‘Crystal Lake’ Review: Over-the-Top Kills Succumb to an Underbaked Story in A24’s ‘Friday the 13th’ Prequel

The A24 series Crystal Lake serves as a prequel to Friday the 13th, exploring the origin story of the Voorhees family. Directed by Brad Caleb Kane, the violent gore-fest stars Linda Cardellini as the mother of Jason Voorhees. While the production features over-the-top kills, critics describe the narrative as underbaked and mediocre. The plot attempts to explain the killers' beginnings, but the answers are delivered too easily and too late in the story.