Crystal Lake Showrunner Discusses Tone And Kill Sequences For Upcoming Series

Entertainment Weekly recently caught up with Crystal Lake showrunner Brad Caleb Kane to talk about his other show It: Welcome To Derry, and during that conversation Brad discussed Crystal Lake, teasing the series' tone and style. Kane describes Crystal Lake as less of a straight slasher and more of a "psychological thriller" rooted in the "paranoid '70s thriller" era that inspired the original 1980 film. He emphasizes themes like mistrust of institutions, women's liberation, and societal awakening, while promising plenty of gore: "There are rivers of blood in the show. There are very... ingenious kill sequences and deaths and murders, but it’s all done in service of character and theme and place and time."

Crystal Lake is an upcoming American horror television series developed as a prequel to the iconic Friday the 13th film franchise. Produced by A24 and set to stream exclusively on Peacock in the U.S and Sky in the U.K and Ireland, it explores the origins of Jason Voorhees and his mother, Pamela Voorhees, in a doomed small town where camp counselors meet grisly fates. The series blends slasher elements with deeper character backstories, including various iterations of Jason familiar to franchise fans, and is described as an "expanded prequel" set primarily in 1970-1971 at Camp Crystal Lake.

The eight-episode series is set to premiere on Peacock in 2026 (no official release date yet).