‘Crystal Lake’ Officially Rewrites ‘Friday the 13th’s Most Iconic Scene

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Danielle Kotch and Phoenix Parnevik in Crystal Lake

Published Oct 16, 2026, 11:48 PM EDT

Shawn Van Horn is a Senior Author for Collider. He's watched way too many slasher movies over the decades, which makes him an aficionado on all things Halloween and Friday the 13th. Don't ask him to choose between Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees because he can't do it. He grew up in the 90s, when Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and TGIF were his life, and still watches them religiously to this day. Larry David is his spirit animal. His love for entertainment spreads to the written word as well. He has written two novels and is neck deep in the querying trenches. He is also a short story maker upper and poet with a dozen publishing credits to his name. He lives in small town Ohio, where he likes to watch professional wrestling and movies.

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Crystal Lake.

Every iconic horror movie franchise seems to be taking a stab at television these days. Child's Play did it with Chucky; Alien: Earth had a fun first season; and Mike Flanagan's reinterpretation of Carrie was recently released on Prime Video. With a years-long lawsuit resolved, the Friday the 13th's franchise, dormant since the 2009 film reboot, can rise from the depths. A24 and Peacock's prequel series Crystal Lake, starring Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees, mostly takes place before the events of 1980's Friday the 13th. After delivering its own reimagining of that movie's opening kill scene, Brad Caleb Kane's series incorporates a shocking twist that changes the iconic moment for the worse.

'Friday the 13th's Opening Kill Scene Keeps the Villain's Identity a Mystery

Friday the 13th, written by Victor Miller and directed by Sean S. Cunningham, started as an admitted rip-off of Halloween. It's no surprise that, just as John Carpenter and Debra Hill's horror flick had an opening kill set years before the events of the main plot, so too does Friday the 13th. The film opens in 1958, 21 years in the past, one night at Camp Crystal Lake. A group of counselors is singing in one cabin as an unseen person moves through another cabin of sleeping campers, revealed only through the camera's first-person perspective.

Crystal Lake camp counselors Barry (Willie Adams) and Claudette (Debra S. Hayes) make googly eyes at each other before they leave the group and sneak into the camp's empty barn. They go upstairs to the loft to lie down and do things you should never, ever do in a slasher movie when they're interrupted by that unknown character. The audience doesn't see what they see, but Barry and Claudette first think they've been caught and then become terrified. Barry is stabbed in the gut, and as Claudette tries to run away, the killer approaches until Claudette's screams abruptly stop.

It's quite an effective opening scene. Unlike Halloween, which begins with the origin story of six-year-old Michael Myers, viewers of Friday the 13th have no idea who the assailant is. The film then becomes a mystery where the killer's identity is never revealed until the third act, when Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) steps out of the shadows and starts ranting about the counselors who weren't paying attention when her son drowned.

'Crystal Lake' Replaces Pamela Voorhees With Another Character

Although Crystal Lake's main action takes place in the lead-up to Friday the 13th's first kill, the show is set in the 1970s instead of 1958. Still, all the ingredients are there. Jason (Callum Vinson) is introduced as a child before the drowning incident that leads his mother to unravel — as are two of Crystal Lake's camp counselors, Barry (Phoenix Parnevik) and Claudette (Danielle Kotch). Because of their names, we know exactly what their fate will be.

Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky

Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.

🏕️Jason

🔪Michael

💤Freddy

🎈Pennywise

🪆Chucky

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.

ALeave immediately. I don't need to understand a threat to respect it. BStay quiet and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it. CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again. DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark — I'd rather know what I'm dealing with. ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller.

NEXT QUESTION →

Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.

ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people. BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight. CIn my own head — the most dangerous place of all, depending on what's already in there. DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things. ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you'd expect is a threat.

NEXT QUESTION →

What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours?

APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence. BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out. CPsychological resilience — I've faced my worst fears before. They don't have the same power over me. DEmotional steadiness — I don't panic. Panic is what gets you caught. EScepticism — I don't underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant.

NEXT QUESTION →

What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.

AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer. BThe invisible — a threat I can feel but can't locate, watching from somewhere I can't see. CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me. DThe unknowable — something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself. EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it's too late.

NEXT QUESTION →

You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't.

AThe one who says "we need to leave" first — and means it, even when no one listens. BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does. CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to. DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed. EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off.

NEXT QUESTION →

What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.

AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn't, but I can't leave them behind. BAssuming I'm safe once I've found a hiding spot. That's when it finds me. CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy. DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I'm dealing with. EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That's exactly what it wants.

NEXT QUESTION →

What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.

AThe environment itself — I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it. BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn't expect. CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon. DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on. EImprovisation — I use whatever's at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force.

NEXT QUESTION →

It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours?

AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me. BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it. CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most. DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed. EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it.

REVEAL MY VILLAIN →

Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…

Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.

Jason Voorhees

Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.

He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.

Michael Myers

Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention.

But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.

Freddy Krueger

Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.

You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.

Pennywise

Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.

The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise's worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.

Chucky

Chucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.

You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Cardellini's Pamela, wearing the iconic blue sweater, checks on the sleeping campers while Barry and Claudette retreat to the barn to knock boots. Then, in a fun recreation of the original scene, the ill-fated lovebirds are stabbed to death, but the perspective doesn't shift to Pamela standing over her victims holding a machete. Crystal Lake goes for a twist, revealing that Barry and Claudette haven't been stabbed by Jason's mother. Instead, the killer is revealed to be Jason's only friend, a preteen girl named Grace (Gwendolyn Sundstrom), her need for revenge made real after she gets high on her new hippie friend's stash. While Pamela does walk in on the crime and finishes the teens off, the event has already been changed

The opening of Friday the 13th is the inciting incident that leads to everything else. Pamela Voorhees, driven to murderous rage by her son's drowning, decides to get revenge by killing every camp counselor she comes across. Her mind is frayed, and she believes every teenager who sets foot in Camp Crystal Lake is responsible. That motivation, regardless of its simplicity, created an iconic horror villain — one of the reasons there's a TV series about her origins 46 years later. In trying to have its own identity, Crystal Lake dishonors its most important character by taking away one of her most memorable moments of agency. While the series needed to set itself apart from the rest of the franchise, it didn't need to rewrite history in the process.

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