I really loved the Friday the 13th prequel series Crystal Lake (you can read my review HERE), and one of the most enjoyable things about it is seeing how much reverence the show has for the movies. The Peacock series has its own characters, storylines, and some very unexpected ideas about the history of Pamela and Jason Voorhees, but it’s also made by people who clearly know the franchise inside and out.
Throughout its first season, Crystal Lake drops in familiar faces, locations, props, lines, scenes, and visual callbacks. From returning characters and recreated murder scenes to Jason’s shack, deep-cut references to franchise history, and even a callback to Jason Takes Manhattan, the first season is packed with connections to the movies.
Here are some of the many Easter eggs and references hidden throughout Crystal Lake. Beware: spoilers ahead!
Familiar Characters and a Surprise Cameo
Pamela and Jason (played by Linda Cardellini and, for the most part, Callum Vinson) aren’t the only characters to be brought back from the Friday the 13th films. Crystal Lake also features several characters who haven’t been seen since the franchise’s earliest days. These include:
Trudy and Enos
One of the first locations visited in the original Friday the 13th was Hartung’s Diner, where we were introduced to owner/waitress Trudy (Dorothy Kobs), oil truck driver Enos (Rex Everhart), and a stylish middle-aged woman played by Mary Rocco. While fans are left to assume that the unnamed woman served as the inspiration for Crystal Lake character Rita (Joy Suprano), there’s no question that Crystal Lake features slightly younger versions of the Trudy and Enos characters, played here by Bernadette Quigley and Daniel Stewart Sherman.
Seeing these characters exist in Crystal Lake years before the events of the original movie is one of the little touches that helps the show feel like it’s building toward the story we’ve known for decades. Trudy and Enos are featured in several scenes throughout the series, and Enos even has a disturbing experience out in the woods that will surely help inform his opinion that “Camp Crystal Lake is jinxed.”
Steve Christy
Steve Christy is another familiar name from Friday the 13th, as he was one of the ill-fated characters in that first movie (where he was played by Peter Brouwer). He’s the owner of Camp Crystal Lake in the original movie, and Crystal Lake gets to show us a much younger version of the character (played by Dan Thompson) before the events that will eventually put him in charge of the camp. Here, he’s a teenage counselor who likes to party and tell campfire stories.
Crazy Ralph’s Early Days
“Town crazy” Ralph isn’t just wandering around Crystal Lake warning people about the dangers of the woods, he’s in the thick of the story, noticing strange things in the woods before anybody else does and being accused of terrible things. Ralph was an off-kilter prophet of doom in the first two movies, where he was played by Walt Gorney. In Crystal Lake, there’s an explanation for his behavior: he’s a veteran of two wars who’s haunted by the horrible events he witnessed on the battlefields.
Ralph delivers some of his familiar warnings in the show, makes inappropriate comments, and freaks out and annoys people. It’s nice to see that, even at this point in their lives, Enos was having to stop Ralph from bothering people, much as he does in Friday the 13th.
Barry and Claudette Return
Barry and Claudette (Willie Adams and Debra S. Hayes) were the first two characters introduced in the original Friday the 13th, and Crystal Lake gives their story a new dimension by revisiting the events that made them part of the franchise’s history. In the 1980 film, the pair sneak away from the other counselors to have sex in a boathouse, only to get brutally murdered. The prequel recreates that memorable sequence while adding new context to their relationship and the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
Their return is especially rewarding for longtime fans because Crystal Lake doesn’t simply repeat what happened in the original movie. It revisits a familiar piece of Friday the 13th history and finds more story to tell, even giving new significance to Claudette’s passing reference to someone named Mary Ann. The fact that they like to use football terms during foreplay is an expansion of the “Barry’s out of bounds” line from the movie.
Dorf Is on the Case
Screenwriter Victor Miller didn’t like the fact that producer/director Sean S. Cunningham had another writer (Ron Kurz) add a scene into the original film where the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake receive a visit from a goofy, over-confident motorcycle cop named Dorf (Ron Millkie). Miller wanted it to feel like the characters were completely isolated at the camp, and he felt that a visit from a cop ruined that illusion. Fans have always found Dorf to be a fun, amusing addition to the film, though – and 46 years later, Officer Dorf (now played by Cameron Scoggins) turns out to be one of the most entertaining characters in Crystal Lake.
The character is frequently ridiculous, but he has more depth than you might expect… and there’s a great throughline involving his love of martial arts movies, which extends to owning shurikens.
Mark Nelson’s Cameo
When Crystal Lake was heading toward production under the guidance of Bryan Fuller, the plan was for original Friday the 13th heroine Adrienne King to have a recurring role on the show. That plan changed when Brad Caleb Kane took over as showrunner, as Kane felt that it was too early for the show to feature extremely recognizable faces from the franchise’s past… but that doesn’t mean that Crystal Lake season 1 is lacking Friday the 13th cast members entirely.
