have such an emotional attachment to a franchise that essentially was a brazen rip-off of Halloween, had two final chapters (which weren’t) and took the series to New York, Space and Elm Street, but it’s something that, despite racking up twelve entries, but thoughout all of that, it never actually took the time to explore its own backstory.
Well, putting Linda Cardellini in the iconic jumper of Pamela Voorhees is finally giving us a chance to experience the origins of both the killer from the original movie and her hockey-masked son, and while it’s admittedly a nostalgia maelstrom for those in the know, it still manages to offer a gripping opening between the geek out moments both big and small. For a start, you can tell the makers have pored over the original movie with a fine tooth comb, delivering freeze frames on screams that fade to white, glass smashing title cards and new music supplied by orginal composer Harry Manfredini. But beyond that, we get to meet the denizens of Crystal Lake in greater detail and even give some of them some back story – such as Crazy Ralph is crazy due to post traumatic stress from Vietnam, Officer Dorf was always a bit of a doof. However, some of the most rewarding stuff comes from seeing stuff for the first time that the franchise has never shown us before.
We’ve seen Pamela Voorhees as a deranged killer before, but we’ve never seen her as a mother and watching her be kind and loving with Callum Vinson’s 11 year-old Jason is an astounding thing to see as a fan. Of course, foreshadowing in Crystal Lake is about as thick on the ground as scattered leaves and broken branches and witnessing little Jason brandish a machete from a camping kit and delcare himself king of the forest is pure gold. However, while lot of nostalgia bait here is fairly blatant, virtually every major incident we’re witnessing are events we’ve only previously seen in brief flickers of flashback, or verbal relayed by a batshit Pamela in the throes of a kill frenzy, so technicallyits fair game. Of course, some of the wilder shit that’s dropped on us will require a time test to see if it still floats. The fact that Pamela is on the run from some private agency (possibly called Argonaut) and her original surname is actually Wittering may give hints at Jason’s more supernatural abilities, but we’ll have to see how well they stick once more information comes in.
However, those worrying that A24, Peacock or Kane is holding back on the gross stuff can calm themselves and put down their figurative machetes, because Crystal Lake goes pretty fucking hard on the red stuff. While fighting the two men sent to collect/silence her, Pamela manages to take one out by slicing his artery with a pair of scissors. However, while he’s squirting his lifeblood away in the bathtub, the other guy gets a cross section of his face removed by a panicked machete swing and then has the blade buried in his skull. However, the gag doesn’t end there as after Pam tapes a plastic bag over his head to stop the flow of blood, the bag simply fills up completely – which proves to be a major problem when the guy doesn’t turn out to be quite dead yet. Needless to say, the bag pops and it’s completely spectacular – but it’s not as spectacular as the fact that the first episode of Crystal Lake seems to have found the perfect balance of expanded lore, nostalgia and some kick-ass gore.
The seventeen year gap of live action, official Friday The 13th content finally comes to an end in awesome, rousing style. Whether the show can manage to keep up this momentum, or avoid shitting the bed completely is a matter for debate, but when it comes to throwing back the curtain on the previously unseen history of the Voorhees family, this show had me saying thank fuck it’s Friday.
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Where to watch Crystal Lake – Season 1, Episode 1: Camp Crystal: