A24’s Crystal Lake manages to do something genuinely impressive with a legendary slasher franchise: it crafts a prequel that feels like it was taken straight out of the 1980s while finding a brilliant way to bring that classic decade into the present day. Shot on location as much as possible where the original film was made, the series drips with authentic atmosphere from top to bottom.

Serving as an official prequel series to the iconic Friday the 13th franchise, this series dives into the tragic, blood-soaked history of Crystal Lake before Jason Voorhees became the legendary hockey-masked killer. The story centres on a young, grieving Pamela Voorhees as she descends into madness following the drowning of her son.

Crystal Lake is accompanied by classic music from original composer Harry Manfredini alongside new score additions, and it delivers on every single marking of a classic slasher film. You get the iconic summer camp setting, teenagers taking drugs and having sex, jocks, hippies, the ever-expanding and dangerous woods, wild animals, and, most importantly, lots and lots of blood and outright creatively insane deaths.

At the emotional core of it all is Linda Cardellini as Pam, who is nothing short of fantastic. She understands the assignment completely, treating the role with a grounded seriousness despite the surrounding campiness, and that exact balance is what keeps us completely invested. Cardellini projects a lovely, warm exterior that seamlessly masks the terrifying killer inside, and she is brilliant in her reactions to her various kills.

The supporting cast helps anchor that emotional weight at every turn. William Catlett brings a grounded presence as cop Levon Brooks. His chemistry with Cardellini is sharp, and his desperate need to understand what is happening behind the scenes effectively drives the narrative forward. Meanwhile, Callum Vinson is so very sweet as a very young Jason Voorhees that you miss his presence as soon as he’s gone, making us fully comprehend Pam’s suffocating grief over losing her own child. Gwendolyn Sundstrom also delivers a fine performance as Grace, a young girl easily swayed by external forces, adding another layer of vulnerability to the unfolding horror.

Read more of our reviews →

Where Crystal Lake elevates the source material as far as it can without straying from what makes the franchise work is in its thematic weight. The series is packed with commentary about the masks we hide behind in everyday life. Episode 2 is particularly strong for this exact reason, taking Pam to a therapy group designed to strip characters right down to their deepest fears and psychological fundamentals. It’s a fascinating, deeply compelling piece of television that gives the slasher story an unexpected psychological bite.

Yet, for all the ways the series elevates the material, it runs headfirst into the inherent risk and danger of any slasher prequel. Attempting to build out a backstory for such an iconic villain is always a massive gamble, as writer and director Rob Zombie famously proved with his Halloween films. By framing Michael Myers as an abused boy, those movies ruined the backstory entirely, stripping away the terrifying essence of a killer who works best as an unexplainable tsunami. He is a pure force of nature that simply tears through everything in his path, and the fact that audiences don’t know where he came from or what brought him here makes him all the more terrifying as a villain.

Crystal Lake tries to navigate this by focusing primarily on Pam’s story and preserving the Jason mystery as much as possible, but the very act of dissecting why a killer comes to be inevitably carries heavy baggage. Even when the narrative works well within the vacuum of the show, establishing this kind of backstory creates huge implications for the films, ultimately muting everything else just a little. While Crystal Lake manages to craft an engaging, bloody drama out of Pam’s grief, it leaves you wondering if some legendary monsters are better left unexplained.

★★★★

On Sky TV on October 19th / Linda Cardellini, William Catlett, Callum Vinson, Joy Suprano, Gwendolyn Sundstrom, Cameron Scoggins / Sky TV, Peacock / Created by Brad Kane