A new trailer for the upcoming Friday the 13th prequel series, Crystal Lake, has landed and it takes serious liberties with franchise lore. As Scream‘s original Ghostface killer vividly reminded us, Jason Voorhees, despite being the horror icon most identified with the Friday the 13th movie franchise, was not the killer in the original film. That honor goes to his mother, Pamela, originally played by Betsy Palmer in the 1980 film that started it all. Jason was her deformed child who supposedly drowned at Camp Crystal Lake while the lifeguards were too busy lusting for each other.
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The lore varies from film to film — continuity was a lot looser before fans were able to argue about inconsistencies on the Internet. There’s some suggestion in the first film that either Jason’s spirit is possessing his mother in a sort of reverse-Norman Bates from Psycho, or that his ghost still lies under the lake. Nevertheless, by Part II Jason is back as a fully grown adult living in the woods with a bag over his head. In Part IV he dies, in Part V he’s replaced, and in Part VI lightning resurrects him to be an unkillable zombie thereafter.
The Crystal Lake Prequel Series is Re-Writing Friday the 13th Lore
The prequel-ish series Crystal Lake centers on Pamela, played this time by Linda Cardellini. Continuity does matter nowadays, and the latest trailer for the new series confirms that the show will be creating its own timeline, picking and choosing from four decades’ worth of lore to explore Jason’s origin.
Check out the trailer below:
The original Friday the 13th had the killings begin in 1958, which was 22 years earlier than the 1980 release date. Crystal Lake moves the timeline forward to 1971, which is 55 years ago now. Pamela is clearly at least one killer, but she may not be the only one — there’s a blurry image of a Jason-like character in action, and a reference to a victim looking like they were killed by a bear, which sounds more like a grown Jason than Pam. Then we get a reference to what Pam and Jason “really” are, with an image of some sort of lab. And of course, the classic “Ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma” sound derived from the words “kill” and “mother.”
None of the Jason movies has ever really explained Jason’s power set — the inconsistencies in continuity already give the series the feel of different tales told around the campfire, with each narrator changing details somewhat. Jason X had him in cryostasis in a lab, being studied to determine why he can’t die; later in that movie, nanites turn him into a cyborg. By the time the story gets to Freddy vs. Jason, he has escaped from Hell, so all bets are off. It looks like, as with Pennywise in Welcome to Derry, we may learn that the government had a hand in unleashing the famous killer.
The year 1971 sets it during the Vietnam War, which could be a clue to governmental intentions at the time; perhaps the only other reason to set the movie that far back is for the distinct visual aesthetic. If they set a series in 2004 now, characters probably wouldn’t dress as differently than people in the ’80s did from people in the ’50s.
All eight episodes of Crystal Lake drop on Peacock Oct. 15th, so you can binge before Halloween and still have time to watch all the movies afterward.
