Horror franchises have found new life as TV series in a big way in the past decade. The Exorcist, Psycho, Scream, Interview with the Vampire, and on and on, all got their time on television. Some of course went back to the big screen (to varyingly degrees of success). The most recent big hit movie-to-TV horror was HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry. We loved it here at Nerdist and are excited for more. But that show’s executive producer, Brad Caleb Kane, isn’t content with just Pennywise on his horror docket. He’ll next create, write, and produce Crystal Lake. We have a first look (via Bloody Disgusting).
The series will take place in the Friday the 13th universe, but it seems it will follow more closely to the original film. If you’ve seen that 1980 original, you know the killer isn’t the hockey mask-sporting hulk of later films. Linda Cardellini (Dead to Me) will star as Pamela Voorhees, “a mother who gave up a singing career to raise her special needs child, only to take a dark turn when she loses her son — Jason.”
You see the picture above, with the sweater-clad arm holding a bloody knife. You know what’s going on here.
Kane said, despite its roots, the series won’t be an out-and-out slasher show. “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.”
I love super vague descriptions like that. Check out some more opaque teaser images below.
No exact release date yet for Crystal Lake. However, given 2026 has yet one more Friday the 13th (in November), the eight-episode series might do well to premiere two months before that. Plus, it’s spooky season. Gotta go for that.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.