By the sixth episode, journalist Briana Brooks (Devin Kessler) is deep into an investigation of the Bellflower chemical company’s involvement with Pamela Voorhees. When her boss, Dick Wagner, goes looking for her at her desk to assist the company representatives, the character is played by Mark Nelson, who played Ned Rubenstein in the original Friday the 13th. It’s a small role, but it’s a fun surprise to see an actor from the 1980 film return to the franchise in an entirely different part.
Familiar Locations, Props, and Vehicles
Downtown Crystal Lake and Hartung’s Diner
Although I have a special place in my heart for the version of downtown Crystal Lake that was featured in Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (which was filmed in Covington, Georgia), the best decision Kane made for the Crystal Lake series was to return to the filming location of the original film: Blairstown, New Jersey. Blairstown was the first version of Crystal Lake we ever saw, and it’s Crystal Lake again for this series, looking just like it did 46 years ago.
Hartung’s Diner (most commonly referred to as “Trudy’s”) is one of the most recognizable locations brought back for the show. The diner was seen in the original Friday the 13th, and the series uses it as a regular meeting spot for the Crystal Lake community.
Enos’s Truck and Pamela’s Jeep
Enos isn’t just back for the prequel. He also has his oil truck, another small visual connection to the original movie that longtime fans will appreciate. The Jeep driven by Pamela is another piece of recognizable Friday the 13th imagery that Crystal Lake works into its world. Both of these characters will still be driving the same vehicles when the events of the original movie come around.
Jason’s Wilderness Survival Gear
When Jason is young, he receives a collection of items that includes a tent, machete, flashlight, and wilderness survival guide. Pamela tells him that learning to hunt and fish will make the woods his, and fans are well aware that the woods will indeed be his someday. Making little Jason an aspiring survivalist sets up the forest-dwelling version of the character that’s to come, and also gives us the sight of Jason picking up a machete for the first time in his life. He’ll get a lot of use out of machetes in the future.
Jason’s Shack
Did you ever wonder how Jason found (or assembled) that shack he was living in during the events of Friday the 13th Part 2? Well, Crystal Lake has the answer. Unlike some of the other locations in the show, the shack here doesn’t look exactly like its cinematic counterpart, but maybe it will receive some renovations as years go by.
For now, Crystal Lake establishes that the shack was an already-crumbling structure on an abandoned piece of property when Jason stumbled across it as a child.
Jason’s Part 2 Look
Speaking of Part 2, Crystal Lake also works in clothing that evokes Jason’s appearance in Friday the 13th Part 2. At the end of the first episode, Pamela imagines holding hands with her presumed-deceased son, and the outfit little Jason is wearing is quite similar to the clothes he wears in the first sequel.
It’s the kind of thing that might not register as a major Easter egg unless you’re familiar with Jason’s early appearances.
SS Lazarus Sack and Stolen Clothes
There’s another nod to Jason’s Part 2 look later in the season, when he’s shown wearing a sack on his head – and this sack serves as a double reference, because it happens to have “SS Lazarus” stenciled on it. A completely unexpected nod to the ship from Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan!
Jason doesn’t pair the sack with an exact replica of his Part 2 clothes, but instead with some items that were stolen from Crazy Ralph’s clothesline in a moment that’s reminiscent of the beginning of Friday the 13th Part III.
Camp Crystal Lake Is Actually Open
Here’s one disappointment: although Crystal Lake was filmed in the same area as Friday the 13th, the makers of the show were not able to secure the original camp location, Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, as a filming location. It wasn’t for lacking of trying; they asked and were told that the camp was not available. So, they moved over to a nearby place called Camp Ocawasin.
The original movies rarely gave us much opportunity to see Camp Crystal Lake functioning as an actual summer camp. By the time most of the sequels take place, things have gone horribly wrong there. Crystal Lake gets to show the camp operating, with young people arriving and counselors working there. The last time the franchise really gave us this particular sight was Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI in 1986, so seeing a populated, functioning Camp Crystal Lake again is pretty special. As they say in the show, it gives the campers a chance to make some “Crystal Lake memories,” which is itself a reference to the title of a great book and documentary that covered the franchise.
Recreated Scenes and Visual Callbacks
The Canoe Jump Scare
At the beginning of the second episode, we get a recreation of one of the most famous moments in the franchise. Pamela rows a canoe out onto Crystal Lake, and then a rotting corpse suddenly rises from the water behind her. It’s not a shot-for-shot remake, but it’s clearly recreating the famous final jump scare from the original Friday the 13th. The imagined shots of Jason beneath the surface of the water also bring to mind a moment in Jason Takes Manhattan.
