While we wait for the return of Jason and Mrs. Voorhees in Peacock’s series “Crystal Lake,” we’ve learned that the upcoming prequel series is getting an official novelization from A24.
A24 will publish Crystal Lake on October 15, the very same day all eight episodes of the Friday the 13th prequel series premiere on Peacock. Tim Waggoner (Terrifier 3) wrote the novel.
In 1971, the drowning death of 11-year-old Jason Voorhees broke something in his mother, Pam. As her grief curdles into bloodlust, a chain of horrific discoveries threaten to shatter the small town of Crystal Lake. In order to enact her final vengeance, Pam must uncover hidden secrets about her past and terrifying revelations about Jason’s childhood.
A24 Publishing promises that the Crystal Lake novelization is a page-turning reinterpretation the origin story of two horror icons into a darkly comic, wickedly grisly, paranoid slasher saga.
The upcoming novelization is of course based on the television series developed by Brad Caleb Kane, and on characters created by Victor Miller and the Friday the 13th films.
Read on for an official statement from Brad Caleb Kane about the A24 novelization.
In the summer of 1982 there were two very significant moments for me. The kind that form the foundation for the rest of one’s life. One was the June release of an intimate little love story between a boy and his alien. The other came two months later when my big sister, Mahra, took lil’ eight-year-old me to see Friday the 13th Part 3 in (glorious) 3-D. Two wildly different cinematic bangers, one unified effect: the crystallization (pun intended?) of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. A lot’s been written about the summer of ’82 for movies, but for me these two were the Alpha and the Omega, my dual Swords of Power transforming me from passive moviegoer to active learner. (Sorry, but He-Man was also big for me in ’82.)
If I’d been of age to go back and see Friday Part 3 again, I probably would have moved right into that crumbling old movie palace on East 86th St. in New York. But I could still see E.T. again. And like the rest of the world, I went back over and over again that summer, to different theaters, with different audiences, but always with the same result: bliss, joy, pleasure, wonder. To me, there was as much purity in E.T.’s plant-gathering as there was in Jason Voorhees’ silent slaughterfest, and in each I sensed a similarly deep well of feeling and intelligence at work. But as much depth and inner life was wordlessly conveyed on screen, my hungry, developing little fanboy brain needed more. These fictional characters felt like friends. And I wanted to know them better.
So imagine my relief when, scanning the racks for yet another Choose Your Own Adventure, I came across William Kotzwinkle’s E.T. novelization. Cracking the paperback and reading E.T.’s very own thoughts made text, I knew just what adventure I’d be choosing that day. Here was all the alien inner life I’d been craving, and whether Mr. Spielberg liked it or not, it allowed me to experience the film again on, what was to me, an even deeper, richer, and more meaningful level. It was supplementary and complementary. I can still watch E.T. without thinking of the pudgy little guy’s running commentary from the book, but I can also toggle back and forth between them in my mind like telepathic subtitles.
After that, I noticed novelizations of my favorite films everywhere, and I bought them all. I loved how the thoughts of the characters were extrapolated and expanded upon, how new scenes were written beyond what was shown on screen. I would rewatch these movies I loved with friends, but only I knew what the characters were really thinking and what their lives had been like before the events of the story.
Owning them felt strangely subversive, and I became a lifelong convert to the Movie Novelization, eventually even finding (and loving) the ones written for the Friday the 13th movies. So when I made Crystal Lake and A24 asked me if I wanted to do a novelization for the series, it was a no-brainer. A true full-circle moment. And having read Tim Waggoner’s novelizations of the X Trilogy, I knew he could translate Pam Voorhees’ chaotic thoughts and complex psychology in new, intriguing ways, ones that might be more clarifying and revealing than we could ever communicate on screen. And boy, has he ever.
What you have in your hands is a perfect companion piece to the show and, frankly, catnip for the Friday the 13th fans like me—a fathoms-deep dive into Voorhees lore. Enjoy.
You’ll be able to grab the Crystal Lake novel in book stores as well as in A24’s online shop.
