The Cutprice Guignol

No classic slasher movie has a place in my heart quite like Friday the 13th.

I grew up in the arse-end of nowhere, surrounded by forest, and I can still vividly remember creeping back home through the woods after I watched Friday the 13th at a friend’s house at fifteen – that delicious, creeping sense of dread, the certainty that I could almost hear the ki, ki, ki…ha, ha, ha chatter through the whispering leaves, every glint of moonlight on a passing river looking far more like a big fuck-off knife than it had any right to. It was the first of the big slasher movies that I saw growing up, back when I was first falling in love with the horror genre, and I adored it, still do. There’s a reason that it would go on to become the gold standard for so many teen slashers in the decades to come. – the distinct atmosphere, the soundtrack, the kills, the direction, the twist ending, it’s just a bloody good time. Emphasis on the bloody.

But as much as I love the original movie, it’s not a franchise that I am particularly precious about in the way I would go on to be about, say, Saw or Final Destination. I don’t really care for any of the other films the way I do the first one (Jason X, in all its sci-fi glory, aside), and, while I can acknowledge Jason Voorhees as the legendary part of the slasher canon he is, I will always be a Pamela girl first when it comes to picking my Voorhees of choice. Which is exactly, I think, the right mindset to hold if you want to enjoy Crystal Lake, the Friday the 13th prequel series focused on Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini).

Now, Crystal Lake (which was overseen by Brad Caleb Kane) is a show that’s earned a hell of lot of mixed reactions – from reviews declaring it everything wrong with shows of its type to others declaring it the best Halloween TV of the year – and I can entirely see why that is. Because, fundamentally, it’s a pretty bonkers addition to the Friday the 13th canon, one that makes huge changes to the backstories of both Pamela and Jason and the history of the iconic Camp Crystal Lake where the first movies take place; it rejigs Jason into a failed nuclear-era experiment, and Pamela into the victim of pre-natal experiments who fled from the conspiracy to wind up in Crystal Lake at the start of the series. I totally understand why fans of the series take issue with this wild re-imagining of these classic characters, and, frankly, I’m not completely convinced the show even succeeds in making this new backstory fit comfortably with the existing film series. If you are precious about this series, if you take this lore and these character seriously – this might not be the show for you.

But, like I said, I’m not. And friends? I kind of loved Crystal Lake. It’s not a show without its faults, make no mistake – probably most egregiously a rushed finale that leaves plenty of questions hanging in a way that feels less like set-up for season to and more like a genuine script oversight. But, for the most part, I found Crystal Lake a pretty damn good time. The big draw here is, without a doubt, Cardellini as Pamela, who truly does just eat up every scene she’s in – the character is so rich and interesting, a brutal serial killer with a penchant for astounding violence who is also genuinely grieving the loss of her son. It’s a performance that’s deranged and vulnerable by turns, charming and terrifying scene-by-scene, and if you watch the show for nothing else, watch it for her giving what might just be the performance of her career.

And what of the Jason of it all? Jason here is played primarily by Callum Vinson, who is so fucking endearing that I was ready to throw myself into that lake and fish him out myself, quite frankly – and the version we get of him is a very different beast than the one who turns up in the movies. This newly-imagined backstory for Jason, as an corporate experiment gone wrong, is, I think, quite a timely one despite the period setting. It matches with the suspicion of authority that’s present across so much of the show as a whole (from the hippies to the PTSD-stricken veteran), and, in a modern horror landscape where corporations are not to be trusted, it feels like a decent adaptation of the character. We’ve had various versions of this character before, from outright supernatural to revived cryogenic zombie, and this version is, for me at least, as good as any.

But beyond that, I loved that the show took the Crystal Lake of its title somewhat seriously, and earnestly filled out this world with engaging characters. The supporting cast is excellent – William Catlett as Levon Brooks, the local police chief, serves as a great foil and sometime romantic interest for Pamela, sharing spot-on chemistry with Cardellini, while Joy Suprano genuinely surprised me with her depth as Rita, the town’s resident cougar. Nick Cordileone as Ralph, a reclusive veteran living in the woods and struggling with PTSD, was probably my favourite of the supporting cast, closely followed by Gwendolyn Sundstrom as Grace, who gave such authentic Odd Little Girl energy that I could not help but love her dysfunctional presence (even if her plot does trail off pretty egregiously towards the end of the show). The town feels like a real place set somewhat in a real time, with what feel like authentic attempts to contend with the cultural backdrop against which the story is taking place rather than tossing a couple of seventies songs in the soundtrack and calling it a day.

Tonally, the show is somewhat all over the place – going between ultra-gory slasher (and God, some of these kills were standouts, I mean, the bag of blood drowning? The diner face-mallet? Come on, now), alternate history corporate thriller, the blackest of black comedy, and family drama depending on the scene – but it had an overall decent grasp of its tone that never left it feeling too out-of-control in the midst of all its trying to do. Pamela’s increasingly-unhinged mentality lets the show away with some of its bigger swings, like the confrontation with a CGI bear in episode one, and it more or less defies being taken too seriously with a constant sly sense of humour to keep things going down smoothly. It’s so ambitious and throwing so much at the wall that it’s a miracle it manages to hold itself together for the most part, even tossing in a whole sixties flashback episode as backstory in the lead-up to the finale; with so many shows flogging a thin premise into the ground, I found it quite refreshing for a show to have so many ideas to cram into a single season, whether or not all of them quite come together.

Crystal Lake might have its issues as part of the wider FT13th canon, but damn, if I didn’t have a good time watching it, in all its weird and wonderful glory. But with the disparate reactions to the show, I would love to hear your takes on it – did you love it? Hate it? Hate it as part of the series but love it in its own right? Vice Versa? Let me know in the comments below!

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(header image via Nerdist)