Betsy Palmer – “Friday the 13th” (1980)
Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) is a verifiable nutbag. Being the mother of a special needs son can be difficult, but not all go on a murderous rampage and spur on their son’s killing spree into ten sequels. Due to Jason’s hydrocephalus (brain fluid-related swelling), Pamela never sent her son to school, bordering on the tad over-protective, and dooming Jason to be a wee bit awkward, in the best circumstances. After thinking Jason had drowned in Camp Crystal Lake, Mrs. Voorhees grieves and mourns as any mother would – hearing voices, killing a few camp counselors, poisoning the lake… Wait, no they wouldn’t. Pamela meets her own demise when a survivor from one of her rampages slices her head off with a machete, setting Jason off. Like mother like son, Jason takes his vengeance out on the local teenagers. Not quite resting in peace, Pamela appears in a few of the sequels – her decapitated head in a freezer in “Friday the 13th Part 2,” her corpse in the lake in “Friday the 13th Part III,” and in hell with Freddy Krueger pretending to be her to egg Jason on to kill the Elm Street kids as part of the horror mash-up “Freddy vs. Jason.” You may have some gripes about your mother, but at least she didn’t kill a bunch of teenagers in your name.
