Crystal Lake arrives this week on Peacock, offering an eight-episode exploration of what happened between the time little Jason Voorhees drowned and his vengeful mother, Pamela Voorhees, turned the summer camp into the gory mayhem of Friday the 13th.
While Linda Cardellini’s Pam is the center of the story, she’s far from the only character we get to know in Crystal Lake. One of her staunchest allies is Crystal Lake’s police chief, Levon Brooks, played by William Catlett (Black Lightning, Abigail). Levon, called “Lee” by those close to him, is a relatively recent arrival in the sleepy town, having left the force in nearby Newark due to circumstances he’d rather not elaborate on, thank you very much.
Still living the big-city life is his younger sister, Brianna (Godfather of Harlem’s Devin Kessler), who drops by often. He’s a recent widower who doesn’t always take the time to care for himself, so Brianna’s there to make sure he has food in the fridge. She’s also willing to help when Lee realizes the baffling new case he’s working in Crystal Lake has much wider implications—just the sort of thing Brianna, a newspaper reporter, is dying to poke into, since her editor prefers putting her on puff pieces about fast-food trends and giant pumpkins.
As Crystal Lake continues, Lee and Brianna emerge as characters who are determined to get to the truth, even if they have to wade through intrigue, danger, and carnage to get there. Lee and Pam Voorhees also have an attraction that brings a little bit of romance to the show, even if Friday the 13th-savvy audiences already know where things are heading.
At a recent Crystal Lake press day, io9 got the chance to talk to Cattlett and Kessler about their characters and what it was like joining the world of Friday the 13th.
“I think Levon has a bit of a chip on his shoulder coming from Newark. He [has done] some things that he’s not proud of, and he’s looking for a new beginning in Crystal Lake. And it’s 1972 when people don’t want you there, you know what I mean? And then he finds Pam, and they bond over grief,” Catlett explained, switching into the point of view of his character. “I just lost my wife two years prior, and she just lost Jason. You have this budding relationship happening, and then things start to change when bodies start to show up. And so now I’m back in the detective mode, sheriff mode, trying to figure out what is going on. And that’s when I end up bringing Brianna into the story.”
Kessler loved the Woodward and Bernstein element that her journalist character got to tap into.
“She is on the outside of Crystal Lake for the most part, but what we love about horror films is that we get to explore, expand, and talk a lot about what’s going on in the real world,” Kessler said. “And Brianna is bringing what’s actually happening in the real world to Crystal Lake. So it was really an honor to do that.”
In terms of building a sibling relationship, the actors—who discovered in the course of working together that they were born in the same hospital—found it easy to connect on that level.
“I think she’s always checking in on him [to see] how he’s dealing with grief. You know, how’s he moving through that? And then what is it like showing up in this small town, you know? You’re not in a big city where people that look like you [are around you] every single day; you’re now in this smaller town. So what is that like? Are you okay?” Catlett said. “So that’s why she brings me the food; [she wants to] open up a conversation. Because Levon doesn’t really share how he feels about a lot of things. You see it wear on him, but he doesn’t share how it feels about it.”
As Catlett mentioned, Crystal Lake takes place in the early 1970s, and there’s definitely an undercurrent of distrust among some of the locals because Levon is an outsider. He’s one of very few Black people living in the town. The setting informs certain social tensions in the story, as well as the styles we see on the various characters.
“My main thing was getting his hair right,” Catlett said. “Because we start off with wigs and I was just like, ‘These wigs are not working.’ I just don’t think Pam, played by the incredible Linda Cardellini, falls in love with that kind of man in 1972. Then when I read the script, I thought, Sidney Poitier will always be a north star for me [from] In the Heat of the Night. And so I used his stature, his texture, to really help shape Levon.”
Kessler praised “visionary” Crystal Lake costume designer Cristina Spiridakis when it came to crafting Brianna’s look for the show. “We talked about how Brianna is very much in her time. She’s a woman of the world. She would also be a trendsetter,” she said. “So Cristina and I talked a lot about bringing color in for Brianna and making sure that she stood out that way. She’s not afraid to be the one that you look at. She welcomes that in a world that’s so drab.”
Pam and Lee’s relationship may seem unlikely, but Catlett offered some insight into their budding romance. “I think he can see the good in her,” he said. “When I look into her eyes, I see that there’s someone that’s been hurt, that something has happened that’s not been shared. And I know that everybody has a past. And when she looks at me, I think she sees the same thing.”
Speaking of the past, we couldn’t let Catlett and Kessler go without grilling them about their own personal Friday the 13th memories.
Kessler admitted she’s a “scaredy cat” and that her mom wouldn’t let her watch the Friday the 13th movies when she was a kid. However, she did do some research ahead of Crystal Lake.
“When I got the role, I started watching Friday the 13th. I think I’ve seen all [of the movies] but maybe two. I didn’t watch them in sequential order, but I do love Freddy vs. Jason. And I also am partial to Jason X. It’s just the absurdity of it all. It gets me every time.”
Meanwhile, Catlett is an old-school fan. “I grew up watching them,” he said. “And so I was kind of shocked when I got the role, and it’s like, now I’m gonna be starring in Friday the 13th.”
Beyond that, he was especially pleased to be part of this take on Friday the 13th. “I was shocked that the story has so much depth. I was like, ‘Wow, what a way to intertwine grief [and police] procedural—you got so many different things weaving in and out that I thought people were going to really enjoy it.’”
And he knows that Jason Voorhees will always be a favorite for the horror faithful, especially those who have been waiting for a long time for the next Friday the 13th project. “The fans have been waiting for something for so long, to get some type of Jason—to [get] some answers to the questions that they [have].” Catlett said. “And just wanting to see Jason! You want to feel what it’s like. When we mark our calendars and we see Friday the 13th, we also have that feeling, but now it’s nice to have something that you can see Jason in.”
All eight episodes of Crystal Lake arrive October 15 on Peacock.
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