Peacock's ‘Crystal Lake’ series looks at what prompted ‘Friday the 13th’

They’re a “release valve,” according to "Crystal Lake" producer Brad Caleb Kane. “People are wound pretty tightly … and people want a thrill at the misfortunes of others as opposed to their own.”

In the 1970s and ‘80s, slasher films blossomed, a reaction to the mistrust in institutions.

“Everything was changing,” Kane says. “And people wanted escape.”

Now that “Obsession” and “Backrooms” are theatrical hits, Kane decided it was time to revive one of the genre's original franchises, “Friday the 13th.” His prequel, “Crystal Lake,” follows Pam Voorhees after the death of her son Jason. Is she reacting to the shock or the way others treated her son?

For Linda Cardellini, who plays Pam, the series is a good way to jumpstart adrenaline and, at the end of it, you can “shut it off and walk away. It’s controlled fear,” she says. “You can exercise those muscles but not have the stakes be truly high. It’s a feast for the senses.”

In the original “Friday the 13th” film, Pam turned out to be the killer. In “Crystal Lake,” “she has a beautiful beginning and somewhere to go,” Cardellini says. “There’s an arc there from somebody who means well and is trying to survive. It gives me a lot of places to go.”

In the eight-part Peacock series, which premieres in October, Kane goes back to New Jersey where the first film was shot.

“I recognize this place, and it feels frozen in time,” he says. “It hasn’t changed much in 45 years.”

Residents were intrigued but realized he wasn’t making another “Friday the 13th” film but a story about the town and Jason’s mom. “It was really fresh snow,” Kane says.

To please the fans, he decided to include references to the original.

“We do more than give you Easter eggs," he says. "We recreate things.”

For Cardellini, who has a wide range of characters on her resume, “Crystal Lake” was an opportunity.

“Pamela was somebody I had never played,” she explains. “Here’s a franchise built on a man in a hockey mask, but it actually started with his mother. I thought that was a really interesting thing.”

Betsy Palmer, who played the role in the film was an original, Cardellini says.

“You can’t duplicate what Betsy did. What she did is play this devoted mother, so I can take that and bring that to the early childhood years of Jason’s life," she says. "You don’t get to where Betsy is without truly loving Jason and getting to know him. You can’t be another Betsy, but I do do a little bit of homage. And still create something new.”

Pam Voorhees “goes full ‘Friday the 13th’” in the first season, Kane says, “and you will see it. There are a series of kills that are everything the movies do but we build to it.”

For Kane, “Crystal Lake” is his tribute to the film genre that pulled him in in 1982.

“I’m thrilled with what we made," he says. "Hopefully, people will just go on a fun ride with it.”