Mother has arrived just in time for Halloween. No, we aren’t talking about the Other Mommy, although she’s fab in her own right. We are talking about the great Pamela Voorhees, the mother of Jason whom we first met as a full-blown killer in the original Friday the 13th movie. We knew that she was understandably enraged by her son’s drowning accident but, until now, we truly hadn’t dove into what she was like before then. And, thanks to Crystal Lake, it turns out that Pamela Voorhees, portrayed by Linda Cardellini, was smashing and slashing plenty of heads. She’s just a killer girl who wants to protect her son, please leave her alone! Let’s get into Pamela Voorhees’ best kills in Crystal Lake and rank them all.
5. A Final Blow of Revenge (Claudette’s Kill in Crystal Lake Episode 5)
This one ranks at the bottom for one very obvious reason: Pam didn’t do enough. Pamela was already angry with Claudette after she admitted that she wasn’t watching Jason because she was having sex with Barry, which contributed to the drowning accident. The thought was that Pamela would take the chance to get her revenge, but it is actually a very high Grace who stabs them both in the stomach.
Pamela does get her final moment with Claudette and delivers the last stabs to finish her off, but it loses a bit of its potency because of Grace’s involvement. We could assume that Pam came into the barn to kill them, but she also appeared to be unarmed. But maybe she was going to just pick up a weapon inside along the way. This moment does set up the stabbing spree in the next episode, which is incredibly fun to watch.
4. The First Blood (Dr. Valentine in Crystal Lake Episode 7)
We discover in Episode 7 that Pamela was a killer before she arrived at Camp Crystal Lake with her son. But, this kill feels like the most justified one of all. Imagine being a mother who is coerced into a treatment to save your pregnancy, your son comes out with a serious medical condition, and then you’re put on drugs that make you dazed.
You finally have had enough of your son going to “treatments,” so you find him and discover that he’s at the center of cruel experiments. If there’s one single doctor standing between you and freeing your child, you’d do what you had to do to get rid of that person, right? We cannot blame Pamela at all. The framing of the shot and the screen soaking in blood is pure horror goodness. What a great start for this killer lady with a quick, creative, and efficient murder.
3. A Horrifying Hunt of Hippies (Several of the Hippie Crew Crystal Lake in Episode 6)
This is the moment when Pam completely unravels. After getting some encouragement from a vision of her little boy to blame Grace’s brutal actions on the hippies, she goes on a very swift killing spree. These kills are pretty darn inspired and very much so a nod to horror tropes like “don’t have sex or you’ll die.” Throat slashing, back stabbing, and lots of panic and blood…we love to see it. Did this group deserve it? Not really. They were hella weird and a bad influence on Grace, but they were just being whimsical 1970s young adults with no real responsibilities. At least one of them made it out alive, and if there is a Crystal Lake season two for any reason, maybe we will get more from Harmony.
2. Double Homicide at House Voorhees (Two Kidnappers in Crystal Lake Episode 1)
A few months after Jason’s drowning, two men who claim to be with the New Jersey State Police ask to come inside her home and talk with her about a sensitive matter. Pam is suspicious, but she lets them in anyway. Well, that was a big mistake because they are, in fact, not police.
A tussle with the first guy, Bennie, in the bathroom ends with Pam stabbing him in the hip area with a pair of scissors and also slashing his throat. But it is the second killing that is truly inspired. Before the second guy can drug her, Pam grabs the machete that came in Jason’s survival kit and slices a piece of his face off like meat at Jason’s Deli before chopping right into his skull.
From the flower bag over his head filling with blood, to her twisted disposal method using honey, tuna, and a really big bear, we knew right away that Pam was a real killa. And, we love a kill that sets up some storyline and threads in breadcrumbs to lead us to the mysteries behind Pamela and Jason’s previous life.
1. Fried Head and Fire (Grace’s Mom Valerie in Crystal Lake Episode 3)
Pam’s affinity for Grace, who was Jason’s only friend, goes to the ultimate extreme. After witnessing Grace’s emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her very cranky mom Valerie, Pamela takes matters into her own homicidal hands. We guess filing a report with Child Protective Services or whatever the equivalent was in the 1970s wasn’t good enough.
To be fair, Valerie did strike a very nasty nerve when she told Pam that her son would be alive if she was a better mother. And Pamela found the perfect way to shut her up with the largest meat tenderizer I’ve ever seen before. The level of body horror gore here is perfect, with Valerie’s shredded jaw face hanging on by a thread. And, the final finish of her head in a fryer along with Pam watching with a cigarette in hand is quite diabolical.
This time period really worked in Pamela’s favor because she simply burned the place down, created an alibi by sleeping with Chief Brooks, and kept it moving. Forensic technology and investigation techniques weren’t that great then and there also weren’t cameras, cellphone and surveillance, everywhere all the darn time.