Bryan Fuller, the creator of the upcoming prequel series in the Friday the 13th franchise, Crystal Lake, may have a surprising inspiration behind his interest in adding to the Jason Vorhees universe.
Brian Fuller, known for his work on Hannibal and Dead to Me, is at the helm of Peacock's upcoming Friday the 13th prequel series about the doomed little town where camp counsellors come to die. The popular franchise has played out over 11 sequels since the original was released in 1980. The Friday the 13th films have become solidly part of the horror canon of the past four decades, with principal villain Jason Vorhees generating games, comics, documentaries, and other media for enthused fans.
While the films started with a simple story about teenage camp counsellors getting picked off one by one by a mysterious slasher, that killer, in particular, is one of the key motivations behind Fuller's interest in becoming part of its universe. Fuller told Fangoria that some of his earliest empathy for film characters stemmed from viewing Friday the 13th as a kid. "One of the kids I sat with during most of that volunteer work, his mother simply couldn't handle him. He was amazing and unique and had a different sort of intelligence, but he was also non-verbal. His mother couldn't get far enough away from him," Fuller, who worked then with special needs kids, said. "And so, when I read about 'Friday the 13th' and saw the lengths Pamela Voorhees would go to for her special needs child, I found myself in this Venn diagram of influences, and I fell in love with the series."
Fuller could easily empathize with young Jason and his mother, Pamela Vorhees, who is revealed as the woman yielding the sharp objects in the original Friday the 13th film. She is often surpassed in fame by her son, who did not show up until the second film, nor don his trademark mask until the third. While Jason Voorhees' origin story as a kid bullied by other campers and drowns while his camp counsellors were not paying attention is tragic, Pamela's plight appealed specifically to Fuller. "I feel that I'm in a unique space to tell this story and to make sure it is loved and cared for appropriately," Fuller said.
While horror and slasher movies, in particular, often focus on the blood, running, and jump scares, empathy plays a tremendous role in audiences' connection to both characters and villains, which is something that Fuller seems primed to explore with the new series, particularly the relationship of Pamela and her son.
Crystal Lake is in development.
Source: Fangoria