, which debuts on Peacock on October 15!<\/strong><\/p>\nThe cast and creator of Crystal Lake showed up at New York Comic Con<\/u> this week to prep fans for the launch of their Friday the 13th sequel series’ next week. That included a panel discussion, a Camp Crystal Lake activation experience<\/u>, and a screening of the first episode of the show. I also got a chance to talk to the group about the long-awaited return to the hunting grounds of Jason Voorhees\u2026 and his mom Pamela. Don\u2019t forget about Pamela!<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll have a full season review of Crystal Lake in a few days, but for now I\u2019m going to break down the biggest points from Episode 1, as well as some thoughts from showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, star Linda Cardellini, and the other cast members who were in attendance.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s take a swim in the lake\u2026!<\/p>\n
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Crystal Lake Images<\/h3>\n<\/span><\/output><\/p>\n
Don\u2019t Mess With Pamela Voorhees<\/h2>\n Right out of the gate, the episode gives us Linda Cardellini\u2019s Pamela covered in blood, leaning over a bathroom sink and staring at herself in the mirror. She finds a human tooth embedded in one of her knuckles and says to herself, \u201cWhat did you do\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, we know from 1980\u2019s original Friday the 13th movie<\/u> that Pam has some slicing and dicing skills. For while her son Jason is the main slasher of the franchise, it was actually Pam who was the killer in that first film, having gone mad after her son drowned (or seemed to drown \u2013 more on that in a second) at Camp Crystal.<\/p>\n
What becomes clear as the first episode of Crystal Lake proceeds is that while this version of Pam isn\u2019t insane (or perhaps, isn\u2019t insane yet<\/em>), she definitely is capable of violence.<\/p>\n‘If someone flips that switch, there’s a loss of control for her.’
\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\u201cThere’s a switch,\u201d the actress, who just won an Emmy for the HBO series DTF St. Louis, tells me. \u201cIf you flip it with her, there’s no going back. It’s almost like she doesn’t even understand what she’s doing. If someone flips that switch, there’s a loss of control for her. In a way, she’s looking for control and then she loses it at the same time. That’s the dangerous dance there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to think there’s nobody more dangerous than a mother whose child is threatened,\u201d adds Brad Caleb Kane.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, it\u2019s somebody you don’t expect,\u201d continues Cardellini. \u201cI think that’s part of it that I really enjoyed \u2013 is that here’s this person who you can kind of relate to, but there’s a massive rage underneath there that, if you tap into it and start to open that Pandora’s box, you can’t put that genie back in the bottle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adds the showrunner: \u201cAt a certain point, maybe it also feels a little good to let that genie happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nThe Crystal Lake team at New York Comic Con.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/output><\/p>\n
Jason Lives! And He\u2019s a Cute Little Kid<\/h2>\n Everyone knows Jason Voorhees\u2019 origin story, right? It\u2019s like required reading in schools these days, isn\u2019t it? But what\u2019s interesting about the master of hockey mask couture is that we\u2019ve never really seen much of his childhood, despite his appearing in 12 movies (-ish \u2013 he\u2019s actually dead in the fifth film) to date, and decades of various ancillary media. Yes, we know he was deformed in some way, and that though believed drowned, the adult Jason took over the teenager-killing duties at Camp Crystal after his mother died in the first film.<\/p>\n
But in Crystal Lake, Caleb Kane has decided to give us a young Jason (played by Callum Vinson, who\u2019s also appeared in the Chucky TV series) who is just a cute kid who happens to be a person with some kind of physical disability. And yes, that includes a large, malformed head. I asked the showrunner how he landed on this portrayal of Jason.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvention and being really well versed in the movies,\u201d he says. \u201cThe end of the first movie, he really is \u2013 the way [make-up effects legend Tom] Savini built him, he’s sort of monstrous and he’s meant just to be this idea that sent Pam on her journey. But if we’re doing a show about how Pam lost him, you want to see the connection between mother and child. You want Jason to be a real 11-year-old boy, obviously with differences and difficulties. The iteration of Jason here really came out of the point where we were making a show about a relationship between mother and child. What is that? Who is Jason within the context of that relationship? How does losing him set Pam on this journey? So that’s where it came from.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nCardellini adds that her son is \u201ceverything to Pam\u201d but also \u201che’s everything to the franchise.\u201d Indeed, it would\u2019ve been odd to do this show and not include Jason in some way.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just loves him more than anything,\u201d says the actress. \u201cBrad wrote this line that they’re connected at the heart, and I think that is really at the core of it all \u2013 that she never feels disconnected from him. I think the codependency and the inter-connectedness is very, very deep and almost, I don’t know, telepathic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jason Dies! Sort of, Maybe?<\/h2>\n Since this show is the origin story of Jason as much as it\u2019s Pam\u2019s story, there are certain key moments in the timeline that just have to happen. And certainly one of the most important of those is Jason drowning while the camp counselors aren\u2019t paying attention \u2013 as Betsy Palmer\u2019s version of Pam says in the first film, \u201cThey were making love while that young boy drowned!\u201d And so it goes in Episode 1 of Crystal Lake that Jason must drown in order for Pam\u2019s journey to really begin.<\/p>\n
But Jason can\u2019t really be dead, can he? The question for a show like this is how the writers can build a full season of television without violating the canon that\u2019s already been established\u2026 Unless there\u2019s room to change some things, that is.<\/p>\n
‘You\u2019ve got to make sure that you give the fans what they want.’
