Crystal Lake review: A gory Friday the 13th prequel that won over a non-fan

Published 15 October 2026. Words like "tonight" or "next week" refer to that date.

I never expected to enjoy Crystal Lake, the prequel series to the Friday the 13th movies, and when I started it, I thought it was bad. Then something in the middle of the first episode hooked me, and I never looked back.

Crystal Lake dropped its entire season, all eight episodes, on Peacock on October 15th. This is my spoiler-free review.

A disgusting moment in episode one turned Crystal Lake around for me

Let me set the stage. I'm not a fan of the Friday the 13th movies and never got into them. I don't like camping, although neither does anybody in those movies. I also don't care for the 1970s. It's my least favorite decade. Then, when I turned on the first episode, I made the mistake of sitting down with my dinner. Young Jason is, as he's supposed to be, pretty gross, so my chicken nuggets were ruined. I'd been looking forward to that dinner all day, and it put me in a really bad mood.

I just didn't like the show when it started. I picked up my phone but kept the show on in the background, because I figured I should at least see the first episode. It's a major franchise, horror is hot right now, and it's A24, so I wanted to see what they had. In the middle of that first episode, something so disgusting and unusual happened that it made me put my phone down. How much content can you say that about? I actually rewound it to see what I'd just seen, and I thought, "maybe they have something here."

I'm happy to report that every single episode has a moment like that, to the point that I wish this wasn't a binge. I did very much enjoy it as a binge, but if it had been week to week, we could have been talking about these moments as they came. They're very well done, a combination of practical and computer VFX. Many times I thought, "I've never seen that before." It was mesmerizing because the show didn't cut away, which a lot of horror movies would do. It lingered, and it was hypnotic.

Crystal Lake delivers the scares and gore that Carrie doesn't

Mike Flanagan's Carrie over on Prime Video is a lot of fun. I gave it a very good review, and I'm glad a lot of people are enjoying it. But it's not very scary, and it's not very gory, and I know some fans have found that a bit of a minus.

Crystal Lake has those things in spades. That makes it an absolutely perfect release for Halloween.

Showrunner Brad Caleb Kane stays true to the low-budget slasher tone of the original film

It seems that Crystal Lake has been an idea kicking around Hollywood for a while now, and some pretty big names in the TV space have worked on it. Bryan Fuller tried to develop it, and so did Kevin Williamson of Scream fame. It ended up going to Brad Caleb Kane, who is the showrunner here. He was one half of the showrunner team behind the first season of It: Welcome to Derry, and I think his leaving that show is kind of what slowed its season 2 renewal down a little bit.

The shockingness of It: Welcome to Derry is, I think, the best thing that can prepare you for the shockingness here. Who knew the singing voice of Disney's Aladdin was so dark and twisted? Thank goodness he is, because he's a really good television showrunner. Kane and his team do an excellent job, not only expanding the Friday the 13th mythology but staying very true to the low-budget slasher tone of the original film.

I loved the opening credits sequence. I never fast-forwarded it, and it really set the mood. It's a little Hitchcockian. I said that about the recent Cape Fear too, but Cape Fear was like a modern Hitchcock. This is like Hitchcock of his era, and a very specific time in his career: the 1970s, when he no longer had to abide by the production code and got really dark and disturbing. I'm specifically referencing 1972's Frenzy, a film I actually turned off. I was able to get through Crystal Lake, but Frenzy was too much for me. I think there are certainly parallels, both in the disturbing nature and in the quality of the production and the 1970s feel.

Linda Cardellini's Pamela Voorhees is the first thing that anchors Crystal Lake

In my opinion, three things really anchor Crystal Lake. The first is Linda Cardellini, fresh off another unique turn in DTF St. Louis, which won a surprising number of Emmys. I didn't finish that one either. It didn't really work for me, though I didn't think it was horrible, and I think this is better.

Cardellini is the lead here. As fans know, Pamela Voorhees is actually the killer in the original Friday the 13th movie, so seeing how she becomes that person is not only very interesting but refreshing. It's a female psychopath, and one who can hold her own with all the dudes. She's very convincing, both in the psychological aspects and in her kills, which is impressive for someone so tiny in stature. She swings that blade with formidable force, the kind where you think nobody is surviving that.

