The news that the 2009’s underrated reboot/requel Friday the 13th.
For some time, the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise were wrapped up in a legal battle between the original 1980 movie’s screenwriter Victor Miller and its director, Sean S. Cunningham. Depending on who won this lawsuit, the expected outcome was that Friday the 13th’s next incarnation would either be a straightforward movie reboot, a legacy sequel (following recent slasher trends), or another Friday the 13th remake. Instead, the Friday the 13th franchise is officially getting Crystal Lake, a TV show prequel that can improve the franchise by not relying on its most famous mascot, the adult version of villain Jason Voorhees. This new approach can breathe much-needed life into the series and offer horror fans an exciting new story in the process.
Why It Could Be Good Crystal Lake Doesn't Include Adult Jason
Being a prequel, Crystal Lake might not include the adult version of Jason Voorhees, the hulking masked killer made famous in Friday the 13th’s many successful sequels, or at least not right away. The rights to this iteration of the movie character are still held by Sean S. Cunningham, but since Fuller is making a TV show, Crystal Lake can use anything in the Friday the 13th universe, including adult Jason. Still, Crystal Lake will likely focus on Jason’s life before his career as an undead spree killer and may even include aspects of his mother’s backstory. Pamela Voorhees was the surprise villain of the original Friday the 13th, a mother driven to madness by her grief over irresponsible camp counselors allowing her son to drown years earlier. However, she was decapitated before viewers got to know her character well.
Crystal Lake could flesh out Pamela’s backstory and make the character more sympathetic, something Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives! director Tommy McLoughlin originally suggested in his unmade Diary of Pamela Voorhees. Alternatively, Crystal Lake could steer clear of fleshing out Pamela’s backstory to avoid borrowing from McLoughlin’s proposed project and instead focus on the camp counselors who allowed Jason to die, without whom the series would never have gained its iconic villain. Finally, Crystal Lake could also expand on Jason’s backstory, fleshing out the man behind the mask and humanizing a character who has only ever been seen as a monster and a victim, but never a fully rounded person.
How The Friday The 13th Show Can Expand On Jason's Origins
Since the young Jason Voorhees drowned before the events of the original Friday the 13th took place, he never received much in the way of concrete characterization. While Friday the 13th’s best sequel reunited Pamela and Jason in a nightmare sequence and the original Friday the 13th does feature a brief flashback that depicts his death by drowning, neither of the movies delved into Jason’s life before his death. This makes this period fertile ground for Crystal Lake to explore, as the show’s long-term storytelling can make Jason a more relatable, human figure than the franchise's by-the-numbers slasher sequels ever attempted.
Crystal Lake Can Make The Camp Counselors The Real Villains
Crystal Lake can tap into something that has always set the Friday the 13th series apart from its competitors with its exploration of Jason’s backstory. Since he was introduced, Jason has always been a more sympathetic figure than the likes of the Halloween movies made a point of playing up Michael’s inscrutable, unmotivated evil, Jason kills to avenge his own death (caused by bullying kids and negligent comp counselors) and to avenge his mother’s death. It is easy to feel bad for the poor kid, and Friday the 13th’s sequels play up the un-likability of his victims to make it almost as easy to root for the adult version of Jason.
Crystal Lake can take this idea and expand on it, showing how actively villainous the camp counselors and Jason’s fellow campers were. If they were negligent and abusive enough (respectively) to cause the death of a disabled child, the campers and counselors are likely to be unpleasant characters, to begin with. As such, it will most likely be easy for Crystal Lake to make viewers root for their inevitable deaths. While Friday the 13th’s attempts to replace Jason fell flat because it is hard to make a villainous murderer worth rooting for, Crystal Lake can benefit from Jason’s in-built sympathetic edge and turn the iconic Friday the 13th villain into the prequel show's unlikely antihero.
