It: Welcome to Derry only has one more episode to go in its inaugural season, and if that’s just not enough long-form horror, then Peacock’s Crystal Lake should be on your watch list. A prequel to the 2017 and 2019 It films, It: Welcome to Derry follows an earlier Derry generation terrorized by a sharp-toothed clown.

The eight-episode season is set to wrap up on December 14, 2025, and with it, one of the only major horror TV shows. Horror television is actually in a great place in the last few years, but the end of Welcome to Derry will signal a bit of a drought. Luckily, we’ll soon have Crystal Lake to quench our thirst for scares.

Like It: Welcome To Derry, Crystal Lake Will Also Tell The Origin Story Of A Famous Horror Villain

Betsy Palmer

Crystal Lake is named for the infamous camp that serves as the setting and place of origin of the Friday the 13th franchise, making Crystal Lake a prequel to the 1980 film. The series will star Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees, the oft-forgotten Ur-villain of the entire franchise. Callum Vinson will play her young son, Jason.

William Catlett, Devin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins, and Gwendolyn Sundstrom are also set to star, and the series showrunner is Brad Kane, a writer for It: Welcome to Derry, among other shows. Like Welcome to Derry, Crystal Lake will look at a legendary horror figure before audiences came to know them.

Also, like Welcome to Derry, Crystal Lake is set in the same place where the movies began. Derry and Crystal Lake are as important as Pennywise and Jason and his mother. It seems like Crystal Lake may give us a more sympathetic view of its monster than Welcome to Derry, but you can guess Pamela won’t stay sympathetic for long.

Why Crystal Lake Is So Important For The Friday The 13th Franchise

A close up of a hand holding Jason Voorhees

Crystal Lake is a much-needed reinvigoration of the Friday the 13th franchise. Despite being known as one of the tent-pole horror franchises, with “Jason” appearing in HBO Max’s recent The Chair Company of all things, the series has fallen behind its contemporaries, like Candyman, Child’s Play, It, and Final Destination.

The last movie in the Friday the 13th franchise came in 2009, and it was panned, currently holding a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes. The franchise is at a low right now, and while origin stories and prequels can sometimes signal a franchise is out of ideas, it’s just what Friday the 13th needs.

With A24 involved, Crystal Lake could be legitimately scary, something the franchise hasn’t been for decades. Pamela Voorhees has always been a fascinating and unexplored part of the universe, and setting the show around her is a wise decision that should pay off, particularly for horror fans.