Interview: Friday the 13th Part V’s Final Girl Melanie Kinnaman

Melanie Kinnaman, also known as Pam Roberts from Friday the 13th Part V, joins us to talk about the film and the upcoming Part V reunion at HorrorHound Weekend.

In early November, the awesome people behind HorrorHound Weekend will be bringing their amazing convention to Columbus, Ohio. There they will be having what seems to be the first Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning reunion ever. Many of the film’s stars will be in attendance to celebrate the film more than three decades later.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Part V reunion without Melanie Kinnaman! In the film, Kinnaman plays Pam Roberts, the fifth “final girl” in the Friday the 13th series. Ahead of her con appearance next month, Melanie dropped by to chat with me about the reunion and the film.

Read on ahead for the entire interview!

1428 Elm: First, I just want to say that Friday the 13th Part V was one of the first horror films I saw and made me a lifelong fan of the genre. With that being said I wanted to take a moment to thank you for doing this for me.

MK: Oh, sure! And I appreciate that you’re pumping it up and advertising it, which is really nice.

Yeah, it seems like… I don’t even know if there’s ever been a Friday the 13th Part V reunion, that I’m aware of.

Well, I’ve never been to one. John (Shepherd) and I did Texas Frightmare in May, and that was the first time I saw him in 30 years. So this will be interesting because I haven’t seen pretty much anybody since then, so it will be a lot of fun. I’m sorry Shavar (Ross) can’t make it — you know, I talk to him quite a bit. It would be perfect if he was there, since myself, John and Shavar — we were really the last ones standing.

via Paramount

Aside from the reunion coming up, do you attend cons regularly?

I don’t do a lot of them, as you probably know. I’ve done a bunch in Europe. Those are a lot of fun. And I’m real particular about the ones I do here. Monster Mania, I’ve done that, which was good. Texas Frightmare was great. I have to say Chiller in New Jersey was one of the best ones I ever did. And also, Flashback in Chicago was a great, great show. Great people, fans were great. So, I’ve done a handful in America, and I’m looking forward to HorrorHound, because I’ve never done it! It’ll be like a freaky high school reunion.

You’re part of an elite club in the sense that not only are you a part of the Friday the 13th family, you’re one of its Final Girls! How does it feel to be the fifth final girl in such a popular horror franchise?

It’s such a surprise. Obviously when I was shooting it, I had no idea what a final girl was. I didn’t know what that meant. I certainly didn’t know anything about the franchise, because I hadn’t seen it. I mean, I watched Part IV before I saw Part V, so that I had some knowledge and knew the backstory. But only all these years later, with the feedback of the fans and the press that I’m finding out it’s an honor to be a final girl, so I’m absolutely thrilled.

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I think the Friday franchise for the most part did a good job. I think Part V took a chance to try to do something different. You know, people think it’s bad, but I think it’s always good to think outside the box and try something different. And for that I give them kudos. It’s something different, we took a shot, and it worked or it didn’t work, depending upon your point of view.

I’ve read about how the ending, being controversial, was kept secret from much of the cast and crew during production. I would imagine you’d be privy to it, being a part of the ending. Did you realize at the time how risky it was, that you were taking a chance?

No, I didn’t. When I was given the part for Part V, they signed me for Part VI, because it was supposed to be a direct sequel. The last shot of Part V was supposed to be the beginning of Part VI. I think it would have been very interesting, and an interesting story, because I knew where they were going with it. So, obviously very early on I knew the story, and where it was going to go.

But I had no idea that the whole “Non-Jason” thing was such a big deal.

My perspective was, I loved how different it was. Like you were saying, it’s outside of the box, because if you look at the rest of the films in the series, they pretty much all end in the exact same way — they stop Jason (or do they?). In this case, as well as in the original film where it was revealed to be Mrs. Voorhees, I always appreciated those endings more, because they did something different.

And it’s interesting how there’s no backlash on Part 1 where there wasn’t Jason, and the killer was Mrs. Voorhees. Where they just love that film, and embraced it, and they have nothing but great things to say about Part 1, but Part V is like the black sheep because it doesn’t have Jason. And some of the anger and hatred is just startling.

And, believe it or not, they direct it at me! John Shepherd said he didn’t get any of that, but I’ll tell you, I get a lot of hate mail. I just think, ‘It’s just a movie, people!’ I didn’t write it, and I had nothing to do with it. I showed up, did my part, tried to portray the character as best as I thought for the script, and I think it scared people. I think we did our job.

It does seem as time goes on, the cult following for the film does grow larger, as more fans are coming around to respect it. But I guess you still have the trolls out there.

There are still the hold-outs. But yes, I’ve noticed that a lot of people have come around. But very early on, they hated it — just hated it.