Willow’s Walk Into Town
Something glorious happens early in the fourth episode, and this is one of my favorite Easter eggs in the entire season. When the hippie Willow (Oona Roche) arrives in Crystal Lake, her walk into town is a recreation of Annie’s walk near the beginning of the original Friday the 13th. It’s not merely a similar idea; the staging is deliberately modeled after Annie’s arrival.
Willow’s route even takes her to the same place Annie went: Hartung’s Diner, where she talks with Trudy while trying to figure out where she needs to go. It’s a great combination of a returning location and a carefully recreated scene.
Barry and Claudette’s Last Night
Along with the walk through town in the fourth episode, the fifth episode gives fans one of the most elaborate recreations of a sequence from the original movie. Barry joins the counselors for a campfire sing-along, just as the counselors do in Friday the 13th. He also starts flirting with Claudette, setting up the next major callback.
Just like in the original movie, Barry and Claudette sneak away from the other counselors and head to a boathouse to have sex. Anyone who has seen Friday the 13th knows exactly where this is going. Barry and Claudette are caught together and murdered, recreating the first two murders depicted in the original Friday the 13th.
But Crystal Lake adds new context to what happened that night. The basic imagery is unmistakable, though, and it’s one of the season’s most fun pieces of fan service.
Packanack Lodge
Although the films established that Jason drowned in 1957, Crystal Lake moves the tragic event to 1971. The showrunner wanted to set Crystal Lake in the ‘70s so the show could “touch on all the pop-culture artifacts that were tangential to the America from which these movies were born.” One thing that was going on at that time was the Human Potential Movement, which led to things like Erhard Seminars Training, which was founded by Werner Erhard in 1971 and offered a two-weekend course meant to “transform one’s ability to experience living so that the situations one had been trying to change or had been putting up with clear up just in the process of life itself.” That’s the obvious inspiration for the seminar Pam attends in the second episode: The Experience, founded and hosted by a man called Wilhelm Richter (Nathan Darrow).
How is that relevant to our list? Well, the venue for The Experience is a place called The Packanack Lodge, which shares its name with the counselor training center in Friday the 13th Part 2. They’re completely different locations, but they’re called the same thing.
Actor and Counselor Shout-Outs
In the original Friday the 13th, a counselor named Marcy sits in a restroom stall and reads things that previous occupants have written on the walls. In the second episode of Crystal Lake, the character Grace (Gwendolyn Sundstrom) sits in a restroom stall and reads the writing on the wall, which includes mention of someone named Marcy.
Counselor-in-training Terri from Friday the 13th Part 2 also gets a visual nod in the fourth episode. When the hippies are scoring food from Pam, keep an eye on the extras wandering around in the background. One of them is wearing the same “shorts and a Mickey Mouse shirt” combo that Terri was wearing the first time we saw her.
When Briana is conducting her investigation, there’s reference to someone named “Feldman,” a nod to Corey Feldman from Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (and the opening sequence of A New Beginning), and a legal paper is shown to have the line “Jensen v. Feldman.” Could the “Jensen” be an homage to Jason Takes Manhattan heroine Jensen Daggett?
Snakes
There’s a rattlesnake in the camp kitchen, and Pamela has to deal with it. The snake is another callback to the original Friday the 13th, which also features a memorable snake encounter, while the fact that it’s a rattlesnake brings to mind the beginning of Friday the 13th Part III, which features a rattlesnake striking at the camera in 3-D.
There are actually two snake encounters in Crystal Lake, and they’re used as a way to show how Pam’s mental state changes over the course of the season. When she finds a rattlesnake in the kitchen in the first episode, she considers hacking it with a meat cleaver, but instead chooses to get the snake into a pot and carry it into the woods to release it. When another snake crawls through her kitchen in the fifth episode, she doesn’t hesitate to grab a cleaver and chop it up.
Harry Manfredini’s Music and the Shattering Title Card
One of the most important connections between Crystal Lake and the original Friday the 13th is the return of composer Harry Manfredini. He created the music for Sean S. Cunningham’s 1980 slasher, created the “ki ki ki ma ma ma” sound effect, and provided the music for most of the sequels. Manfredini returned to the world of Jason Voorhees to create new original music for the Crystal Lake title sequence.
The musical tribute is accompanied by a visual one. The title sequence in the first episode of Crystal Lake presents its title in the same fashion as the title of the original Friday the 13th: the three-dimensional lettering slides toward the viewer and smashes through a pane of glass.
