True horror fans know that Jason wasn’t the serial killer in the original “Friday the 13th.”
It was Mama Voorhees, famously played by Betsy Palmer in the 1980 slasher classic. Her disfigured son did the honors in 11 subsequent films. (He had some help in 2003’s “Freddy vs. Jason”)
The folks at Peacock and A24 took Jason’s curious lineage and made it into “Crystal Lake,” the eight-episode prequel series now streaming on the platform.
And it’s a hit. That’s also why Hollywood’s recycling factory will keep chuggin’ on.
The “Friday the 13th” prequel series was watched for 1.3 billion minutes in its first 11 days of streaming. Divided by the series’ 398-minute runtime, that comes out to a total of 3.3 million estimated views. But in terms of overall minutes watched on Peacock, it ranks behind only “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” (2022), “All Her Fault” (2025) and “The Five Star Weekend” Season 1 (2026).
Per Nielsen, “Crystal Lake” ranked as the third-most-watched streaming original series and the third-most-streamed first-season series across all of television during the week of Oct. 19.
To no one’s surprise, show creator Brad Caleb Kane is already talking about a second season.
I know exactly what I want to do with it. I know the thematics we’re going to approach. I have a general framework for what I want to do, and now that [removed to avoid spoilers], you can go full “Friday the 13th” in ways that you can’t when you’re leading up to that in Season 1.
It’s a simple Hollywood formula. Take a beloved property and extend it in any way possible. That might make Justine Bateman wince (“tell new stories” is her X account’s mantra) but audiences disagree.
Oh, they may say otherwise. The numbers tell a different story.
And they’ll get more of what they crave sooner than later. An updated version of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” is in the works. “Succession” star Sarah Snook will lead the upcoming HBO Max adaptation of Hitchock’s shocker.
Yes, it’s another case of “re-imaging” a popular IP, which can mean almost anything by Hollywood standards. That could yield more woke revisions or DEI-style casting changes.
That often doesn’t matter. HBO Max’s “Lanterns” doubled down on woke lectures and stll drew a sizable crowd.
Curiousity is often enough to gin up the necessary eyeballs these days. The numbers tell the story.
Upcoming reboots/remakes:
- “Ebenezer” (“A Christmas Carol”) – Nov. 13
- “The Cat in the Hat” – Nov. 6
- “Highlanders” – Late 2027/2028
- “Gremlins 3” – 2028
- “Escape from New York” – TBD
The post Here’s Why Hollywood Won’t Stop Reviving Classic Movies appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
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