Iconic 1980s slashers are thriving! On the same day as exciting “A Nightmare on Elm Street” news, another slasher giant drops its first teaser for an upcoming Peacock series. That’s right, the streaming platform’s “Crystal Lake” series, a prequel to the 1980 film “Friday the 13th,” teases what fans can expect from Pamela Voorhees’ villain origin story.
Brian Caleb Kane, behind the Oscar-nominated “It: Welcome to Derry” series, explains how the forthcoming series is a “character piece” as it digs into the mind of Pamela (played by Linda Cardellini of “La Llorona” and “Dead to Me”) and “her unravelling after the events of the movie that everybody knows,” Kane tells Entertainment Weekly. “We wanted to see her relationship with Jason and what his death kicks off in her.”
Cardellini notes that the show is “many things at once, but it works as this fun ride. There’s some scenes set in an outdoor carnival, and I feel like it’s almost that feel.”
With the first teaser, Peacock promises plenty of blood, guts and gore.
‘Crystal Lake’ Teaser Shows Pamela’s Bloodthirsty Revenge
“It’s like someone put a curse on this town,” the teaser begins, opening with footage of campers arriving at camp and a group of counselors around a campfire. “It all started when that kid drowned last summer.” Pamela is then seen diving into the lake and coming up for air, screaming her son’s name.
“There’s something in these woods, and all it knows how to deal is kill,” a camp counselor continues. Sequences of first-person POV camera work and someone running in the woods can be seen. Pamela is also covered with blood and whispers one chilling line, “Jason, I’m here.”
‘Crystal Lake’ Shifts the Timeline
The 1980 “Friday the 13th” tells the story of Pamela Voorhees stalking and murdering a new batch of camp counselors tasked with giving Camp Crystal Lake a much-needed renovation. Jason Voorhees drowned in the lake in the late 1950s, but Kane updates the story (i.e., the death and Pamela’s rampage) to take place entirely in the ’70s. “I wanted to touch on all the pop-culture artifacts that were tangential to the America from which these movies were born,” the showrunner says.
Many of the first film’s characters will find their way into the story. The two sexually active teenagers (Danielle Kotch and Phoenix Parnevik) who were Pamela’s first victims are turned into actual characters. Officer Dorf (Cameron Scoggins), “Crazy” Ralph (Nick Cordileone) and young Jason (Callum Vinson) will also worm into the series.
Peacock’s “Crystal Lake” follows “Sweet Revenge,” a short film about Jason Voorhees released in 2025. In partnership with Angry Orchard, a popular alcoholic beverage, the 15-minute film offered fans some bloody goodness and dangerously delicious kills, racking up over 400,000 views on YouTube.
“Sweet Revenge” began what has been called The Jason Universe, which sees the legendary serial killer stalking “Dead by Daylight,” “Call of Duty” and various other media. A theatrical film is expected to be on the horizon, now that the IP’s rights have been temporarily agreed upon by screenwriter Victor Miller and film producer Sean S. Cunningham.
“Crystal Lake” premieres on Peacock on October 15, 2026.
