By George & Josh Bate
Nearly 20 years after the last Friday the 13th movie slashed its way onto the big screen, Jason Voorhees makes his long-awaited and highly-anticipated return in an upcoming prequel series, courtesy of A24 and Peacock.
Crystal Lake, which recently made its world premiere with its first two episodes at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, takes place before the events of the first film and follows Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini) as she grapples with the sudden death of her son, Jason (Callum Vinson). While coming to terms with an unimaginable loss, Pamela’s life is further uprooted upon the rival of two men with connections to her mysterious past.
The HoloFiles recently had the opportunity to speak with Crystal Lake creator Brad Caleb Kane and stars Linda Cardellini, William Cactlett, Cameron Scoggins, and Devin Kessler about their new series, how it pays homage to the Friday the 13th movies, donning Pamela Voorhees’ iconic sweatshirt, telling a more grounded Jason Voorhees story, and more.
Crystal Lake Both Honors and Diverges From the Original Movie
Crystal Lake creator, writer, showrunner, executive producer Brad Caleb Kane follows his recent work on another acclaimed prequel to a horror classic, It: Welcome to Derry, with a prequel series about the unsung and often-overlooked antagonist from the first Friday the 13th movie. “I realized pretty quickly after talking to Brad that he’s such an intelligent, crafty person,” Kessler explained. “No, this is not just the singing voice of Aladdin who loves horror. This is truly someone who loves this franchise and movies and storytelling.”
Yes, you read that correctly. Kane provided the singing voice for Aladdin, performing iconic tracks like “One Jump Ahead” and “A Whole New World” alongside Lea Salonga. But, in more recent years, Kane has solidified his status as a prolific television creator, having worked on acclaimed shows like Fringe, Black Sails, and the aforementioned and It: Welcome to Derry.
In considering whether he wanted to take on the potentially daunting task of making a Friday the 13th prequel series, Kane made it clear that Crystal Lake would have to return to the shooting locations of the original 1980 film. “The first non-negotiable was we have to shoot in the OG state,” Kane explained. “You have to shoot in Jersey. The first movie was shot in Jersey and then it went to weird places…We had to shoot in as many locations as the original as we possibly could.”
Shooting on locations from the original’s film shoot was critical for Kane as it not only allowed him to remain faithful to the atmosphere and visual language of the original film, but it was necessary as Crystal Lake recreates numerous scenes from Friday the 13th. “I wanted to recreate certain scenes exactly as they existed in the first movie,” Kane said. “So we had to shoot on those original sets as much as possible.”
Kane elaborated on the series’ attempts to recreate scenes from the original movie. “Look out for exact recreations of scenes from the first movie, because they’re coming in the second half of the season,” Kane remarked. “That’s a spoiler, but [fans] should absolutely look out for that. And we contextualize it a little bit differently… Is he actually going to recreate that scene from the movie and then, ‘Oh, he did and he did it in such a fun and exact way, but he put a slight spin on it and that’s interesting.’”
Another unenviable task for Kane to tackle was the series’ tone. Anyone familiar with the Friday the 13th series will know that the installments became increasingly silly and camp as they progressed. Interestingly, Kane took a much more grounded approach to telling a prequel to the franchise.
Kane explained, “Even though the franchise has gone many different directions, it’s gone camp, it’s gone to space, we had to approach the characters, because they are so beloved to me and legions of fans, with real respect and love and a sense we’re going to do something with these characters that gives that same sort of pleasure that the movies have given me and given us, but maybe with a little more character depth, because that’s why you come to TV.”
In addition to drawing upon the trademark tension and atmosphere of the original Friday the 13th, Kane found unlikely inspiration in the form of acclaimed political conspiracy thriller from the 1970s. “That decade, the 60s and 70s, one of the main themes of the movies and of the time in general in America was mistrust of institutions,” Kane said. “And that’s just something you have to delve into in my opinion if you’re telling a story about a woman in America in the 60s and 70s. And when you look at the movies that came out, it’s Shoot, it’s The Parallax View, it’s All the President’s Men. It’s exploring the mistrust of institutions and what’s happening behind closed doors that they’re keeping from us. So that was an aspect of the show I wanted to explore. We don’t go into truly bizarre sci-fi territory. I would never put Jason in space or something. That’s not what we’re approaching the show from. We’re approaching it from a grounded place or character, of time, of place, and that’s where that sort of paranoid 1970s conspiracy thriller angle comes from.”
