Linda Cardellini Teases Pamela Voorhees’ Bloody Descent in ‘Crystal Lake’

We all know where Pamela Voorhees ends up. What Crystal Lake gets to show us is how she becomes that person.

Ahead of the series premiere this October, Linda Cardellini and writer, showrunner, and executive producer Brad Caleb Kane appeared Monday at NBC’s Backlot Press Day, where they discussed bringing the Friday the 13th franchise back to life and, more specifically, transforming Pamela into the killer we eventually meet in the original film, reports Deadline.

“We all know where Pam ends up because she starts all the killing in the first movie,” Cardellini said. “So, what Brad gave me was a beautiful beginning and somewhere to go.”

For Cardellini, that means starting with a Pamela who is almost completely removed from the character we know.

“There’s an arc there from somebody who means well and is trying to survive,” she continued. “She’s doing the best that she can and fighting hard for things that she thinks are right to [becoming] somebody who then turns out to do all the wrong things.”

It’s an interesting approach because Pamela has never really had the opportunity to exist as anything other than Jason’s grieving, murderous mother. Betsy Palmer made the character iconic in the original Friday the 13th, but by the time we meet her, the damage has already been done.

Cardellini has gone back to Palmer’s performance while developing her younger Pamela, but she isn’t interested in simply recreating it.