Posted in: Movies, Peacock, TV | Tagged: crystal lake

Crystal Lake Has "A Lot of Story" And "Does Get Gory": Cardellini

Crystal Lake star Linda Cardellini (DTF St. Louis) discussed the "Friday the 13th" prequel series and how it balances story with gore.

With October 15th here before you know it, we've been learning a lot more about what Showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, Peacock, and A24's Linda Cardellini (DTF St. Louis)-starring Crystal Lake has to offer. Speaking with Variety during an HBO Max event honoring its Emmy Award nominees, Cardellini explained a key difference between the prequel series and approaching it as a horror film. "This is a longer format, so there's a lot more you get to do in eight episodes. It's not necessarily like 90 minutes of pure horror. There's a lot of story there. So maybe once in a while you'll throw some things and scream," she shared.

But that doesn't mean that a series from the showrunner for HBO Max's It: Welcome to Derry doesn't know when to dial up the horror and the gore. "It does get gory, yes, so much so that I wish sometimes they weren't as practical as they were," Cardellini added. "There's a couple of gory moments on set that were very practical that were pretty gross. Blood everywhere at one point." As for why she took on the role of Pam Voorhees, Cardellini noted how it stood out from other horror scripts she's read. "Everything that I've ever read that was handed to me that was in that space was for the person who was being chased, not the person who was chasing everyone," she said. "It was really fun this time to be on the other side of the knife."

Linda Cardellini teases the upcoming "Friday the 13th" prequel series, "Crystal Lake":

"This is a longer format so there's a lot more you get to do in eight episodes," Cardellini said. "It's not necessarily like 90 minutes of pure horror. There's a lot of story there. So maybe… pic.twitter.com/NCB60HsEYq

— Variety (@Variety) August 17, 2026

"We wanted to dive into Pam's psychology," Kane shared with EW, discussing the prequel's focus, earlier this summer. "We wanted to see her unraveling after [watching] the events of the movie that everybody knows. We wanted to see her relationship with Jason and what his death kicks off in her — her trying to find some sort of equilibrium in her life after the thing that ostensibly she lives for, her son, was taken away from her, and how all the people around her and the circumstances surrounding her make that impossible to do. So it's really a character piece." As for the show's time period, Kane and the creative team moved it up from the '50s to the '70s "to touch on all the pop-culture artifacts that were tangential to the America from which these movies were born."

A prequel to the "Friday the 13th" franchise, the series follows single mother Pam Voorhees, who has been unable to shake her grief after her young, sickly son Jason tragically drowned in the town lake almost a year before. When two strangers arrive at Pam's door digging into her past, a disturbing chain of events are set into motion, leaving the townspeople of Crystal Lake wondering: just who is Pam Voorhees? Set to premiere on October 15th, here's the official teaser for Crystal Lake:

Crystal Lake Has "Rivers of Blood"; Cardellini "Brilliant": Showrunner

Speaking with EW in December 2025, Kane shared some interesting insights and teases about the upcoming "Friday the 13th" prequel series. "In many ways, it's a psychological thriller. It's a paranoid '70s thriller," Kane offered about the tone and vibe of the series. "It has all of the DNA of a slasher without quite being a slasher. There are rivers of blood in the show. There are very, I think, ingenious kill sequences and deaths and murders, but it's all done in service of character and theme and place and time."

He continued, "I tried to think about Crystal Lake and a Friday the 13th prequel as, 'What era did the first movie come out of?' It came out of the paranoid '70s thriller era. It came out of the mistrust-of-institutions era. It came out of the women's lib era, the National Organization for Women era, this consciousness-raising awakening era in America. I wanted to go and play with all of those themes." As for Cardellini's portrayal of the infamous Pamela Vorhees, Kane makes it clear: folks are going to be impressed. "She's gonna shock and surprise a lot of people. I think she's gonna get a lot of attention for this role," Kane shared. "She's inconceivably brilliant in it. I can't really say any more."

"She's important to the series, but sort of unexplored," Cardellini shared during a July interview with Deadline Hollywood regarding why she took on the iconic role. "So I thought that would be really, really fun, to do something I'd never done." Helping her make the role her own is Kane, who "made sort of this mixtape of all the things that he would love to see happen for her. It goes all over the place for her character, and it's really fun." Kane is set to executive-produce Crystal Lake in addition to being the series' creator, showrunner, and writer.

Cardellini is also joined by series regulars William Catlett (Forever, Black Lightning) as Levon Brooks, Devin Kessler (Godfather of Harlem) as Briana Brooks, Cameron Scoggins (Shades of Blue, Nashville) as Dorf, and Gwendolyn Sundstrom as Grace. In addition, Callum Vinson (Chucky, Long Bright River) has landed the recurring guest star role of Jason Voorhees, along with Nick Cordileone (Warrior) as Ralph, Joy Suprano (Fleishman is in Trouble, Best Foot Forward) as Rita, Danielle Kotch (Director's Cut) as Claudette, and Phoenix Parnevik (Bel-Air, Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter Is Dead) as Barry. Stemming from production banner A24, Marc Toberoff, Victor Miller, Robert M. Barsamian, Robert P. Barsamian, Stuart Manashil, Tyson Bidner, and Michael Lennox serve as executive producers on the streaming series.

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