2025 has seen no shortage of horror stars passing beyond the veil, from the Shining’s Shelley Duvall to The Walking Dead’s Kelly Mack, as well as David Lynch- the co-creator of Twin Peaks- and even the Prince of Darkness himself. The most recent star to join the growing graveyard shift is non other than Pamela Voorhees herself, or at least one of them. Best known for her role in the 2002 Freddy Vs. Jason, actress Paula Shaw passed away peacefully September 10, 2025.
At first blush, horror fans might assume that the iconic slasher crossover movie was something of a one-off in Shaw’s career. She wasn’t even the original pick for Pamela Voorhees in the film, as the filmmakers originally hoped to have Betsy Palmer reprise her role from the first Friday the 13th movie as the (literal) mother of all slashers, but Palmer passed on the role. However, Shaw had a respectable horror resume, starting as far back as the beginning of her career in 1969.
Born in 1941, Shaw’s first film credit is as “Lucibel” in the 1969 To Hex with Sex, a sexploitation film with a twist on a classic horror trope, the devil’s bargain. To Hex with Sex is a somewhat more risqué and farcical take on the classic Faustian bargain trope. Her first full appearance in horror was another sexploitation film with a much stronger element of horror, The Centerfold Girls, in which Shaw had a minor role. Her career expanded from there to include a variety of roles in films and television, but she had frequent forays into the spooky side of the silver screen.
Shaw appeared in two horror films in the 80s, with Witchfire in 1985 and Communion in 1989, but the 90s found her appearing in several spooky settings through television appearances ranging from X-Files to the Outer Limits. With the new millennium dawning, Shaw saw a plentiful horror highlight in her career, beginning with her role as Pamela Voorhees in Freddy vs Jason.
Shortly after, Shaw had roles in multiple other genre films, which some attribute to her place in the high-grossing crossover. However, given she had a role in Nightcreep which also released in 2003, it’s difficult to say. What is clear is that Shaw’s early 2000s had a good number of horror flicks, including Chupacabra Terror and Killer Bash in 2005. Her film roles, while not as numerous as her television work, began including more horror into the mix, as did her television work with guest appearances on Supernatural and iZombie. At that point, Shaw’s film work began to feature more work for the Hallmark Channel, both television and film, which is somewhat ironic given her early film career started with films which were very un-Hallmark. However, she had one last delving into the darkness with a role in the 2021 series Day of the Dead.
Shaw’s history serves as a remarkable look at an uncommon horror career, as unlike many Scream Queens, horror made up only one aspect of a varied career. Shaw found many ways to express her talent in a variety of roles from raunchy comedies like The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which featured such iconic talent as Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton, to darker fare like the Linda Blair-led Savage Streets. She carved out a career for herself in television shows ranging from General Hospital to Mr. Young.
In a life of screaming success both on-screen and off, Paula Shaw added several horror highlights, and with her passing, perhaps it’s a good time to think about how it never hurts to have a good scare in our life from time to time.
