Did Jason Voorhees Killer Mom Get It Right In 'Friday The 13th'?
'Friday The 13th' Featured The First Killer - Jason's Mom - Maybe She Had A Sharp Point To All The Bloody Mayhem
Friday The 13th will probably always be known as that most unlucky of days, especially for the highly superstitous amongst us. It’s the dread day to watch out for bad, even dangerous luck. No matter how much you avoid walking under ladders or encountering a prowling black cat portent in your walkabouts, this day may prove to be your undoing. Grab that ratty rabbit foot and jade green four leaf clover to properly fight the power of the 13th!
For movie going audiences, Friday the 13th is a day Hollywood has exploited thematically. Even before the infamous movie franchise crashed nightmarshly into theaters, Hollywood always played with the day in both film and TV.
Now, though, after 42 years of us watching Jason dispatch the naughty, horny and plain unworthy, it’s a singular day for a hockey mask aficionado. Friday the 13th is the day we as horror movie lovers observe Jason Voorhees celebration day.
So, how will you celebrate Jason’s special day?
Even more importantly, the more I think about it, all things considered, perhaps, just maybe, Jason’s Mom had a sort of crazy, righteous reason to commit all of that muderous mayhem.
Betsy Palmer As Jason’s Murdering Mom
Mrs. Voorhees is played by actress Betsy Palmer. Palmer wasn’t exactly ever a Hollywood superstar, but she worked steadily throughout the 1950s, playing supporting or co-starring roles in such films as Mister Roberts, with James Cagney and Henry Fonda, and opposite the great one, Jackie Gleason (The Honeymooners), in the TV film, The Time Of Your Life.
By the time Palmer made her appearance in the now legendary horror film, she had car trouble. So much so, that’s the reason she took the role. From Stephanie Nolasco:
Despite believing no one would see the film, the actress agreed to play Mrs. Voorhees because she needed a new car.
"I had a Mercedes, which I had for a number of years, and it broke down on the Connecticut turnpike," Palmer, who passed away in 2015 at age 88, once recalled, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. "So I said to myself, ‘I need a new car, universe.’"
Palmer had little confidence in the movie script. From the same article:
"… So the script came and I read it and said, ‘What a piece of s---. No one is ever going to see this. It will come. And it will go. And I will have my Scirocco,'" she shared.
Jason’s actress Mom in real life wasn’t all in on the bloody fun, but what of the fictional Mrs. Pamela Voorhees. How did her mind manage to justify what she did to all those randy camp counselors?
Let’s review the character’s dialogue from the film.
Mrs. Voorhees : Did you know a young boy drowned the year before those two others were killed? The counselors weren't paying any attention... They were making love while that young boy drowned. His name was Jason. I was working the day that it happened. Preparing meals... here. I was the cook. Jason should've been watched. Every minute. He was... he wasn't a very good swimmer. We can go now, dear.
You see, Jason was my son, and today is his birthday...
Oh, God, this place! Steve should never have opened this place again, there's been too much trouble here!
It’s clear Mrs. Voorhees was dealing with some real life problems. Jason was greatly deformed. This woman took care of a child with special needs. And it’s revealed that Camp Crystal Lake’s counselors did not look out for the boy and so he drowned.
Where’s the justice? Where’s the happy ending? Who looks out for Jason?
Mom does.
Fans may forget it is Mrs. Voorhees who’s the classic first film’s killer and who basically drives the action forward for the rest of the franchise - her son Jason taking up her bloody machete mantle. Nobody can truly argue what she did was just or even justice, but we can still feel and even empathize this women was pushed to the edge.
The justice system failed her family. Her brand of vigilante justice can be compared to Charles Bronson in Death Wish or Sylvester Stallone as Rambo. Dirty Harry anyone? Of course, in the end, her sense of justice - or maybe injustice - leads to one of the most enjoyable horror film franchises ever.
As Pamela Voorhees says in the film, “Kill her, Mommy! Kill her! Don't let her get away, Mommy! Don’t let her live! I won't, Jason. I won't!”
Big thanks to Mark Daniel for inspiring this one!