\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\u201cI mean, if you watch the [film] series, it changes things from movie to movie,\u201d says Caleb Kane. \u201cI think there’s always room and I think it’s always ripe for reinterpretation. I think fans of the franchise are going to love certain movies and they don’t love certain movies and the fandom is pretty rabid. As a longtime fan, as somebody who knows these movies, their novelizations, all of the things sort of chapter and verse, I felt like I had a little bit of license to play. Also, you\u2019ve got to make sure that you give the fans what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n
One area where Caleb Kane and the writers seem to be taking some license is in where Jason and Pam came from before arriving at Crystal Lake. There is a hint of a past involving something called \u201cArgonaut\u201d \u2013 we just see a flashback with that name on a door at the end of a long corridor. What does it all mean? <\/p>\n
The showrunner does offer a hint: \u201cWhat you learn about [Pam] later on in the series is that she did a lot to protect him and get him out of a pretty difficult situation, and herself. When you put that amount of attention on protecting someone and loving someone, their absence is going to be that much more acute.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nLinda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/output><\/p>\n
Crystal Lake Doesn\u2019t Skimp on the Gore<\/h2>\n Remember what I said about Pam and the tooth embedded in her knuckle? Well, just wait until you see how that tooth winds up where it does. Basically, Crystal Lake gives fans plenty of blood and over-the-top gore\u2026 and there\u2019s some sex thrown in there as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing has to go full Friday the 13th at a certain point,\u201d says Caleb Kane. \u201cWe made sure we did that in the show.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, these scenes \u2013 at least as far as the pilot episode goes \u2013 don\u2019t just feature sex and violence for the sake of it. They help drive the plot and also give us insight into the characters. That said, there\u2019s one scene here that approaches a gross-out level that is just plain funny \u2013 in a good way. You gotta see it for yourself, so I won\u2019t even try to explain it.<\/p>\n
The Other Residents of Crystal Lake Are Pretty Interesting Too<\/h2>\n As a TV series, Crystal Lake needs a supporting cast, and some of the folks we meet are pretty interesting. William Catlett plays Sheriff Levon Brooks, a friend of Pam\u2019s who used to be a cop in the city and seems a bit adrift out in the woods of Crystal Lake. He might also be interested in Pam as perhaps more than a friend, but knowing where she\u2019s heading as we do, that doesn\u2019t seem destined to work out for the sheriff.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nCameron Scoggins as Officer Dorf and William Catlett as Sheriff Levon Brooks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/output><\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I think you can have two things, two wishes at the same time within your mind,\u201d says Catlett of playing the character, even though he knows where Pam will end up one day. \u201cYou love Pam, you want to be with Pam, it’s a new beginning, but at the same time it’s like, who is this woman? And so if I don’t judge it, then I can allow myself to have those emotions that go through with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gwendolyn Sundstrom plays a character named Grace who is in her early teens and is one of Jason\u2019s only friends. When he seemingly dies, it sends her on a trajectory that could be dangerous for the young girl.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s losing the most important person in your life,\u201d says Sundstrom. \u201cLosing Jason, to Grace, is something that brings a lot of trauma, and I think that definitely plays into the rest of the season too. It\u2019s something that Grace really struggles with, and she doesn’t want it to happen. She definitely wants it to reverse.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are also a couple of legacy characters from the first film who pop up as younger versions of themselves, including \u201cCrazy\u201d Ralph (played by Walt Gorney in the original series and Nick Cordileone in Crystal Lake) and Officer Dorf (played by Ron Millkie in the first film and Cameron Scoggins in Crystal Lake). Dorf actually survives the original movie, which means Scoggins has something of an insurance policy here!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cYeah, he makes it!\u201d laughs Scoggins. \u201cHe doesn’t die as far as we know in the first movie. We’ll see. He appears so briefly in that first movie that you almost do have to go back and watch it sometimes, but it is a memorable little character, and you kind of wonder, where’s that guy coming from? And it’s just so fun to take such a brief scene and expand upon that and just take the energy of a different actor and be like, well, how are we going to build on this more?\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see how Crystal Lake builds on the Friday the 13th canon more when it debuts on Peacock on October 15…<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Talk to Scott Collura <\/em>@scottcollura.bsky.social<\/em>, or listen to his <\/em>Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3<\/em>. Or do both!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n
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Read Full Article At Source <\/a>Spoilers follow for the first episode of Crystal Lake, which debuts on Peacock on October 15! The cast and creator of Crystal Lake showed up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[9654,5776,2628,680,13579,318],"class_list":["post-91959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-13th","tag-episode","tag-friday","tag-learned","tag-prequel","tag-series","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}