(l-r) Linda Cardellini as Pam Voorhees, and William Catlett as Levon in CRYSTAL LAKE. ©Peacock TV. CR: Matt Infante/PEACOCK.
BY JUDY SLOANE
Front Row Features
HOLLYWOOD-Peacock’s “Crystal Lake,” a prequel to the iconic slasher franchise “Friday the 13th,” premieres on Thursday, October 15, which seems appropriate with Halloween quickly approaching. The drama spotlights Pam Voorhees (Linda Cardellini,) a single mother whose sickly son Jason tragically drowns in the local lake. When two strangers turn up at Pam’s door looking into her past, an alarming chain of events starts to unravel.
Creator/showrunner Brad Caleb Kane and star Linda Cardellini spoke with TV journalists about bringing the franchise back to life in their own unique way.
Q: Brad, being the first one to finally bring this franchise back, is there any apprehension knowing there are a lot more eyes on this project because it took so long?
Brad Caleb Kane: It’s thrilling and terrifying. 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 the summer of ’82. I saw “Friday the 13th Part III” in 3D. It blew my mind. So it’s absolutely terrifying but, at the same time, I’m thrilled with what we made. I’m very proud of the show, and hopefully people will just go on a fun ride with it.
Q: What was your biggest conceptual issue in turning this into a series?
Brad Caleb Kane: I think the biggest conceptual issue was people know what to expect from “Friday the 13th,” or at least they know what a “Friday the 13th” movie should be. It’s teens go out to a place, they are having sex and doing drugs, and then they are hunted by Mrs. Voorhees or Jason in the subsequent films or Roy in No. 5 for those die‑hards.
Thankfully, we weren’t making a “Friday the 13th” movie. This was called “Crystal Lake,” and we were doing a story about the town and a prequel about Jason’s mom, and it was really fresh snow. We could build it however we wanted.
Q: Linda, did you observe what Betsy Palmer did in the original “Friday the 13th,” or were you focused on bringing your own take on the character?
Linda Cardellini: I have, of course, seen what Betsy Palmer did. The fans love her so much. You can’t duplicate what Betsy did, but what she did is play this devoted mother, and I can take that and bring that to the early childhood years of Jason’s life.
I also think that you don’t get to where Betsy is without really truly loving Jason and getting to know him. So that was important to us, too, going in.
Brad Kane, Showrunner/Creator/Executive Producer/Writer at New York Comic Con. ©Peacock TV. CR:: Ralph Bavaro/Peacock.
Q: Linda, watching Pam, she’s very angelic, almost righteous when we first meet her, but she obviously changes course, and it’s almost like a descent into hell. Can you talk about that trajectory, how interesting was that for you, the psychology of this character?
Linda Cardellini: That’s a great question. I think that we all know where Pam ends up because she starts all of the killing in the first movie. What Brad gave me was a beautiful beginning and somewhere to go. There’s an arc there, from somebody who means well and is trying to survive, 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. It gives me a lot of places to go. I think that descent is very necessary.
Q: This is the first “Friday the 13th” to go back to the place in New Jersey where the original movie was filmed. Why did you choose to do that?
Brad Caleb Kane: It was a deliberate choice to go back there and do exteriors in Blairstown, absolutely. That’s one of the Easter eggs we wanted to give to the die‑hard fans, to re‑create certain things. That’s all I’ll say [about] that. Blairstown feels frozen in time. It hasn’t changed much in 45 years.
Linda Cardellini: I stopped and got a coffee, and inside the diner it was completely decorated full of Jason and “Friday the 13th.”
Q: What did you love about getting to dive into the character of Pamela Voorhees?
Linda Cardellini: That’s what’s exciting to me about being an actor. If I have not done it, then I really am keen to do it. Pamela was somebody that I had never played, and the idea of 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. I’m very lucky that there are these roles that I’ve been able to do that are so different from the next, and that to me is what keeps me excited about what I do. I’m grateful that people write things for me.
Brad Caleb Kane: And I did write this for you. We’ve talked about that.
Linda Cardellini: Thank you. And to be able to do that many things in a role, in a series, it’s delicious for me. I have been very lucky to be able to choose varied characters and find new things to do many decades into my career.
Q: What’s a moment from the series that you are most excited for fans to see?
Brad Caleb Kane: Pam goes full “Friday the 13th” in this season, and you will see it. And there are a series of kills that are everything the movies do, and, hopefully, it will satisfy the real hunt hack‑and‑slash fans, too, but we build to it, it’s coming.
Linda Cardellini: I’m partial to the end of that first episode because she doesn’t really speak in the last 15 minutes. It’s a fight sequence with me and the two men that show up at the door. It was really physical and really fun, and I think her rage starts to show through, and you get a glimpse of who she will be throughout the series in those moments.
