Even though Pamela Voorhees is the original villain in the Friday the 13th franchise, she is often forgotten. The mix-up is so ingrained in horror culture that in Wes Craven’s Scream, Ghostface asks his first victim who the original Camp Crystal Lake killer is, to which she says Jason. Throughout time, Jason Voorhees has become a horror icon, while his mother faded into the background. That’s why Crystal Lake creator Brad Caleb Kane wanted the new prequel series to focus on Pam.
“Well, we only see her for just a really short time at the end of the first movie. She talks about basically what’s the foundation for the entire series, which is her relationship with Jason and how close they were,” said Kane to GamesRadar+. “And then she gets her head lopped off, and that’s all we see of her… It felt like there was more to explore there about that relationship with Jason. We hear about it very briefly.”
The original 1980 Friday the 13th takes place years after a young boy died at Camp Crystal Lake. But when the site reopens, a mystery killer starts to pick off the camp counselors one by one. At the end, Pamela Voorhees is revealed as the murderer, who was seeking revenge for her son, who drowned due to lack of attention from camp staff. Pamela confesses her crimes to final girl Alice, before Alice cuts off her head.
Pamela’s confession scene only lasts around 2 minutes. But it was that moment that inspired the new show. “It forms the basis for the whole series,” reveals Kane. “But we never understand it dramatically. So it felt like a series could help us see all of the different facets of Pamela Voorhees and how this whole series kicked off.”
Crystal Lake is set years before the first movie, starring Linda Cardellini as a young Pam raising her young, sickly son in a small town. But when Jason drowns in an accident at the camp, it sets off a disturbing chain of events that forces Pamela to confront her dark past and puts her on a path to becoming the killer we see in the movie.
When taking on the horror icon, Cardellini says she “looked at the past performances,” but didn’t want to copy Betsy Palmer’s original portrayal of Pam. “It can be daunting because you’re taking on something that people love. But at the same time, there’s so much life for her to have,” said the star. “Her performance is so amazing. It’s so wild and captivating that I didn’t want to try to mimic her.” But Cardellini made sure to include “little nods and echoes of her” wherever she could to “honor the original.”
Crystal Lake premieres on Peacock in the US on October 15, and on Sky and NOW in the UK on October 19. For more, check out our Crystal Lake review, and keep up with new TV shows on the way.