Crystal Lake is a good enough slasher series, as long as your hopes aren’t too high ‣ Diverse Daily

In 1980, a 90-minute horror movie with a relatively small budget changed the genre forever. It’s been over 45 years since Friday the 13th debuted, and in that time there have been a dozen films, a TV series, as well as video games, merchandise, and parodies of the iconic slasher film.

Now, in 2026, it’s apparently time to return to the campgrounds, as Peacock offers up a prequel series about Pamela Voorhees. The first two episodes were screened at the Toronto International Film Festival this year as part of the event’s Primetime TV program. I watched those episodes: here’s what you need to know about this streaming series.

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Crystal Lake is a bloody, colorful good time

The first episodes satisfy and point to a bigger world

Linda Cardelini in Crystal Lake on Peacock.

In the 1970s, Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini) works in the kitchen at camp Crystal Lake. Her son, Jason, also attends the camps, but his visual disfigurement makes him the subject of ridicule and harassment from most campers. Only a handful of people treat him with dignity and respect. When he tragically dies, with no one seemingly willing or able to help him, his mother struggles through grief and pain, still holding out hope that her son is somehow alive.

That premise is one that fans of the franchise will be familiar with, but Crystal Lake looks to distill those moments in the 70s that lead up to the 1980 film featuring Pamela as the camp killer. Avid fans may note some tweaks and adjustments to the timeline, but I wouldn’t think too hard about it, especially considering the franchise sent the masked killer to both Hell and to space, and, of course, has seemingly killed him off a number of times. It doesn’t quite line up, but it doesn’t matter. Crystal Lake is a prequel, sort of reboot, and altered timeline story, and that’s all well and good.

That’s mainly because Crystal Lake possesses the slasher spirit of the 70s and 80s, with a warm color palette, judgment of teenage fornication, and bloody practical effects. It has all the elements you might want from such a story; it feels knowing yet intense, funny yet tragic. A fight at the end of the first episode between Pamela and two detectives, or at least two men who say they are detectives, establishes the tone for the series: gruesome to the point of hilarity.

The series is a worthy watch in part because of Cardellini’s performance: you can feel both her frustration and helplessness at the death of her son, but you also know she isn’t entirely innocent. The incident at the end of the first episode suggests a bigger world with more backstory coming into play as part of the Crystal Lake mythology.

While the first episodes are enjoyable, I’m not yet sure how the story will hold attention for a full run of eight. There looks to be enough there, and I’ll certainly continue watching, but there is a nagging feeling that all of this is entirely unnecessary, even if it is an enjoyable, mindless watch. Whether this will lead to more seasons or another movie is unknown, but for those seeking a return to 80s slasher vibes, Crystal Lake makes for a fun and grotesque good time, even if it might be fleeting.

How can you watch Crystal Lake?

Streaming series coming soon to your TV screen

Still from Crystal Lake series featuring camp sign.

Crystal Lake is coming soon in time for the Halloween season. All eight episodes of the season will drop on Thursday, October 15 on the streaming service Peacock. There is a Friday the 13th on the calendar in November, but unfortunately not one in October. Still, that gives audiences a couple of weeks to stream the series before jumping into a movie or two as Halloween approaches.

Each episode is about 60 minutes long. As Peacock is not available in Canada, viewers there can stream the series on Crave.

If you like horror series, check out Carrie

Plenty of scary shows heading to streaming

There are a bunch of other horror shows coming to streaming this fall, including a number of titles that showed at TIFF this year. Perhaps the most anticipated is Carrie, Mike Flanagan’s take on the famed Stephen King story. Through two episodes screened at the festival, the series is entrancing, grounding in touching performances that show characters as layered and nuanced, rather than straight villains or victims. It’s scary, dramatic, and sweet at times, making it a compelling drama that is building up to what seems to be a climatic ending.

Another horror streaming series, Yaga, is also coming to your TV this October. It’s far less scary and compelling, and best to avoid unless you’re running out of titles to watch.