‘Crystal Lake’ Unleashes a Massive Gallery of Bloody Kills and Carnage [Images]

Peacock’s Friday the 13th prequel series Crystal Lake is streaming in full, and now that horror fans have had the weekend to watch all eight episodes, we have a massive batch of officially approved images to share. We held these back because they reveal some of the season’s most violent kills, including the work of Pamela Voorhees, Jason, and one particularly unexpected participant.

Major spoilers and graphic images follow.

I’m going to hold back from launching into another rant about the new mythology, which I frankly think is fucking ridiculous, because there are bright spots here that deserve celebrating. The biggest is Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees. She’s magnetic, giving us a clinic in acting as she moves through grief, tenderness, desperation, and absolute rage. It’s a tour de force that I could easily see winning her an Emmy. For me, the writing and complicated mythology struggle to keep up with her.

Last week was kind of a shitshow here on Dread Central. All eight episodes dropped at once, and suddenly we were sharing discoveries, images, and reactions to an entire season within a couple of days. As I wrote about last week, I would have loved more time to dig into each episode and let those conversations breathe. But I know plenty of you were excited to watch everything over the weekend. Nobody’s right or wrong about how they prefer to watch.

With that said, we saved some goodies.

Among the images below are shots from episode five’s recreation of the opening murders in Friday the 13th. The original film begins in 1958, years before its main story, with counselors Barry and Claudette killed by an unseen attacker ultimately understood to be Pamela.

Crystal Lake changes that. Jason’s friend Grace, played by Gwendolyn Sundstrom, attacks the counselors while tripping on LSD, believing that stopping them from having sex will save Jason. Pamela discovers the bloody scene and takes the knife, but instead of helping Claudette survive, she finishes her off herself. Grace initiates the killings, while Pamela’s decision to join in becomes another defining step down her murderous path.