It’s Halloween season, and the perfect treat for your watch list this year is streaming on Stan from October 16. We were lucky enough to partner with Stan to promote this one and get an advance look at the season. And right off the bat, it’s one of those shows where you hit play, think you’ll watch one or two episodes and pick it up again the next day, but instead end up binge-watching all night. Red-eyed, delirious and completely absorbed in the world of the show. (but that’s a good thing for a movie/tv show fanatic – we crave quality material and this is it!)
It’s amazing and depressing at the same time because you get so attached to everything, and then suddenly it’s gone, and you’re sitting there thinking… what now? and everything following has to be just as good or better to satisfy my lust for good shows!
One of the greatest things about this show’s release is that you won’t have to wait weekly for new episodes. All eight episodes will drop at once, each running for approximately an hour.
So yes, I was invested for eight hours in this universe, and here are my two cents.
First off, if you don’t know, the series is a prequel to the Friday the 13th horror franchise, with its main villains being Jason Voorhees (the hockey mask-wearing, machete-wielding mutant killing machine) and his mother, Pamela.
You do not have to watch the movies beforehand. My missus hasn’t seen any of the films and knows practically nothing about them (besides theres some killer in a mask), yet she followed along perfectly. Which is great, because it now opens the door to another 12 movies she can watch about Jason!
Most Jason fans already know the gist of the story, but for the newbies, I’ll quickly cover it.
The series follows Pamela and her son Jason at Crystal Lake, a summer camp Jason reluctantly attends, where he is bullied for being a little different, we’ll put it that way. He also can’t swim, which is a pretty important detail.
His mother works at the camp and occasionally keeps an eye on what’s happening. Unfortunately, the counsellors responsible for supervising the children have a habit of leaving them unattended, and spoiler alert… Jason drowns.
That’s the first episode, and while this tragedy is briefly explored throughout the movies, the franchise largely moves on to an adult Jason after the original film.
I think this is a brilliant origin story because, although these events are touched upon in the films, there has always been so much grey area surrounding things I’ve been curious about. Jason’s father, his resurrection, his powers, Pamela’s downfall and what ultimately drove her to madness.
In the original film, Pamela’s backstory plays a bit of peekaboo with the audience and never really sells her emotional journey the way this series does. And spoiler alert, they answer every question. In ways that genuinely had me sitting there thinking, of course!
The series also delivers that classic 80s and 90s atmosphere, something Stranger Things and Welcome to Derry (the IT prequel) captured so well. And the more I think about it, Crystal Lake is a lot like Stranger Things. Like, A LOT. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but this is basically Jason Things. Stranger Jason Things… Not a flat-out rip-off, by any means, but you’ll understand exactly what I mean when you see it.
The series was developed by Brad Kane, and here’s a funny little fact: he was the singing voice of Aladdin in Disney’s animated films. But don’t let that lower your expectations, because he absolutely knocked this one out of the park. He also served as a producer on Welcome to Derry, which, going back to my previous comparison, might explain why the two shows share a similar atmosphere.
Brad has expressed his childhood love for Friday the 13th, so what we have here is a genuine superfan behind the wheel, determined to do the franchise justice. And man, does he do it justice.
I’m a big fan of Freddy vs. Jason, Jason X and Jason Takes Manhattan. So does this measure up? Not exactly. But hear me out.
This is Pamela’s story, and Jason is still a child, so naturally, it takes a different approach to the franchise. There are only a handful of kills, but the ones we do get, along with the gore, are incredibly satisfying and often completely unexpected. Which is great, because one minute you’re invested in the drama, and the next you’re going, AHHH!
And yes, the ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma is there!
At its heart, the show is part murder mystery and part trauma recovery story, with a surprisingly powerful emotional backbone. Then there’s the cast.
Linda Cardellini, known for Scooby-Doo, Dead to Me and one of my personal favourites, Dead Man on Campus, takes the lead and carries the show perfectly. Whoever came up with that casting decision, A+!
Callum Vinson absolutely OWNS the role of young Jason, and he’s perfect. You know what? I’m going to stop naming names because otherwise I’ll end up listing the entire cast. Everyone was entertaining. Nobody was annoying. There were so many characters I wanted to see more of, but at the same time, I felt we got just enough from each of them to make their stories worthwhile.
Crystal Lake is probably my biggest recommendation for anyone looking for something to watch this Halloween.
It’s not exactly a Halloween-themed show, but horror is always the perfect choice for this time of year. What makes this series so special is that it’s an incredibly powerful mother-and-son love story, not simply another tale about a serial killer who was wronged by bullies. Jason was wronged by so much more than that, and his mother was his saviour.
For anyone going into this expecting another meaningless slasher, I genuinely believe you’ll be floored by the backstory, the performances and the emotional weight behind these characters. It gives Pamela and Jason a level of humanity that the films have rarely had the opportunity to explore, and suddenly, the tragedy behind the machete and hockey mask becomes so much more meaningful.
And yes, they’ve absolutely set things up for a second season, leaving us on one hell of a high note. So I’m telling you all right now: if you want Jason to live on and continue into Season 2, sign up to Stan and binge-watch Crystal Lake.
Thank me later.
Because not only will you be highly entertained this October, but you’ll also be showing Stan that audiences want more Jason in the future. And trust me, after watching these eight episodes, you’re going to want more too.