Series star Linda Cardellini elaborated on Kane’s statements about Crystal Lake’s tone. “It’s this wild world of being grounded in some ways and campy in other ways and just these sort of almost unnatural things happening,” she said.
The Unexplored History of Jason and Pamela Voorhees Will Be Revealed in Crystal Lake
Entering Crystal Lake from the angle of a political conspiracy thriller allows Kane to dive into unexplored aspects of Pamela and Jason Voorhees’ origin story. But while the show will offer up reveals about the duo, Kane assures fans that he is not heading in a direction often theorized by fans. “He’s not a super soldier, I promise,” Kane bluntly said.
Cardellini further hinted at the reveals about the Voorhees family that the series has to offer. “There’s something inside of her based on either a feeling or the past that we’ll figure out she knows it might not truly be over,” the actress remarked.
“As you come to know later in the series, there’s been several traumatic things that have happened to her that are sort of forks in the road for her,” Cardellini continued. “She’s carrying some grief and some trauma from earlier things, but nothing like what she’s about to experience with Jason.”
Linda Cardellini Steps Into The Shoes (And Iconic Blue Sweater) Of Betsy Palmer
It’s easy to forget that the seemingly mild-mannered, sweater-wearing Pamela Voorhees was the original killer in Friday the 13th, not her son. Jason’s hockey mask eventually became the iconic imagery most closely associated with the franchise, but this was nowhere to be seen in the first film, which played out more like a whodunnit, converging on the jaw-dropping reveal that Pamela Voorhees had been murdering the camp counselors all along.
In taking on the role of Pamela Voorhees, Cardellini takes over a role made iconic by the great Betsy Palmer. In preparing for such a role, Cardellini decided early on that it would be misguided to try and replicate such an iconic performance. “Of course, I watched Betsy Palmer and I know she is so well loved, but you can’t do what Betsy did,” Cardellini explained. “That’s so her own and I would never try to mimic her, but there are echoes of her performance and there were lines that Brad and I were sure to keep in and reiterate. She’s present in mind, but the series goes so far beyond the little bit with her in [Friday the 13th] so there has to be something to build out.”
While going out of her way to not mimic Palmer’s performance, Cardellini had the opportunity to wear Pamela Voorhees’ unmistakable blue sweater in the show. “It was so great,” she said, “Because not only is that sweater important in [Friday the 13th (1980)], that sweater is important in [Friday the 13th: Part II] when the girl puts it on and pretends to be his mother. The sweater really has its own life.”
The series finds Cardellini’s character reckoning with the devastating, unimaginable loss of her son, Jason. This fateful event serves as the instigating event that leads Pamela down a dark path of murder and lies at the heart of her arc in the series. “I think that the core of Pam and I think something that I held onto is she never gives up on him,” Cardellini reflected. “And we all know that Jason lives on, even though [the show] is a lot about him in the lake drowning….She never ever lets go of the idea that he’s still around. And I think that’s what keeps her going. It’s what keeps her from giving up in general and it makes her do all the things that she’s doing.”
Cardellini delivers a powerhouse performance as Pamela Voorhees in the series, but she was quick to point out that young Jason Voorhees actor Callum Vinson has the most difficult role of any actor in the show. “He’s wonderful,” Cardellini said. “He really has the hardest role I think, because he’s got to wear certain [prosthetics and make-up]. He’s still just a kid and going to work everyday and wearing prosthetics and that’s hard.”
As Pamela Voorhees, Cardellini had the opportunity to flex muscles in her acting repertoire she previously had not used so extensively. “I hadn’t played anybody who had been able to release rage like that,” the actress said. “And of all the injustices that happened to her. She does them to other people too, but the ones that happened to her she keeps it in for so long. … I never realized how much that physical exhaustion would add.”
The Eclectic Citizens of Crystal Lake
While Crystal Lake follows the years leading up to Friday the 13th by chronicling Pamela Voorhees’ descent into madness, the series also bolsters a number of supporting characters with distinctive journeys of their own.
None of these players is more prominent than Levon Brooks, the new sheriff of Crystal Lake played by William Catlett. Playing a black policeman in a small town in the 1970s is just the foundation for what materializes to be an unexpectedly rich journey for Catlett’s character across the eight-episode series. “Pam and Levon are both dealing with grief,” Catlett said. “I just lost my wife, so I understand her. Everyone’s looking for a safe home and someone to call home and so I think that the trauma and grief bonds them as they try to figure out who they can talk to.”
