As Wes Craven’s self-aware 1996 classic Scream painfully reminded horror fans, while the majority of the Friday the 13th franchise revolves around the murderous exploits of Jason Voorhees, the true villain of the 1980 slasher was his mother, Mrs. Pamela Voorhees. And if you’re like me, that’s where the story ended, no questions asked.
But, biologically speaking, one question should have popped into my head: what the hell happened to Jason’s father?
Believe it or not, in 11 films, this integral part of the murderous family tree has hardly been explored at all. Fortunately, for anybody who’s been wondering, ScreenRant went ahead and published a little biography for Elias Voorhees – and guess what, he used to kill people, too!
While Mr. Voorhees never made it onto the big screen himself, there have been a fair amount of writers who did their best to get him up there. While the original ending of Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives had Jason visiting his father’s grave, it was Aaron Guzikowski’s script for the since-scratched Friday the 13th remake that really added depth to the character. In the abandoned story, Elias was a murderous park ranger at (you guessed it) Camp Crystal Lake, whose lethal rampage was eventually vanquished by his wife, Pamela, whom he apparently cheated on frequently.
This stark characterization falls in line with Mr. Voorhees’ first mentioning, which took place in a two-issue comic book series from 2007 entitled “Pamela’s Tale.” Written by Marc Andreyko, the story followed Mrs. Voorhees before Jason was born, focusing heavily on her abusive relationship with her husband.
In perfect Jason fashion, it was apparently the yet-to-be-born fetus who encouraged Pamela to kill her retched husband, marking the first corpse on her infamous body count. And while this is certainly an eerie addition to the Friday the 13th mythology, we’ve yet to find out if it or Elias will ever come to light in any of the franchise’s future projects.