Now this is something I’d actually buy. I have a huge collection of ‘80s and ‘90s movie tie-in novelizations, and I’m super excited at the prospects of sliding an all-new adaptation of the upcoming series Crystal Lake onto my shelf.
This book, which will recount the events seen in the upcoming streaming series Crystal Lake, will explore a “reinterpretation” of the origin stories behind two of horror’s most iconic slashers, young Jason Voorhees and his hot mom Pamela. This is being described as “a darkly comic, wickedly grisly, paranoid slasher saga.”
We’ve already heard that some of the death scenes in Crystal Lake are gorier than anything we would have ever seen in the ‘80s, when Jason’s deeds were heavily censored before Friday the 13th hit mall multiplexes. I can only imagine what that is going to read like in a book based on the TV show. I personally can’t wait to dive in. I might just read the novel and skip the series altogether.
A24 plans to put the book in our hands on October 15, which is the exact same day all 8 episodes of the Peacock prequel series will premiere. The streaming app is really going to town this Halloween.
Acclaimed author Tim Waggoner is behind the keyboard for this one. He’s a Bram Stoker Award-winner responsible for slipping the gruesome Terrifier 3 novel tie-in into our greasy little mitts. This new tome makes for a thick double feature of words that would pair well with a mega-sized ketchup burger. Just don’t dribble any into the pages.
The year is 1971 (the year of my birth). Pamela Voorhees (played by everyone’s hallway locker crush Linda Cardellini) is front and center, long before Jason became the hockey mask-wearing nightmare we know today. After the tragic drowning of her 11-year-old son, Jason, Pamela’s grief begins twisting into something much darker. As she digs into her own past and uncovers disturbing secrets about Jason’s childhood, a horrifying chain of events begins tearing through the town. And Pamela may be far more dangerous than anyone realizes.
Of course she’s more dangerous.
We’ve all seen Friday the 13th Part 1. Remember what she did to poor Kevin Bacon? Unforgivable, woman.
A24 describes the book as a real ‘page-turning’. I sure hope so. I hate to say it, but my Terrifier 3 book has sat on my nightstand, unread, for two years now. Not ’cause it’s boring or anything. It’s just that I’m borderline narcoleptic and I keep drifting into unbearable hypnagogic hallucinations every time I attempt to read past page three.
This Crystal Lake tie-in novel is being described as a “companion piece” that will allow for a deeper exploration of Pamela’s chaotic inner turmoil and her complex thoughts, reexamining her psychology, with passages that would be impossible to reinterpret for the screen. It’s kind of like the Cruel Jaws novel. You gotta read it to get the full experience.
A24 will be selling their Crystal Lake book online directly via the A24 Shop. You’ll also be able to buy it at standard brick-and-mortar bookstores and online retailers on premiere day, October 15.