Friday the 13th has a rich history of absurd police officer characters, ranging from the infamous Officer Dorf (who we’ll get to in a minute) from the original film to the pistol-with-a-sniper-scope-wielding Deputy Rick Cologne from Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. But, consistent with Kane’s intent on telling a more grounded and series story, Catlett’s Sheriff Levon Brooks enters the story with considerably more depth. “My muse for this was Sydney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night,” Cattlet explored. “He’s coming to a small town. It’s the 1970s. I’m a sheriff, which is already an anomaly.”
Catlett continued, “I think naturally I gravitate to what other story can you tell within the story. And I think Levon just really cares about this woman and you just don’t know why. It’s like you fall in love with someone. You don’t know why you keep picking up the phone and calling, but he just has a thing for Pam. You know, Pam is crazy. Pam is out here killing people. She’s doing it, but he’s still knowing that, if I arrest her, then that’s another loss. Lost my wife, now I’m losing somebody else again. So now you come to this small town and all your principles are getting tried and so you’re bumping up against all of that and nobody wants you there and they really want Dorf to be in your position. So it’s like, how do you try to maintain power and control if nobody in the town really wants you there, and you still gotta try to keep it together for everyone.”
Cameron Scoggins, meanwhile, plays another police officer character with unexpected depth. “It was a surprise to be able to get this sort of flavor to the Dorf story and the Dorf character,” Scoggins said. “It’s something Brad and I talked about and it’s something Will and I talked about, but the fact that we’re taking place in the 70s in a small town and we have a black sheriff and I’m coming from a family background, as you’ll find out more as the show goes, with a racist father and things like that part of the own…I think even in Part One, Dorf played by Ron Millkie is on-screen for such a brief period of time, but to me that scene was very memorable. Of course, it starts with the whole headdress on and that you’re going tor remember that, but there’s something very quirky about that officer and that does separate him a little bit from the rest of the cops that appear in Part 2 and things ike that…. Brad brought all these amazing ideas to expand the character with. The martial arts interest and the Bruce Lee movies and the 70s bravado, but if that 70s bravado is actually coming from a nerd.”
Another key figure in Crystal Lake’s ensemble is Levon’s sister Briana Brooks, a journalist who drives home much of the aforementioned All the President’s Men influences. “As an artist, I’m not interested in portraying anything or anybody as a perfect specimen,” actress Devin Kessler said regarding her character. “There’s no such thing as that. I think what’s limited us in life is this idea that we have to match up to something, match up to an image, match up to an idea, match up to what have you.”
Speaking about the collective journeys of the supporting characters more broadly, Scoggins remarked, “Although a lot of us exist within Crystal Lake, we’re sort of all in our own realities of what Crystal Lake is at the start of this show. And then, over course of the [show], we all start to blend into the same genre and we all start to meet each other in Pam’s reality.
Pressure? What Pressure?
Bringing to life the first Friday the 13th story in nearly 20 years and the first ever prequel to the classic original could have been a daunting task, but, at least for William Catlett, he feels excitement more than intimidation. “The accumulation of all the films, I think they got like 37% on Rotten Tomatoes,” Catlett joked. “So, we’re in good hands. We’re good. Is there pressure? No. I think the fans are really gonna enjoy it, from what I’ve seen so far.”
Many of the people tuning into Crystal Lake on Peacock on October 15th will be introduced to Jason Voorhees for the first time. Unlike other slasher icons like Michael Myers, Chucky, and Leatherface, Voorhees has been disappointingly absent for quite some time. Catlett views Crystal Lake as the perfect way to introduce Friday the 13th to a new crop of Jason fans. “It’s also a nice introduction to the new generation, right?” Catlett said. “We grew up with Jason. The new kids, they’re streaming, they’re on TikTok. So it’s nice to see what Halloween is going to be like [this year].”
Described as “a mixtape of genre” by creator Brad Caleb Kane, Crystal Lake takes the Friday the 13th franchise in a different, more grounded and gut-wrenching direction by finally giving long overdue attention to Pamela Voorhees, an underrated icon of horror cinema. On October 15, get ready for tantalizing reveals about the hockey mask-wearing killer and a story that delivers slasher thrills and unexpected emotion in equal measure.
Watch our full interviews with Crystal Lake creator Brad Caleb Kane and stars Linda Cardellini, William Cactlett, Cameron Scoggins, and Devin Kessler below….
