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Like Jason Vorhees, A24 & Peacock's Friday the 13th prequel lives again! Now with a new showrunner

Brad Caleb Kane emerges from the storm drains of Derry, in HBO's IT prequel, and heads toward the murky waters of Crystal Lake

News by Grant DeArmitt, Staff Writer

Published on Mon Aug 19 2024

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Horror fans, particularly franchise horror fans, know there's no such thing as a completely dead slasher - somehow, your Ghostfaces and your M3GANs and your xenomorphs always come back for another round. Today, we learned that that "won't stay dead" spirit also applies to horror TV shows, as the Friday the 13th prequel series Crystal Lake just received a new lease on life. According to Variety, that air filling its tattered, water-logged lungs is a new showrunner: Brad Caleb Kane.

To be fair, Crystal Lake, which is a joint production between horror mavens A24 and streamer Peacock, was never quite dead, per se. But the departure of its old showrunner, Bryan Fuller (of Hannibal fame), earlier this year certainly put the show in a kind of limbo state. Or, if you like, the show was in some ways chained underwater, waiting for a fateful lightning strike to wake it.

And what a lightning strike it's gotten! Brad Caleb Kane is not only a horror nut who says "nothing defined my childhood more than growing up in the golden age of the slasher flick," but he's had experience in the realm of prequel-series-to-horror-franchises before, as one of the co-showrunners to HBO's Welcome to Derry, the proto-Pennywise tale coming to TV in 2025.

What we don't know about Crystal Lake just yet is when A24 and Peacock are bringing the scares to streaming; no release (or filming, for that matter) dates have been announced.

But, I mean, come on - you don't want to see Jason coming too far in advance. It's much scarier when he turns up right behind you.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's weekly explorations of the best opening moments of horror cinema in The Coldest Open, and then check out:

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.

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Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.