Dialogue and Story References
Ralph’s Famous Warning
Ralph eventually warns people that if they go into the woods, they will “never come back again.” That’s a direct echo of Crazy Ralph’s warning in the original Friday the 13th, and Nick Cordileone even delivers the line with a vocal quality that recalls Walt Gorney’s performance. It’s the sort of dialogue callback that can make longtime fans smile without interrupting the story for everyone else.
“Does Mary Ann Kiss as Good as I Do?”
Here’s a fun one. In the original Friday the 13th, Claudette asks Barry, “Does Mary Ann kiss as good as I do?” Crystal Lake finally gives that throwaway name some meaning by revealing who Mary Ann actually is: she’s the hippie girl known as Harmony. So a random line from the 1980 movie suddenly has a character attached to it more than four decades later.
“Kill Them, Mommy”
Pamela hallucinates the image of a young Jason telling her, “Kill them, mommy.” It’s a simple line, but it deliberately evokes the relationship between Pamela and Jason in the original movie, where Pamela’s belief that Jason is communicating with her becomes part of her justification for the murders. That line is also how we got the iconic Friday the 13th sound effect, as composer Harry Manfredini took the “ki” and “ma” sounds and turned it into “ki ki ki ma ma ma.”
The Hippie Massacre
They’re far from the first kills in the series, but the slaughter of the young people at the camp deliberately embraces the classic Friday the 13th formula: young people at Crystal Lake, drinking, doing drugs, having sex, and generally having a good time before someone starts killing them. It’s the franchise’s basic template, transplanted into the world of Crystal Lake. The series may be exploring new ideas about Jason and Pamela, but it knows that a prequel to Friday the 13th still needs the kind of mayhem that made the original movies famous. Some of the deaths in the show might even make you think of certain kills from some of the movies.
The Sweater
The icing on the cake: when Pamela carries out the hippie massacre, she’s wearing the same sort of sweater that the character was wearing in the original film.
She also gets to repeat some dialogue from the movie while wearing the sweater, telling a victim who’s “so young, so pretty” that “Jason should have been watched. Every minute. He wasn’t a very good swimmer.” Lines that are straight out of the climax of the ’80 film.
Deep-Cut Franchise Connections
Bear Country
Friday the 13th Part 2 and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter told us back in the ’80s that Crystal Lake was in “bear country.” In Crystal Lake, we finally get to see a bear in the Crystal Lake wilderness – and it proves to be rather useful when it comes to body disposal.
Bear Traps
Jason never caught any of his victims in a bear trap until the 2009 Friday the 13th movie, but the video game that was released in 2017 took that idea and ran with it, giving Jason multiple bear traps to be dropped in strategic spots around the maps. The bear traps make a return in Crystal Lake. At first, they’re being used by Ralph to trap animals around the forest, but soon Jason is out there in the woods, observing, learning how to use the traps himself.
Hodder McKane, Founder of Crystal Lake
The first episode slips in a fun bit of franchise-related wordplay during the town’s Founders Day celebration. According to a speaker at the event, Crystal Lake was settled on April 27, 1779, by a man named Lieutenant Hodder McKane. The name is a nod to Kane Hodder, the stuntman/actor best known for playing Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, and Jason X. (Plus the video game.)
It’s a detail that might be missed if you don’t have the subtitles on, but longtime fans will recognize the connection immediately, as the show takes a moment to acknowledge one of the most popular actors ever to wear Jason’s mask.
Project Argonaut
Bellflower’s mysterious Project Argonaut is more than just a sinister-sounding experimental project. It’s a reference to Jason and the Argonauts, making the name an appropriate bit of wordplay for a story about Jason Voorhees. It’s a different kind of franchise reference, one that connects the show’s mythology to a classic fantasy story.
Elias
The introduction of Elias is a deep-cut piece of Friday the 13th continuity. Jason’s father was never part of the original movies, but Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday established his first name as Elias. Crystal Lake finally gives us the first official on-screen introduction of Jason’s father under that name, bringing a piece of the franchise’s more obscure mythology into the prequel’s story.
The Friday the 13th Part 2 Mystery
Crystal Lake spends much of its first season recreating the strange situation that was presented as a theory in Friday the 13th Part 2: Jason survived his supposed drowning, he’s living in the woods, and his mother doesn’t know he’s alive. The existence of Jason’s shack, his survivalist behavior, his clothes, and the mystery surrounding his survival all build toward the version of Jason we meet in that sequel.
And that’s what makes Crystal Lake so much fun for Friday the 13th fans. The show isn’t simply checking boxes from the movies. It’s taking pieces of the mythology and finding ways to fit them into a new story. These Easter eggs are the details that make Crystal Lake feel like it really belongs in the Friday the 13th universe. And if the series gets to continue, I’m hoping there are plenty more of them waiting to be found.
The post Crystal Lake Is Packed With Friday the 13th Secrets You Missed appeared first on JoBlo.