Several times I was shocked by the ferocity and believability of her performance. It was over the top, and I couldn't believe what I'd just seen, but they still made it believable and very cinematic, and it all came together and worked for me. I feel like there's not a lot of other stuff doing it quite this way, although, to be fair, I don't have the encyclopedic horror knowledge that longtime genre fans do.

When your murderous psychopath is the lead character, she has to be maybe not sympathetic, but understandable, and Crystal Lake does a very good job of putting you in her shoes. This is a great female role, particularly for a somewhat older actress. Pamela Voorhees is still very sexy and formidable here. Cardellini is lucky to have landed this role. She apparently wasn't the first choice, and to her credit, she doesn't waste the opportunity.

The expanded Jason mythology answers the big questions without ruining his mystery

The second thing that anchors the show is the expanded mythology. Who is Jason? What is Jason? And how does he have a seemingly normal mother? These questions are all answered by the end, and I think in a very satisfactory way. Maybe because I'm not a huge Friday the 13th fan, I'm not sure it will scratch that itch for super fans, but I felt it went even beyond what I was expecting.

It does all of that without ruining the mystery of Jason Voorhees. He's supposed to be a shadowy figure, and you're not supposed to know everything about him. I think that's why they decided to do a prequel based on the mother, so you can get to know Jason a little better while still maintaining his mystery. I don't want to say anything else and ruin it.

The show also figures out a way to stretch this prequel story across eight episodes. That's a lot of episodes, but with so many twists and turns, and those gory moments, I never felt they were stretching the story for time. I think they had just enough. I didn't feel the ending was rushed or slowed down. It was just right.

A 1970s production style and New Jersey locations show real respect for the original

The third thing that anchors Crystal Lake is the quality of the production. It feels very 70s in a compelling way. It reminds you of Friday the 13th, which actually came out in 1980 but was made in the 70s and has that aesthetic. It also brings to mind Frenzy, and even to a degree Jaws, with a sleepy small town of Americana that doesn't realize what it's up against.

The locations they found in New Jersey are absolutely perfect, and some even come from the original Friday the 13th movie, which was a great idea. Clearly Kane and his team have real love and respect for that original film, and it's very evident. "So even if it's not your cup of blood I think at the very least you have to respect it."

For me, that got it through some of the points I didn't really love. The quality and the respect for the source material kept me keyed in. They really seemed to know what they were doing, so I kept going.

I'd add Crystal Lake to A24's short list of TV standouts

This show feels very A24. It's interesting, because A24 has such a strong reputation and fan base in the movie space, but even though they've done a lot of streaming work, they really aren't known there. For all they've produced, they have only a few standouts. I would say Euphoria, Beef and Margo's Got Money Troubles, and now I would add this for sure.

I don't know if another studio would have had the guts to be as gross as this show is and still somehow keep it highbrow. That's a very unique balancing act for A24. It's also executive produced by Roy Lee, a leading force in the horror space today, so there's quite a pedigree behind the scenes as well.

As for the rest of the cast, William Catlett is the town's sheriff, who is unlucky enough to have a crush on Pam. Poor guy. There's also a young girl who was friends with Jason, and maybe still is, and the actress who plays her is very good. The whole cast is excellent; nobody didn't do a good job. There's also a surprise extended cameo toward the end that I really enjoyed. It gave the show a second wind heading into the last couple of episodes.

Why I think Crystal Lake is worth Peacock for Halloween

I think its timing for Halloween is absolutely perfect. Fourth of July would have been a good time as well, because it's summer in a sleepy town with a camp, very Americana, with that Jaws aspect. But it's great for Halloween especially because it's so disgusting.

Maybe I'm also becoming more of a horror fan. As the genre becomes so popular and I see more of it, I think I'm starting to better appreciate and understand it. I think that's another reason I liked Crystal Lake: it let me geek out over it from a Halloween perspective and from a horror genre perspective. And again, Pamela Voorhees is a fantastic female character.

You have to at least get through the full first episode and see the disgusting thing that made me put my phone down. Either you'll be hooked too, or you'll decide it's too much for you, and that's no problem. At least you'll know. If you don't have Peacock, I think it's worth it for Halloween. It's a binge, so you can get just one month. You can see Carrie at any time, and I'm glad people are enjoying Carrie, but this is a better fit for the spooky season. "This is the perfect season to be disgusted."

Which do you think suits the Halloween season better, Crystal Lake or Carrie?