The ‘Crystal Lake’ Series Sounds Like Thursday The 12th – Not Friday The 13th

Friday the 13th returns.

This time, though, as a prequel television series titled Crystal Lake from A24 – the studio that brings us all our favorite weird movies, such as Hereditary and The Witch. There’s one problem, though: While this series sounded promising to begin with, it’s now appearing to be nothing more than a prequel of the original movie – and that’s a bad idea.

In the beginning, there was Bryan Fuller 

One of the primary reasons to have been excited about Crystal Lake was the fact that Bryan Fuller was on board as the showrunner and executive producer. Fuller, for the lack of a better term, is a genius. His work on Hannibal defied all the odds to become nothing short of sensational. Before Hannibal, no one could have ever seen anyone else but Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter and viewed The Silence of the Lambs as the peak of the franchise. Now, living in a post-Hannibal world, who can argue that Mads Mikkelsen is the definitive version of the character or that Fuller created a deeper, cerebral series than anything before it?

Fuller held grand ambitions for Crystal Lake, too. Charlize Theron was attached as Pamela Voorhees at one point, while Fuller joked that the series might head off to space if it gets a 10-season run so that he could pay tribute to Jason X. However, several behind-the-scenes issues and disputes between Fuller and A24 led to his unceremonious departure in 2024.

As the dust settled, details surfaced of what Fuller was creating with Crystal Lake. Reportedly, Fuller would have approached the material in much the same way he did Hannibal, pulling from the various sequels to shape a story that would touch on all points of the lore. “We had the mask, we had the sequels, we could do whatever we wanted,” a source told TheWrap about Fuller’s vision. “He had a good path forward, which I did really like.”

What’s most concerning is what Friday the 13th director Sean S. Cunningham said about the situation to Bloody Disgusting. Cunningham spoke about how Peacock and A24 didn’t like Fuller’s version, believing “it was gonna be too dark.” Uh, Jason Voorhees isn’t exactly trimming branches with his machete. Have these people not watched the previous movies?!

Brad Caleb Kane joins as the new ‘Crystal Lake’ showrunner

According to TheWrap’s report, no producer or showrunner in Hollywood wanted to touch Crystal Lake after Bryan Fuller’s departure, with agents describing the production as “radioactive.” However, Brad Caleb Kane put on the hazmat suit and headed off to Crystal Lake.

Reportedly, Kane didn’t use anything that Fuller had already done or planned. Instead, his version would be an entire creative reset. Crystal Lake was now a Friday the 13th prequel that would follow Pamela Voorhees, played by Linda Cardellini. In other words, it’s the backstory of the 1980 film, because yay prequels.

In the first Friday the 13th film, viewers find out how Jason Voorhees drowned at Camp Crystal Lake after the camp counselors were negligent and didn’t watch him. This leads his mother, Pamela, on a murderous rampage whereby she slaughters counselors from there on out as revenge. Pamela dies in the last act, but she has the last laugh as her baby boy’s corpse rises from the lake in which he drowned, taking over the murder responsibilities.

Why a prequel is unnecessary here

Look, let’s be real here for a second: Friday the 13th provides a solid-enough backstory of what led Pamela Voorhees to go after the camp counselors after they let her son, Jason, die. It’s right there and self-explanatory, so do we need to see her get annoyed at a bunch of horny teenagers for an entire episode or season before picking up the weapons?

The horror genre has taught us that sometimes it’s best to leave parts of the story up to the audience’s imagination. Seriously, look at how everyone blasted Rob Zombie’s Halloween for the Michael Myers childhood sequence and trying to give a reason to his evil tendencies. It isn’t necessary to explore every nook and cranny of the narrative, especially in slashers.

Yes, Pamela remains fundamental to the lore, and it’s crucial that an audience sees her transformation into the first villain, but you cannot dispute that the franchise picked up momentum once Jason became the hulking supernatural killer. In fact, the average person would point to Jason being the face of Friday the 13th – not Pamela. So, to make a Crystal Lake series centered around her before the first movie and not Jason… Well, that sounds pointless. Might as well make a prequel show about Billy Loomis’ mother from Scream while we’re at it. Actually, let’s shut up before Hollywood gets any ideas.

While Crystal Lake will be coming to Peacock, there is no release date yet as of April 2025.