Women in Horror: Top 30 Female Horror Movie Characters

Betsy Palmer in ‘Friday the 13th’-Courtesy of Paramount

7. Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer, Friday the 13th)

Before there was Jason, there was his mother, Mrs. Voorhees. Before Jason Voorhees could ever carry out his first murder, his mother was already establishing Camp Crystal Lake as the site of a blood bath. Her son drowning at the camp while counselors were fornicating would make something snap in her brain, and she’ll kill whoever she has to if it keeps the camp shut down.

At the time the movie was new, nobody was expecting the killer to be a seemingly sweet older lady. When Mrs. Voorhees first shows up, it doesn’t seem too likely she’s the killer. But that becomes apparent soon enough when she attacks the final survivor, Alice. Pamela then reveals that she has been the one killing everyone, all because those camp counselors let her little boy drown.

The creepiest part of Mrs. Voorhees is the way “Jason” tells her to commit these killings. Talking for him, Pamela tells herself, “Kill her, mommy!” These hallucinatory voices give her the motivation to violently slaughter every pesky teenager on the campgrounds, and she manages to take out every single one of them but Alice. Pamela is not like her son in that she stays dead after she dies, but her boy certainly keeps her memory alive.