Origin stories can be antithetical to success, and far too often, the introduction of backstory coincides with a franchise starting to go off the rails. Mileage varies with this type of thing, but the emergence of answers inevitably means that someone else’s theories can’t be true. Gatekeeping the origins of evil is risky business. It’s why so many fans bristle against the idea of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode being siblings in Halloween or Freddy Krueger’s mother being a victimized nun who was assaulted by hundreds of maniacs.
Unsurprisingly, people have strong opinions about what Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees represents, why he’s scary, and what they want him to be, and what they don’t. It’s therefore quite interesting when someone is so willing to blow it all up and try something radical that reinvents the whole formula. Brad Caleb Kane’s Crystal Lake series has never claimed to be a 1:1 retelling of the celebrated slasher franchise.
In fact, he’s been quite candid about the ways in which this adaptation differs from and updates its source material, like setting Jason and Pamela’s plight around 15 years later so that Jason’s iconic drowning occurs in the early ‘70s. This altered timeline leads to one of the biggest swings in Friday the 13th history, one that’s not unwarranted and actually says something profound about America.
Crystal Lake’s penultimate episode, “Friday…,” is written by Laura Marks and directed by Quyen Tran. As tragedy at Camp Crystal Lake intensifies, the series steps back to simpler times, focusing on Pamela Scott (Linda Cardellini), a struggling lounge singer, and Elias Wittering (Hamish Linklater), a humble yet committed company man at Bellflower Chemical. What follows is a haunting perversion of the American dream that exploits two desperate individuals who simply want to be their best selves and contribute to the greater good.
Elias Voorhees has always been one of the franchise’s biggest question marks, yet past accounts of this character, albeit non-canonical, always present Jason’s father as a more traditionally abusive, boorish figure. Crystal Lake’s reimagining of Elias is even more horrifying in some respects since he’s such a deluded instrument of bureaucracy that’s meant to reinforce the status quo and strengthen America.
He’s largely oblivious to how he’s fractured his family and genuinely views Project Argonaut as a luxury. It’s a chance to fast-track them to life’s upper echelon. It also doesn’t hurt that Hamish Linklater crushes this performance, shifting from “aw shucks” wholesomeness to aggressive dominance. It’s easy to see him slowly lose himself to the corporate machine and emerge as a broken drone.
“Friday…” becomes this disturbing counterpoint to Rosemary’s Baby, where this vulnerable, hopeful mother is pushed into such a horrifying and uncomfortable place. The way in which Elias’ actions and Project Argonaut’s experiments completely hollow Pamela out is horrifying. It evolves into this Stepford-coded manipulation story that preys on female fragility to create something truly macabre. It’s this complex meditation on motherhood, the perfect family, and American exceptionalism.
“This was a time of real transformation in our nation, when we trusted all of our institutions — marriage, government, and the people looking out for us,” explains Brad Caleb Kane. “We realized everyone was lying to us, and people started getting divorced because the whole construct of the perfect American dream was falling apart. That gave America a real identity crisis.”
Jason’s origins and the conditions of his Revenant-like powers have constantly fluctuated over the course of the franchise’s run. Crystal Lake taps into the real concerns and dangers of 1970s America to inform Jason’s supernatural abilities. Jason’s unusual evolution is revealed to be the result of extensive human trials that Pamela has unwittingly been subjected to by Bellflower. Jason is just a cog in a convoluted journey toward humanity’s evolution that ends up as a creepy cautionary tale.
Reducing one of slasher’s biggest characters to mad science is likely going to rub many hardcore Friday the 13th fans the wrong way. However, Kane reiterates why his big twist isn’t actually that outlandish. “It’s important to understand that it’s not science fiction. It’s science fact,” he argues. “In this case, this isn’t the government doing all this. It’s corporations. It’s companies that work to extract pharmaceutical gains and all that kind of stuff.” This tragedy is intentionally steeped in America’s history so that the origins of this murderous monster can be an angry, reactionary evolution of the country’s manipulation and abuse. Jason’s death is the death of America’s innocence. “None of this is farfetched,” Kane reiterates. “I just applied it to the Jason Voorhees origin story. It seemed like a very natural place to go with this.”
Pamela’s desire to be the perfect mother is warped into a byproduct of man’s manipulative will. It’s no coincidence that the scenes where Pamela receives the Argonaut procedure are stark, sterile, and alienating. They’re completely drained of the color, enthusiasm, and optimism that have been present throughout the rest of the episode. This Capra-esque vision of a bright, new tomorrow becomes a macabre science experiment that feels ripped out of a David Cronenberg or Stuart Gordon picture.
Crystal Lake’s “Friday…” succumbs to many clichés. Still, it tells a truly horrifying story filled with disturbing imagery that feels more timely than ever, despite being rooted in the past. “Friday…” is destined to be Crystal Lake’s most talked-about episode, for better or worse. “I took a swing, but I didn’t send him [Jason] to Hell. I didn’t send him to space. I didn’t put him up against Carrie White,” admits Kane. “Fans will hopefully grant me a little bit of grace with Jason’s origin.” If nothing else, it certainly accomplishes its mission: to help the audience better understand, and even empathize with, Pamela and Jason.
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Categorized:Editorials Streaming / Home Video TV