"You cant die, you can never die! Don't let them escape, Jason! They don't belong here!"
Peacock really would have missed a trick if they didn't share something from their upcoming Friday the 13th prequel series today, and while it's not the teaser horror hounds were hoping for, we do have a trio of foreboding promo stills.
These Crystal Lake images highlight a bloody blade in the hand of Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), mist pouring in over the titular lake, and a couple of teens doing the one thing that's guaranteed to get them killed in this franchise.
After spending over 15 years lying dormant at the bottom of a lake due to complicated rights issues relating to the character, the news broke last year that Jason Voorhees was finally set to return to terrorise a new group of teenage camp counsellors. But before the undead killing machine gets to don his signature hockey mask and machete combo, his mother will be the one doing the slaying.
This take on Pamela Voorhees is described as "a mother who had given up a singing career to raise a special needs child and takes a dark turn when she loses her son."
Chucky and Long Bright River star Callum Vinson will play Jason as a child, and the cast also includes Nick Cordileone (Warrior), Joy Suprano (Fleishman is in Trouble), Danielle Kotch (Director’s Cut), and Phoenix Parnevik (Bel-Air) as future Voorhees victims Ralph, Rita, Claudette, and Barry.
"In many ways, it's a psychological thriller," showrunner Brad Caleb Kane said in a recent interview. "It's a paranoid '70s thriller. 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."
"[Friday the 13th] 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," he added. "[Cardellini is] gonna shock and surprise a lot of people."
Kane shared the following statement when he took over as showrunner.
“From the moment I watched Jason Voorhees squeeze a guy’s eyeball out of its socket (in glorious 3D!) at the tender age of 8 years old, I knew my creative path was someday destined to converge with The Man Behind The Mask. Nothing defined my childhood more than growing up in the golden age of the slasher flick, and nothing’s defined the genre more than Friday the 13th. I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to contribute a chapter to this iconic franchise, particularly with such fearless partners as Peacock and A24.”
From what we can gather, Crystal Lake will focus on Pamela Voorhees plotting her revenge against the camp councillors who weren't paying attention when her son drowned. Whether Jason will be revealed to have survived his accident or return as a resurrected killing machine (the later movies introduced supernatural elements) remains to be seen.
Either way, we assume Jason will eventually pick the mask should the series continue beyond a single season.