I always find it disheartening when I see a ranking of Friday the 13th films that has the 2009 remake on top and the 1980 original near the bottom (in dreaded JASON GOES TO HELL territory). I realize that tastes change and attention spans have been obliterated but it feels like so much disrespectful Pamela Voorhees erasure to me. Don’t get me wrong, the revamp is entertaining, Jared Padalecki is a fine lead and Derek Mears is a top tier Jason but something intrinsic is ruefully missing. I remember getting excited when Nana Visitor (STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE) was announced to play Pamela Voorhees in Nispel’s smashup/reinterpretation thinking she had just the right intensity only to find her in about 30 seconds of pre-title footage screaming wildly in the rain with zero introduction and little explanation. What the hell man, Pamela Voorhees is the literal heart and soul of the Friday the 13th franchise. How many teenagers does a gal gotta creatively kill to get some flowers? How can anyone even claim to be a fan of Jason Voorhees while ignoring his inspiration, his role model, his hero, his rock, his momma? This is why I welcomed CRYSTAL LAKE with open arms. The more Pamela Voorhees content the better in my book, and I’ll also add, it’s about damn time.
In what is perhaps one of the greatest casting decisions in the history of horror, Linda Cardellini portrays Pamela Voorhees, mother to young Jason and a cook at Camp Crystal Lake. Jason doesn’t exactly disappear in a crowd, his head and face are disfigured and he’s socially cautious as a result but affable and lively to those who see beyond his physical appearance. Due to her son’s vulnerability, Pamela has become a diligent, hyper aware protector but like all parents, she finds it’s impossible for her to be everywhere at once. Any horror fan surely knows the rest of the campfire tale, one fateful day a couple of camp counselors who were meant to watch after Jason took leave to tongue wrestle (and who knows what else! Heathens!) and poor, sweet Jason (who wasn’t a very good swimmer…) drowned. Sometimes some things happen in life that we can never change and instead, those things change us. CRYSTAL LAKE the series peels Pam like an onion revealing layer upon layer underneath as she grapples with the rage and fury that has formed in the space where her beloved child used to stand. Not every choice Pam makes is healthy or commendable but they’re all pretty much understandable. Truth is, if you want justice in this world you really have to be prepared to carve it out yourself.
I’d be lying if I said every spoonful of Crystal Lake went down as smoothly as the others. I get a little itchy and irked when the dining cart shows up with reheated STANGER THINGS mumbo jumbo nachos. There’s also a bit that kinda recons the original’s inaugural kill in a way that muddies the water with zero rhyme, reason or necessary effect (a few loose ends also got stuck in my craw but it’s possible they were knowingly leaving nesting material for season two). Ultimately though, these qualms were not hefty enough to rock my boat especially with Cardellini so masterfully convincing and painfully genuine as Pam at the helm. If everything doesn’t fit together (timeline wise or otherwise) like a perfect mosaic, I’ll live (I mean, BATES MOTEL played fast and loose with its lineage and ended up awesome and geez, FRIDAY THE 13th fans aren’t really in the position to scold anyone on inconsistencies anyway). The important thing is, that CRYSAL LAKE gave me three things I really needed. It recreates the atmosphere and setting stunningly (it almost feels like you’re jumping back in time; using the exact same NJ locations was a brilliant stroke), and it brings back the early installment’s signature jaw-dropping (literally in one case) kills that seemed to have been replaced by cloddish bludgeoning in later years. Lastly, it delivers at long last, an incredible portrait of one of horror’s most influential characters thanks to both the writers and of course, Cardellini. I only wish the late Betsy Palmer who famously thought little of the part at first, could witness her most famous role fleshed out and expanded in such a thoughtful and insightful way. I’m sure Momma would be pleased.
Oh yeah – I liked this one. I did not see the 1960s cruel biotech angle coming, but whatever. I totally bought the semi-normalcy to madness descent. I just look at some of the people that have known – family and close friends – that started at Leave it to Beaver levels of "normal" and then flew off the rails. The center does not hold.
Without getting into too many details, I liked where they left it off. We have our "hows" and "whys" pretty much nailed down, but there is still lots of room for the story to maneuver. Pam still has one foot on terra firma and a good chunk of the chaos can be easily attributed to Bad Guys from the Big City. No reason to close Camp Crystal Lake!