Crystal Lake is the prequel to Friday The 13th, and Pam Voorhees has (Linda Cardellini) got a bit of a problem, having ended up covered from head to toe in blood… and someone’s tooth.
That said, I’ve read elsewhere that this ISN’T a prequel, and is actually a separate ‘universe’.
But anyway, events go back 9 months earlier, when Pam adores her weird-looking kid, Jason (Callum Vinson), but events take an unfortunate turn and he drowns in said lake.
A year on, she’s still feeling uneasy, but flips out completely when she learns the lake is reopening for that summer. From what follows, it does get crazy gory and violent, with flesh torn off faces, etc, but along with a scene where she goes to see a weird evangelist-type of bloke, while I like Ms Cardellini, this is just completely unnecessary and so dragged out.
Just who thought: Do you know what would complement a 90-minute old film that no-one’s bothered about? Multiple more epsiodes of the same(!)
Additionally, there’s a moment where Pam kills a man and puts his head in a plastic bag – which is subsequently filling with blood. Apart from the fact that grocery bags have small holes in them, to stop people being able to asphyxiate themselves to death, the blood would inevitably split the bag and it’ll go all ove the place.
I experienced a similar thing at work, when I walked into the canteen area, just as a plumber was having problems with water going everywhere. His solution was to put a black plastic bag over the water gushing out of a pipe. The bag filled. The bag exploded. Water continued to go everywhere. God, I wish I had that on film!
NOTE: I watched the US broadcast of this.
Crystal Lake is on Sky Atlantic from Monday October 19th 2026.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Cert: 
Running time: 40-55 minutes (8 episodes)
Release date: October 15th 2026 (US date); October 19th 2026 (UK date)
Studio: Sky/Peacock
Format: 2.39:1
Series Directors: Logan George, Celine Held, Michael Lennox, Quyen Tran
Producers: Kristyn Macready, Savey Cathey, Corey Deckler
Writers: Brad Caleb Kane, Evan Endicott, Josh Stoddard, Bryan Fuller, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Arthur Developed by: Brad Caleb KaneImperatore, Laura Marks, Jen Silverman, Pia Wilson
Based on Friday The 13th screenplay by Victor Miller
Music: Giosuè Greco
Cast:
Pamela Voorhees: Linda Cardellini
Levon Brooks: William Catlett
Grace Snell: Gwendolyn Sundstrom
Dorf: Cameron Scoggins
Brianna Brooks: Devin Kessler
Jason Voorhees: Callum Vinson
Ralph: Nick Cordileone
Enos: Daniel SteCrystal Laket Sherman
Claudette: Danielle Kotch
Trudy: Bernadette Quigley
Rita: Joy Suprano
Hamish: Neal Huff
Barry: Phoenix Parnevik
Gus: William Hill
John Christy: Brian J Carter
Nora: Blair Sams
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.