WARNING: This review contains spoilers for Friday the 13th and other media in the franchise!
Peacock’s and A24’s Crystal Lake premiered October 15 just in time for the Halloween season. Horror fans are excited to see where the newest Friday the 13th franchise will take us. The yearn for classics takes us back to one of the most famous camp slashers in film history.
The series has no shortage of fun, gory kills and twisted subplots. The special effects and acting from Linda Cardellini, William Catlett, Calum Vinson bring a new twist to Camp Crystal Lake.
The story highlights Pamela Voorhees, Jason Voorhees’s mother—the true masked killer in Sean S. Cunningham’s 1980 original. Jason isn’t cast aside in this 2026 retelling but instigates some truly memorable kills and horrors that this series uncovers.
Each episode chips away at a fearful single mother facing rage and grief when her worst nightmare comes to life. A mix of graphic visuals and popular, calming 70s ballads keeps viewers’ attention on the screen. Crystal Lake follows Pam as she tries to (and sometimes fails to) handle darker impulses while navigating life alone and seeing glimpses of her son.
There are points where scenes, subplots, and dialogue feel like filler. A sudden trip to a lifestyle coach’s seminar should prolong the buildup to the gorefest everyone expects at the climax. What it actually does is disconnect the viewers from the main storyline. The buffer between Pam’s grief and her attempt to re-enter society goes a bit long, leaving the main story to grow stale. This left confusion about where the story stands before the main storyline picks back up again.
Once the story ends, the references and plotlines make more sense for the decade (the early 1970s). There are moments where the writing tries too hard to sell the time capsule (“Trans-Am,” “Hell-A,” “Manson-ers”), but the acting and special effects help smooth out the rougher writing.
Crystal Lake is Easter Egg Central
Something that first stood out were the awkward episode names: “Crystal Lake,” “Part 2,” “Part III,” “A New Beginning,” “The New Blood,” “Kill Them, Mommy,” “Friday…,” and “The Final Chapter.” It doesn’t take long to find that each episode name pays homage to the series’ predecessors. Episode names echo after one of the 12 sequels following the 1980 original and various Easter eggs. Fortunately, they didn’t have to make a “Jason Takes Manhattan” episode…
Some more Easter eggs laid throughout the series tapped into nostalgia, especially the famous “ch ch ch ha ha ha” whispered pattern played throughout the franchise. This sound first appeared in the original Friday the 13th, created by composer Harry Manfredini. Manfredini explained in Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th that close-up of Betsy Palmer who originally portrayed Pamela Voorhees, saying the line, “Kill her, Mommy,” inspired him. Manfredini recorded the sound and ran it through an Echoplex to achieve an echoing effect.
Padraig Cotter, a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant, explained the origins of the sound further: “The [sound] also conveys the idea that Pamela is hearing Jason’s voice in her head as she’s killing victims. Like the shark theme in Jaws, this whispering let audiences know that Friday the 13th’s killer is around, even though they can’t be seen.”
This sound plays up until Jason is first seen in the pilot episode. As the camera moves in Jason’s perspective walking through the Voorhees home, you hear the “ch ch ch ha ha ha” amidst unsettling music.
Crystal Lake is a Fun Watch for Horror Fans
Ultimately, Crystal Lake plays for nostalgia, while giving a fresh twist on the origins of Hollywood’s most popular slashers. Among the Ghostfaces, Freddy Kreugers and Michael Myers, Jason and Pam Voorhees carries a tale of terror behind summer camps, lakes and how human error can lead to some of the largest responses to revenge, grief and loss.
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