This article contains spoilers for “Crystal Lake” Season 1.
For the first time in a very long time, we have a sizable new entry in the “Friday the 13th” franchise in the form of “Crystal Lake.” Streaming now on Peacock, it’s the first full-length addition to the beloved horror franchise since the “Friday the 13th” remake conquered the box office in 2009. That’s not to take anything away from the “Sweet Revenge” short from 2025, but this has much more meat on the bones. It also offers up an official origin for Jason’s favorite weapon — namely, his trusty machete.
The series follows Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), a single mother who is grieving after her young son Jason drowned at Camp Crystal Lake. When two strangers arrive at Pamela’s door digging into her past, a disturbing chain of events is set into motion. The show takes place mostly in 1972, eight years before the original 1980 slasher classic that launched the “Friday the 13th” franchise. In that movie, it turns out Pamela is the killer and has been avenging her son, who died while under the supervision of camp counselors.
“Crystal Lake” gives us a bloody Jason Voorhees origin story, with Callum Vinson playing the young version of the boy who eventually becomes a slasher icon. When Jason becomes the killer in “Friday the 13th Part 2,” he’s all grown up. Here? He’s merely a boy who died under tragic circumstances.
As part of the exploration of Pamela and Jason’s origins, “Crystal Lake” shows Pamela gifting her son some camping gear during a flashback scene. Along with a tent, he’s given — you guessed it — a machete. Pamela makes it clear this is meant to be a tool, but Jason ultimately wields the item as an instrument of death.
Crystal Lake explains why Jason Voorhees loves to kill with a machete
Now, the machete we see gifted to Jason in the first episode of “Crystal Lake” isn’t the one he uses in his various killing sprees, but this does explain why he has a fondness for that weapon in particular. Of all the 180-plus kills in the “Friday the 13th” movies, many of the best, most memorable ones happen with machetes. It’s not the only weapon he is willing to use, but just as Leatherface has his Chainsaw or Candyman has his hook, Jason has his machete.
Jason has always had a fondness for his mother. He even kept her severed head in his shack in the woods near Camp Crystal Lake. Given that Pamela gifted him a machete before his life was cut tragically short, it makes sense that he would later have an attachment to them. Jason has always, more or less, killed on Pamela’s behalf. So, what better weapon to slay unsuspecting camp counselors and intruders with than a gift from his dearly departed mother?
For better or worse, “Crystal Lake” is pulling back the curtain and doing what many prequels do, which is answer a lot of questions, including ones fans may not have necessarily had in the first place. Jason Voorhees never talks in the “Friday the 13th” movies, but the young Jason does in this show as a means of making him more of a sympathetic character.
Similarly, in the films, Jason just acquired a machete in his travels, much like he acquired his hockey mask in “Friday the 13th Part III.” It didn’t, per se, need more of an explanation, but this show is giving us one.
“Crystal Lake” is now streaming on Peacock.