• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 7 hours ago

Peacock’s “Friday the 13th” prequel series, “Crystal Lake,” brings plenty of horror and, in the process, takes its rightful place in the “13th” pantheon.

“Crystal Lake” is a Jason origin story that starts in 1971 when the future psycho killer seen in 12 “Friday the 13th” movies is 11 years-old.

He lives with his mother, Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), in the fictional town of Crystal Lake, the name of the town’s most conspicuous feature and the site of a summer camp for boys and girls.

Jason is an outcast among the other children for his evident deformities, most notably an encephalitic head and a pattern of sudden seizures.

It is not a spoiler to reveal that young Jason (played in the show by Callum Vinson) drowns in the lake (or so it seems) due in part to the negligence of teen camp counselors. 

This is well-known from the movies, starting with the first one titled “Friday the 13th,” released in 1980. But “Crystal Lake” is more a story about Pamela Voorhees than it is about Jason. 

At the onset of the show, Pamela is loving and protective of Jason, who she encourages to attend the summer camp, where Pamela is the camp’s cook.

After his apparent drowning, Pamela remains in a state of deep mourning because of the loss, but also because Jason’s body has never been found.

As Episode One unfolds, we learn more about Pamela’s and Jason’s life before they came to Crystal Lake six years previously.

These details get unwrapped gradually, and only partially, in Episode One of the eight-part series.

As the on-and-off revelations mount up, “Crystal Lake” becomes an increasingly unsettling experience, which is the whole point of a horror series like this.

Which is to say: “Crystal Lake” is a great show, for horror aficionados and possibly others too.

The show’s leading light appears to be Brad Caleb Kane, who is credited as creator, writer, showrunner and executive producer. 

With no familiarity with the movies (and one previous TV series) in the “Friday the 13th” franchise, I cannot say how it measures up to the rest of them. 

I saw something on line that took issue with the show’s time frame. In the original 1980 movie, Jason is said to have drowned in 1957.

This seems like a minor issue unless you are some kind of a “Friday the 13th” purist. As it happens, the show’s re-creation of the early 1970s is right on the money. 

Whether Jason drowned in 1957 or 1971 is beside the point. More important is the time frame for the release of this blood-drenched horror prequel just in time for the Halloween season. 

All eight episodes of “Crystal Lake” drop Thursday (October 15) on Peacock.