It Took 17 Years to Get a New Friday the 13th Project Made. The Trick Was Not Making a Friday the 13th Movie.
Seventeen years. That’s how long it took to get any new Friday the 13th project off the ground before Crystal Lake finally happened. So when the show’s creator, Brad, sat down for the Backlot Pass Panel, the first question out of the gate was basically: how does it feel to be the guy who finally cracked it?
“It’s thrilling and terrifying,” he said. Fair. He’s not a hired gun on this one either. “I grew up with the franchise. I’ve seen almost every one of these movies in theaters first run. The first one I saw was in 1982, summer of 82. I saw Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3D. It blew my mind. It opened my eyes to the gateway drug to the wider world of film genre.” The horror genre became, in his words, “the thing that I measured everything that I did by.” So no pressure, seventeen years of fans waiting, and the guy running it is also the biggest fan in the room.
Linda, who plays young Pamela Voorhees, was a little more concise about it. Asked how she felt, she went with “excited,” then “nervous,” then just landed on “all of the above.” Makes sense. “It’s a well-loved franchise. So entering into that is exciting and also daunting.”
Why horror right now
Somebody asked the bigger genre question. Horror’s stopped being a niche thing and turned into Hollywood’s safest bet. Why now? Brad’s theory: it’s primal.
“I think it’s a release valve,” he said. “I think people are wound pretty tightly.” He pointed back to the golden age of the slasher flick, late 70s into the early 80s, which lined up with a stretch of economic malaise and eroding trust in institutions. “People wanted escape. And people wanted a thrill at the misfortunes of others as opposed to their own.” Then, simpler: “It’s just fun. People love fun.”
Linda’s answer went somewhere more specific. It’s not that people secretly want to be scared in real life. It’s that horror lets you get the rush without the actual stakes. “I think the controlled fear of watching it in a film and exercising those muscles, but not having the stakes being really high, is the allure.” And then a nice line about what watching the show itself feels like: “It really does operate with these ups and downs and these wild moments and these beautiful sort of colors and music. I think it’s just sort of a feast for the senses.”
The blood bag took a few takes
Deadline’s Rosie opened with the fact that the show gave her nightmares the night before, which, respect. She wanted to know about the gnarlier practical effects. Specifically a bag of blood that dumps directly on Linda’s face mid-scene.
Turns out that one gag alone took real engineering. “Blood has to fall exactly in the right position for that. It’s really a stunt for that stunt to work,” Brad explained. Multiple takes, a lot of cleanup between them, and not much room for error because the effects gags were hard to reset. Which is where the praise for Linda came in. “There was never a moment where Linda was not in the right place. She nailed it every single time.” He called her a consummate professional in front of the whole room. Good way to make a press conference slightly awkward for the person sitting next to you, but also, fair enough if she earned it.
They actually filmed at the real Camp Crystal Lake location
This is the detail that’s going to matter most to the die-hards. Crystal Lake is the first Friday the 13th project to go back and shoot exteriors in Blairstown, New Jersey, the actual town where the original 1980 film was made.
“It was a deliberate choice to go back there and do exteriors in Blairstown,” Brad confirmed. “That’s one of the Easter eggs we wanted to give to the die-hard fans.” No original crew members worked on the new show, and there weren’t locals around from 1980 with firsthand stories, but the town itself has become something like a pilgrimage site. “It’s like Mecca for Friday the 13th fans,” he said, comparing it to walking onto the old Universal backlot and standing in Courthouse Square. “It hasn’t changed really very much in 45 years.” There’s still a Blairstown Diner, and yes, it’s decorated with Jason and Friday the 13th memorabilia inside.
“We weren’t making a Friday the 13th movie”
The bigger creative problem wasn’t location. It was tone. How do you build a series, with a continuing character who talks, out of a franchise where the whole appeal is a guy in a hockey mask who doesn’t say much and shows up every 90 minutes to end somebody?
Brad’s answer was to sidestep the question entirely. “Thankfully we weren’t making a Friday the 13th movie. They are going to make another Friday the 13th movie, which I’m sure will be Friday the 13th to the max. But this was called Crystal Lake, and we were doing a story about the town, and a prequel about Jason’s mom.” Fresh snow, basically. No formula to protect, just a mythology to build backward into.
That mythology centers on Pam, and her arc is the whole show. We already know where she ends up. The first movie tells you that. What Crystal Lake gets to do is fill in everything before it. “What Brad gave me was a beautiful beginning, and somewhere to go,” Linda said. “There’s an arc there from somebody who means well and is trying to survive, and doing the best that she can, and fighting hard for things that she thinks are right, to somebody who then turns out to do all the wrong things. That descent is very necessary.”
You can’t out-Betsy Betsy Palmer
Somebody asked the question every Pamela Voorhees actress has to answer eventually: what do you do with Betsy Palmer’s shadow hanging over the role?
The answer, more or less, was don’t try to beat her, just build around her. “You can’t duplicate what Betsy did,” Brad said. “But what she did was play this devoted mother. So for that, I can take that and bring it to the early childhood years of Jason’s life.” They even talked about giving Pam the character’s signature short hair early, then decided against it. “She has ten years to get there.” There is, however, a small homage tucked in for anyone paying attention. “I do a little bit of an homage to a certain sweater. It’s in there.”
Linda’s on a real streak of unhinged roles lately
Somebody pointed out that between this, No Good Deed, and DTF St. Louis, Linda is currently in a stretch of playing characters that are, direct quote, “weird and bloody and batshit.” She took it as a compliment.
“That’s what’s exciting to me about being an actor. If I have not done it, then I’m really keen to do it.” Pam specifically appealed to her because the franchise’s whole foundation gets flipped. “Here’s a franchise built on a man in a hockey mask, but it actually started with his mother. I thought that was a really interesting thing.” She’s been lucky, she said, to keep landing roles that don’t repeat each other this deep into her career. “I’m grateful that people write things for me. To be able to do that many things in a role, in a series, in a job, it’s just delicious for me.”
And yes, Pam does eventually go full Friday the 13th
Last question was the one everyone actually wanted answered: any kills you can tease? Brad kept it vague on specifics but confirmed the show is building somewhere very specific. “Pam goes full Friday the 13th in this season, and you will see it. There are a series of kills that are everything the movies do. Hopefully it will satisfy the real hunt, hack and slash fans too. But we build to it.”
Linda’s favorite moment so far is quieter, and honestly sounds like the better tease. The end of episode one has an almost entirely wordless fight sequence, roughly fifteen minutes, Pam against two men who show up at her door. “That much action gets a little gruesome. It gets to be all of the things, was really physical and really fun. Her rage really starts to show through, and you get a glimpse of who she will be throughout the series.” There’s a beat in there she singled out specifically, a bit of postmortem overkill on a body that’s already down. “I just feel like is very Pam’s rage.”
Seventeen years for this franchise to get back up. Turns out the way through was to stop trying to make Jason scary again and start explaining who raised him. I’m not saying I’ll sleep with the lights on before this one drops, but I’m also not not saying that.
WHEN TO WATCH
“Crystal Lake” premieres Thursday, October 15, only on Peacock. Eight episodes.