CRYSTAL LAKE Star Callum Vinson Teases His Transformation Into Young Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees wasn’t always the hockey mask-wearing killing machine who made generations of horror fans think twice about summer camp. Before the machete, the body count, and the legend, he was just a kid at Crystal Lake.
Peacock’s upcoming Crystal Lake series is going back to that part of his story, and young star Callum Vinson is offering a few clues about what fans can expect from his transformation into little Jason.
The Friday the 13th franchise has given us glimpses of Jason Voorhees as a child before. The original 1980 movie famously ends with young Jason emerging from the lake, while Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter had Corey Feldman’s Tommy Jarvis shave his head to resemble Jason during its climax.
Crystal Lake will spend considerably more time with Jason before he becomes the horror icon fans know, and Vinson, whose credits include Chucky and the upcoming God of War, will play the character.
Peacock has been careful not to reveal Vinson’s complete Jason transformation before the premiere. Outside of a brief trailer shot, fans will have to wait to see what the prosthetic team has created.
The Jason we meet at the beginning of the series also isn’t thinking about murder. He’s a kid trying to find his place before the drowning that changes everything.
“He’s just a normal boy and he just wants to fit in with everybody, but since he had this deformation in his head, he got bullied a lot,” Vinson told Entertainment Weekly. “When I read these scripts, I was honestly really sad. I put myself in the body of Jason to become him. And it was hard, but I really enjoyed playing this character.”
Getting Vinson into character required some serious time in the makeup chair. The prosthetic process originally took four and a half hours before the crew managed to cut it down to around 90 minutes. Vinson seems to have gotten a kick out of seeing himself disappear underneath all that makeup.
“It’s a lot, but it makes you feel so cool,” he said. “It’s like you’re putting on Iron Man’s mask; you’re putting on Spider-Man’s mask.”
Brad Caleb Kane, the showrunner behind Crystal Lake, said the production used “pounds and pounds” of makeup to transform Vinson into Jason. While the series respects the unforgettable work effects legend Tom Savini did on the original Friday the 13th, Kane and his team wanted their young Jason to feel a little more grounded.
“Savini killed it. [He] reached right into our brains and pulled out our worst nightmares of what a deformed child might look like,” Kane said. “But we’re trying to do something a little bit more grounded and a little bit up-to-date.”
That should make the eventual reveal especially interesting for longtime fans. Jason’s appearance has changed plenty over the decades, but Crystal Lake has the opportunity to spend real time with the boy underneath all the franchise mythology.
There’s also the matter of the mask. Kane confirmed that Jason will wear a mask in Crystal Lake, but anyone expecting the famous hockey mask this early in the timeline should adjust their expectations. It won’t be a hockey mask, though Kane offered one intriguing clue, saying “it will not be a different mask than fans have seen.”
Crystal Lake premieres October 15 on Peacock.