‘Crystal Lake’ review: ‘Friday The 13th’ prequel gives Jason’s mum a twisted origin story

O riginal horror stories are having a moment on the big screen, with Sinners , Weapons , Obsession and Backrooms all providing creepy breakout hits in the past 18 months.

On the small screen, the genre is rehashing the classics with Carrie , IT: Welcome To Derry and Interview With The Vampire expanding the backstories of genre icons.

READ MORE: The best TV shows of 2026… so far! Now it’s the turn of Friday The 13 th , the 1980 slasher that spawned a bloody, long-running franchise.

Crystal Lake is a prequel to the original film and focuses on Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), the mother of franchise villain Jason, who is revealed to be the real killer in the shock conclusion of the first movie.

Pamela is a single mother working at the titular summer camp who becomes bereft when her young disabled son (Callum Vinson) drowns and is never found (in later films, it is revealed that he did survive, returning to become the iconic killer of legend).

Nine months after his initial disappearance, though, Pamela is isolated from her community and obsessed with the idea that Jason is still out there.

Local police chief Levon (William Catlett) encourages her to move on with her life.

Just as she begins to take those steps, people connected to her past turn up at her doorstep, resulting in a tense confrontation that leads to murder.

And, as the bodies start to pile up, Pamela must hide her deadly impulses even as they gradually connect her to Jason.

The set-up is reminiscent of Bates Motel , the 2013 show that dramatised the origins of the first Psycho movie and ran for five critically acclaimed seasons.

Like Norma Bates, Pamela is an expansion on a character who was part of a shocking twist at the end of the first movie.

Unlike Norma, Pamela doesn’t have nearly the same narrative background to work with.

As such, Crystal Lake becomes a somewhat formulaic serial killer show, where Pamela’s detachment from reality widens as the walls close in.

Crystal Lake would have been interesting as a 90-minute movie, but over eight episodes it’s a mixed bag.