All eight episodes of Crystal Lake debut on Peacock on October 15. This is a mostly spoiler-free review, but if you want to know nothing about the show, best to click out of here.

It’s a tricky thing, telling a prequel story. Not only do fans of the thing being prequelized know the ultimate endpoint of the tale being told, but they also already have preconceived ideas about how the events happened which led to their beloved original. Essentially, the creators of a prequel already have the deck stacked against them before they ever even put pen to paper. Or, in the case of Crystal Lake – the new Friday the 13th prequel series – put knife to throat.

But then again, a prequel can work well when it understands how to color (in blood in this case) within the lines of the larger canon while also developing its own world, one filled with engaging characters, a new story worth getting invested in, and enough twists and turns to keep eyes on the screen (before a few of them are inevitably popped out or pierced). It doesn’t hurt to have a cast led by the always great (and recent Emmy winner) Linda Cardellini, either.

Cardellini stars as Pamela Voorhees, a character who your horror-fan buddy is always so proud to remind you – just in case you forgot – was actually the killer in the first Friday the 13th movie , before her more famous son Jason took over in Part 2 .

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