Kulture Meltdown: Crystal Lake (2026), Episodes 7–8 — "These woods are ours now."

Before Crystal Lake, there was Bellflower. The final two episodes of A24 and Peacock's Friday the 13th prequel flash back to 1959, where Linda Cardellini's Pamela marries into a corporate clinical trial and gives birth to a son on Friday the 13th, then bring her husband, Hamish Linklater's Elias Wittering, to Crystal Lake to take Jason back. The season answers how Jason survived the lake and puts mother and son on screen together before it ends.

Movie Meltdown's Bryan Renfro joins Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, to talk Bellflower and its Operation Paperclip echoes, Jason's origin and the bag over his head, Mike Flanagan comparisons, remakes that actually reinvent, whether the series should become the new canon, and so much more.

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The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.

New episodes weekly.

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