Pamela Voorhees

"You let him drown! You never paid any attention! Look what you did to him. Look what you did to him!"

- Mrs. Voorhees

Pamela Voorhees is a fictional serial killer featured in the Friday the 13th films. She was the central antagonist in the original Friday the 13th where she was played by actress Betsy Palmer. Although the character was killed at the climax of the film, elements of her were featured throughout the subsequent sequals. Her rotting head was featured in Friday the 13th Part 2 and a "zombified" version of Pamela appeared in a dream sequence in Friday the 13th Part III. Her gravestone was featured in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and another dream-version of Pamela was seen in the 2003 crossover film Freddy vs. Jason. Actress Nana Visitor (of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame) played Pamela Voorhees in the cold open sequence of the 2009 Friday the 13th remake.

Biography
Pamela Voorhees was the mother of the unstoppable killing machine known as Jason Voorhees. In 1947, Pamela was a young and pregnant newlywed living in a trailer in Cadiz, Ohio with her abusive husband Elias. Pamela believed that she could actually hear the thoughts of her unborn child instructing her towards committing acts of violence. Whether this was merely an aspect of a deep-rooted psychosis or a reflection of some supernatural manipulation is unknown. In September of that year, after suffering another in a long series of beatings perpetuated by her husband, Pamela heeded the voice inside her that told her to "kill". While Elias was sleeping, Pamela picked up an ax and hacked him to pieces. She discarded the remains and burned the trailer to the ground.

Without a husband or a home, Pamela felt lost... adrift. She drove across the country until she reached the suburban community of Crystal Lake. She felt God had called her to this place and she purchased a home. She got a job working as a short-fry cook at a local diner. On Friday, October 13th, Pam met David and Louise Christy. The Christys told her that they were re-opening a campground out near the lake and asked her to work for them cooking for seventy-five children over the summer season. On the day that Pam accepted the job, she went into labor. Her son Jason was born with severe physical deformities, but a mother's love blinded Pamela who felt that he was "perfect".

In June of 1957, Pam was working at Crystal Lake when she received news about her son. Rushing home, she learned from her nanny Mrs. Cunningham that Jason had been killing and mutilating small kittens. Rather than admonishing the boy's actions however, she instead cradled him, telling him that she will always protect him. She did decide however, that she would have to leave her job in order to keep an eye on Jason. Dave Christy didn't want to see Pamela go, so he invited her to bring Jason to live at the campground so that she could always keep an eye on him. Later that year, eleven-year-old Jason Voorhees drowned in Crystal Lake and the "death" of her child drove the overprotective Pamela insane. The camp counselors charged with keeping an eye on him were off making love in the woods. Stricken with grief, Pamela took some time away from the camp.

In 1958, she begged the Christys for the chance to work at the camp again. Her motivation behind this is unclear, but it may have been sparked by the knowledge that the two negligent counselors who allowed her son to drown, Barry and Claudette, were once again working at Camp Crystal Lake. Pamela avenged her son's death against two camp counselors whom she found copulating inside of a cabin. Pamela believed that these two reflected the sinful nature of all whose actions allowed her son to die.

In 1979, she returned to Camp Crystal Lake and killed several more counselors. She picked up a young camp counselor named Annie in her jeep and told her the story of her life before slaughtering her. She also killed the campground manager, Steve Christy, the son of David and Louise Christy. One woman survived the massacre however - Alice Hardy. Pam and Alice fought one another on the shore of Crystal Lake and Alice beheaded Pamela with her own machete.

Jason Voorhees, still alive and living the woods nearby, witnessed his mother's death and began a bloody crusade of vengeance against anyone who dared to trespass on his territory. He collected his mother's head and placed it on a shrine in his own cabin.

Jason spent the next two months tracking down the woman who killed his mother. He eventually found the home of Alice Hardy. To terrorize his prey, he left his mother's rotting head inside of Alice's refrigerator. When Alice saw it, she screamed, but could do nothing else. Jason appeared before her and killed her by driving an ice pick into the side of her head. Once the deed was done, Jason returned to Camp Crystal Lake and put the head back in its resting place in his cabin.

When Jason was in pursuit of Ginny Field, Ginny came upon Pamela's shrine and used child psychology in a desperate gamble to save her own life. She pulled her hair back, donned Pamela's dirty sweater and began speaking to Jason in an authoritative voice. The trick worked momentarily, and Jason believed that he was seeing the image of his dead mother speaking back to him.

Years later, dream demon Freddy Krueger manifested himself as Mrs. Voorhees and appeared to Jason in Hell. She urged him to rise up and kill again, emphasizing that he needed to go to Elm Street to deal with some troublemakers. Jason was resurrected from Hell and did as he believed his mother was instructing him to do. When Jason's rampage grew out of control, Freddy appeared as Mrs. Voorhees again in a dream, admonishing Jason as "a dog that doesn't know when to stop eating". Freddy further antagonized Jason by making it appear as if he was holding his mother's severed head in front of him.

Remake series
Pamela Voorhees was the mother of Jason Voorhees. In 1980, when Jason was still a child, it was believed that he had drowned in the lake at Camp Crystal Lake. Pamela, distraught over her child's apparent demise, blamed the camp counselors for failing to watch over him and went on a rampage, murdering all but one. A single surviving counselor fought back against Mrs. Voorhees, beheading her on the shore of Crystal Lake. Little did she realize that Pamela's son Jason (who did in fact survive) witnessed his own mother's decapitation. In his head, he heard her disembodied voice urging him to take revenge.

Notes & Trivia



 * Actress Nana Visitor played the role of Mrs. Voorhees in the 2009 Friday the 13th remake directed by Marcus Nispel. The character's role in this film was greatly truncated from the original and she only appears in the beginning of the film moments before she is decapitated in front of her son Jason.


 * Many of the "prowler" scenes from Friday the 13th were actually played by stunt man and special effects assistant Taso Stavrakis. It is Taso driving the jeep in the beginning of the film with Robbi Morgan (Annie) and it is he who slices Annie's throat with the hunting knife. In the uncut version of the film, Pamela's hands are seen groping about in front of the camera after Alice beheads her. These are actually Taso's hands. It has become a joke among the crew members that Pamela Voorhees has exceptionally hairy hands.


 * In Friday the 13th, Pamela is identified only as Mrs. Voorhees. Her first name is not revealed until Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.


 * The dates of birth/death of Pamela Voorhees is indicated on her tombstone in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.


 * Actress Betsy Palmer accepted the part of Mrs. Voorhees due largely to the fact that she needed money for a new car.


 * Freddy Krueger once used his powers to assume the form of Mrs. Voorhees as part of a ploy to fool Jason.


 * Actress Kathleen Garrett provided voice samples for the character of Pamela Voorhees in the teaser trailer for the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th. She is credited in the film as voice artist.

Original death
The death of Pamela Voorhees as presented in Friday the 13th is radically different from what was written in Victor Miller's original script. In Miller's draft, Pamela and Alice's final battle took place in Crystal Lake itself. During the scene where Alice is floating in the canoe, Pamela attacks her from above where she is hanging from the bough of a tree. The fight continues in the water and Alice decapitates Pamela with her own hunting knife. The revised script was written by Ron Kurz.