Sunday just got a bit scarier. A24 just dropped the official trailer for Peacock‘s upcoming prestige horror prequel series Crystal Lake. The teaser opens with star Linda Cardellini as Pam Vorhees — aka mother of iconic cinematic slasher Jason — running and leaping into a lake in a desperate, unsuccessful attempt to find her drowning son. “I don’t want to heal. I want to find my son,” her character later says. But things quickly take a dark turn when dead bodies begin floating to the surface, hinting that Pam may not be as innocent as she first appears.
Here’s everything to know about the upcoming series.
THE PLOT
Set before the events of the original Friday the 13th, the series centers on Pam Voorhees, a grieving mother still processing the tragic drowning of her young, sickly son Jason nearly a year earlier. But when two strangers arrive asking questions about her past, it triggers a chain of disturbing events that forces the small town of Crystal Lake to ask a terrifying question: Who is Pam Voorhees, really?
THE CAST
Crystal Lake stars Linda Cardellini, William Catlett, Devin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins, and Gwendolyn Sundstrom as series regulars. The recurring cast includes Callum Vinson, Nick Cordileone, Joy Suprano, Danielle Kotch, and Phoenix Parnevik.
THE CREATIVE TEAM
Brad Caleb Kane (It: Welcome to Derry, Tokyo Vice, Warrior) serves as creator, writer, showrunner, and executive producer. Directing duties are split across the season between Michael Lennox (Episodes 101–103), Celine Held and Logan George (Episodes 104–106), and Quyen Tran (Episodes 107–108).
WHEN CAN I WATCH IT?
The entire season of Crystal Lake drops Oct. 15 on Peacock, just in time for Halloween.
AWARDS CHANCES
The big-screen franchise has failed to net a single Oscar nod across 12 films; the 1980 original did receive a Razzie nomination for Worst Picture, and the 2009 reboot won a Teen Choice Award for Choice Horror Movie. However, the syndicated spinoff Friday the 13th: The Series, which ran from 1987 to 1990, did earn two Emmy noms for visual effects.
Given Cardellini just earned an Emmy for DTF St. Louis, Kane co-wrote and exec-produced the two-time nominee It: Welcome to Derry, and A24 has a rep for highbrow horror, we could see Crystal Lake being awards-competitive along the lines of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, especially in craft categories.
Fun awards fact: Kane, who got his start as an actor and singer, has actually appeared on the Oscar stage he provided the singing voice for the titular toon in Disney’s Aladdin and performed “A Whole New World” with Lea Salonga at the 65th Academy Awards.
