In the movie that kicked off the slasher craze of the ’80s, Friday the 13th follows a traumatized mother, Pamela Voorhees (played brilliantly by Betsy Palmer). She’s out for blood, avenging the death-by-negligence of her special needs son, Jason, back in ’58 at Camp Crystal Lake. Pamela ruthlessly murders the two counselors who were too busy hooking up in the attic to watch her son.
For years, Pamela haunts the camp, setting fires and poisoning the water to keep that cursed place closed for good. But by 1979, even her best efforts can’t stop Camp Blood from reopening. So, she resorts to stalking and killing the new counselors one by one, until the final girl, Alice (Adrienne King), takes her down.
If this isn’t the Friday the 13th you remember, that’s because nobody really talks about it from Pamela’s perspective. Jason and his machete don’t show up until the sequel! Pamela, a deeply damaged character, is brought to life with painful authenticity by Betsy Palmer.
When Palmer, already a well-known actress, signed on for this gory flick, she thought she’d be doing a campy, soap-opera style performance. That was the norm for genre films back then. But director Sean Cunningham gave her an interesting direction: play it straight, like a serious drama. Palmer was intrigued. She dialed it back and gave us one of the most compelling serial murderers ever put on screen. Through Palmer’s performance, Pamela Voorhees becomes a complex woman whose psychotic break is rooted in deep trauma, some of which we only glimpse.
Watching Friday the 13th from Pamela’s POV turns it into a whole new movie, raising questions that actually add depth to the plot. Like, where was Jason’s father? Who was he? We never hear a thing about him. Did his absence play a role in Pamela and Jason’s intense bond?
As I watched from Pamela’s perspective, some different scenarios started to come to mind. Mrs. Voorhees clearly resents young people having sex, even beyond her son’s accidental death. Is it possible she was assaulted as a young woman, resulting in a pregnancy? Maybe that explains why she’s so triggered by seeing other young folks in that act. Or maybe she was simply taken advantage of young, got pregnant, and was abandoned. Whatever it was, something major happened to Pamela Voorhees. It not only resulted in Jason, but also contributed to her eventual psychotic break after losing him.
The sad truth is that women lose their children every day and don’t become serial-killing mass murderers. Something profoundly damaged Pamela, suggesting a backstory far darker than what the film shows on the surface.
Seeing the film through this lens, I couldn’t help but notice that Pamela’s first murders are all attempts to stop people from going to Camp Crystal Lake. We only hear the victims’ side of the conversation, so we don’t hear Pamela asking them (probably politely) to stay away. We only hear the youngsters insisting on going, provoking her to stop them. It’s almost like she wants to protect these kids the way her son wasn’t protected. When she can’t convince them not to go, her twisted brain shifts to murder as a form of protection. Pamela is here for revenge, but maybe she’s also trying to save them from themselves, possibly because she experienced trauma at a similar age. It’s the twisted logic of an abuser, someone who experienced abuse, or a terrible combination of both.
When Pamela stalks Annie (Robbi Morgan) through the woods, it’s a brutal chase. Picturing the perpetrator as middle-aged Pamela Voorhees adds a new level of horror. Her psychosis gives her trauma strength, making her far scarier than her son would ever be in later installments. She’s also a tragic figure, so consumed by pain and sadness that she turns to violence.
Also, as someone who didn’t grow up in American camp culture, it’s wild to me that someone so protective of her son would entrust him to a group of teenagers and assume he’d be safe. In that sense, Pamela was a failed mother who likely internalized that terrible decision, contributing to her eventual break. The final girl, Alice, as head counselor, ends up being a failed surrogate mother, unable to protect the other counselors from Pamela’s wrath. In the final showdown, it’s mother versus surrogate mother. Even though Alice prevails, she’s left with extreme PTSD from killing a woman in self-defense. Worse, in the sequel, the woman’s son stalks her to her home and murders her in her safe place. Actual and symbolic motherhood go hand in severed hand with trauma in Friday the 13th.
It’s truly remarkable that in all the sequels, there’s never been an origin story for Mrs. Voorhees, the original killer. The ambiguity of Pamela’s story is ripe for exploration. She’s a unique killer in slasher history – the first woman to pick up a weapon and use it on unsuspecting youngsters.
“His name was Jason,” Pamela says. “I am Jason. Jason was my son. And today is his birthday.” For 21 years, Pamela was consumed by grief and the unknown, possibly traumatic, circumstances surrounding Jason’s birth, leaving her a single mother. Unable to process her grief or trauma, her mental illnesses spiraled into a full psychosis, leading to the deaths of at least a dozen innocent people.
On its 40th birthday, let’s use Friday the 13th as a cautionary tale about what happens when we let sadness, grief, and trauma fester instead of confronting and healing them. Don’t be like Pamela Voorhees, whose pain turned her into a mass murderer. Be like Jason and wear a mask.
Like this:Like Loading…
