Pamela Voorhees is an important character in the slasher-horror franchise Friday the 13th. She is the mother of Jason Voorhees, the main antagonist of the series, though Pamela herself is the main antagonist of the first film. She is portrayed by Betsy Palmer in the original film and by Nana Visitor in the 2009 remake.
Biography[]
Pamela was the mother of Jason, a boy who suffered with mental disabilities and facial deformities. Because of these abnormalities, Pamela resorted to isolating him from the rest of the community. She would not let her son attend school and instead attempted to tutor him herself.
One day in the summer of 1957, Pamela was unable to find a babysitter to look after her son and so took him with her to Camp Crystal Lake where she worked as a cook. At the camp, Jason was tormented by both the campers and counselors and while he was being harassed by several children, he fell into the lake and drowned. The counselors that were supposed to be watching Jason completely ignored the bullying and had sex in the woods while Jason drowned in the lake. His body was never found and the camp was closed soon after.
A year after Jason's death, Camp Crystal Lake was reopened and Pamela, driven mad with grief, murdered the negligent counselors whom she blamed for the loss of her son. The police investigation turned up no leads or suspects and so Pamela was never arrested, thus she continued to kill whenever anyone attempted to reopen the camp.
In 1980, a final attempt was made to reopen the camp by one Steve Christy. Pamela took it upon herself to stop the reopening by murdering Christy and all of his staff.
Death[]
During her killing spree, Pamela would remain off-screen and most of the murders were shown from her point of view. She finally appeared on-screen when only Alice Hardy remained, appearing before Alice as she attempted to flee the camp. Not knowing Pamela was responsible for the deaths of all her friends and colleagues, Alice begged Pamela for help. Pamela feigned innocence until Alice showed her the body of Brenda Jones, at which point Pamela's true nature was revealed. Pamela rambled about how her son had died in the lake due to the counselors' negligence, making it clear to Alice that she was insane and was the one responsible for all the killings. Pamela then pursued a terrified Alice around the camp with a machete, eventually cornering her at the edge of the lake. The two women struggled and Alice managed to disarm Pamela, but the crazed woman forced Alice into the wet sand and attempted to strangle her. Using a broken rowing oar, Alice knocked Pamela off of her and then went to pick up the machete that she had dropped. In a burst of rage, Alice charged at Pamela and decapitated her with her own machete.
Following Pamela's death, her son Jason would be spurned back to life for the first time. From then onward, Jason would carry out countless murders over several years, slaughtering anyone who disturbed the grounds of Camp Crystal Lake.
2009 reboot[]
In the 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th, Pamela's death is shown during the film's prologue. During the opening credits, it is revealed that she had already killed the would-be camp counselors that attempted to re-open Camp Crystal Lake, all except one (who is unnamed). As in the original film, a struggle ensues between Pamela and the last surviving counselor, who manages to retaliate and decapitate Pamela with a machete.