Talking about how they were originally going to bring you back for Part 6, did they tell you what their plans were for your character in the film?

No, they wanted to keep that a secret. Because that was almost a year before we even finished shooting. So, they didn’t tell me, but the inclination, the way they were leaning, was that Tommy was going to become the killer, and I’m helping him, trying to bring him back from the brink.

I think that would have been very interesting.

I think it might have been very interesting. But what do I know? Part 6 they say is great, and they loved having Jason back, and so, you know.

Yeah… what’re you gonna do?

[laughs] I didn’t see Part 6, for obvious reasons, but apparently it’s loved and it’s very good. I know Thom Mathews did a great job, as did the rest of the cast, so kudos to them! I wish everybody luck with all the stuff that they do in the franchise.

via Paramount

Well, though they obviously went in a different direction for Part 6, it does keep your character alive, making Pam one of the few rare survivors.

Isn’t that great? I never thought of that until fans started bringing it up, saying very few final girls are survivors.

Even Alice, the first one, they killed right away in the second one.

Yeah! So, I’m forever alive, because there was no resolve to my character. No one really knows what happened, because she was alive the last time you saw her. So it’s a nice place to be.

Have you ever thought about what might have happened to Pam after the events of the movie? Where she would be in the years following the massacre at Pinehurst? 

I think she would have moved on and left that line of work. Maybe gone into private counseling, but not in that kind of environment — troubled teens in a group setting. I think that she went private, in a hospital, working with younger people there.

Someplace safer and probably far away, I would imagine.

Yeah. Nowhere near the woods, and only sunny days.

Your role in the film is a pretty physical one, especially considering the ending scenes in the barn where you’re operating a chainsaw.

That scene was shot on Halloween, by the way. The whole day, we rehearsed, and then we shot on Halloween night.

Did you do a lot of those stunts yourself?

Yes. I did everything myself. They only thing they wouldn’t let me do, ironically, was climb the ladder up to the top of the barn. All the other stuff I did. Dick Warlock was the stunt coordinator, and Tom Morga is a very well known stuntman, and he played Jason. So, we rehearsed a lot, and blocked it all out, because the chainsaw was real and it was on, and they wanted to make sure that I didn’t hurt anybody. There was a lot of rehearsal, and there were a lot of takes. That was a very long scene. Things went wrong with the chainsaw, it would go off, not come on…

Long night?

[laughs] Yeah, but it was fun.

via Paramount

There’s something else about the film that I personally never noticed for about 20 years, but ever since somebody on the internet brought it up, I’ve noticed it’s become something of an inside joke about the film. I’m talking about Pam’s disappearing and reappearing pink sweater…

I can’t believe you never noticed that. That’s kind of nice, I thought everybody noticed.

I guess I didn’t get the memo. I didn’t catch it until it was pointed out to me in recent years.

That’s funny, well, good for you! I guess that means you were really into the action of the film, which is what we really wanted — people to be involved in the action and not notice that. I’m still angry about it though, because I think it’s silly. A very simple thing for the continuity people to check. And it should have never happened in the film. That should have never happened! The sweater should have been gone and never came back.

Do fans still bring the sweater up to you at con appearances?

Yes! And now it’s funny. But at the time, it wasn’t funny to me. I thought, this is really stupid. This is Paramount, they have a continuity department, and I don’t understand how it got past them.

So I guess you noticed it immediately then?

Ugh! It was at the screening, when the film was going to open, and they had a cast and crew screening. Everybody was there except Paramount. And nobody said anything to me, but I couldn’t believe it. It was the first thing I noticed. I was just shocked. And I thought, ‘Oh god, I hope nobody else notices.’

Ironically, the fans didn’t say anything to me, but distant relatives — you know what it’s like, an old cousin or someone who’s got an attitude, started broadcasting it, like it was a big issue. Then it kind of spread. We somehow have made it a joke now, and that’s good. But believe me, it wasn’t supposed to be funny.

I read online, in recent years, you’ve done more work in theater and in television. I just wanted to ask if there’s anything you’re working on now that we can look forward to?

Yes I am. I have two independent features that are coming out. I can’t talk about them yet, I wish I could. I’m also doing a show for Shudder, and we start shooting soon. It’s a horror show, so that will be fun!*

Next: Interview: Deborah Voorhees talks F13 Part V and her new film

I want to thank Melanie again for dropping by 1428 Elm for this amazing chat about my beloved Friday the 13th Part V. I’m looking forward to meeting her in person next month at HorrorHound’s Haunted Holidays in Columbus, Ohio. The convention is at the Crowne Plaza Columbus North on the weekend of Nov. 3 through Nov. 5. To find out more about the event or to purchase tickets, head over to the official website!