Editorials
Inside the Head of Pamela Voorhees [Part 1]!!
Broadcast Thought is the collective name for a creative cabal of three forensic psychiatrists (H. Eric Bender, M.D., Praveen R. Kambam, M.D., and Vasilis K. Pozios, M.D.) who also happen to have a vast and unquenchable thirst for pop culture knowledge.
I recently co-moderated a panel with them at Wondercon called “Flashback to the Slash Pack.” There, along with Freddy vs. Jason and Friday The 13th (2009) writer Mark Swift, we took a look at the psychological underpinnings of characters like Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. But these guys go even deeper than that. Like I said, their interest is limitless and there is no figure in horror (or any other genre, for that matter) that is beyond reproach
Today we launch the first article in our two-part assessment of the mother of one of the most famous slashers out there, Jason Voorhees. And as a slasher herself, she’s no slouch. That’s right, Pamela Voorhees. While Mrs. Voorhees was played by Paula Shaw in Freddy vs. Jason and Nana Visitor in the 2009 reboot, their research here stems solely from Betsy Palmer’s iconic 1980 portrayal of the character in the original Friday The 13th.
Be sure to follow BTdocs on Twitter and head below to go Inside The Head Of Pamela Voorhees!!
DISCLAIMER 1: In real life, we would need an adequate evaluation:
Various diagnoses might help explain Pamela Voorhees’ mental state as seen in Friday the 13th (1980), but to truly understand her struggles, we would need to conduct a psychiatric evaluation and gather necessary information to properly diagnose anything. It might be tough to interview her given that she’s been decapitated.
DISCLAIMER 2: There is an overblown link between mental illness and violence:
While we can try to offer hypothetical explanations for Mrs. Voorhees’ behaviors, clinical mental illness, in and of itself, doesn’t typically increase one’s risk for violence except in a few narrow circumstances (e.g., alcohol and drug use disorders, acute paranoia).
What’s up with Mrs. Voorhees’ bizarre behaviors?
Dr. Bender: In Friday the 13th (1980), we see Mrs. Voorhees blaming camp personnel for perceived wrongs, sometimes having a conversation with herself using two different voices, becoming rageful, and of course, killing. From the limited information available, Mrs. V seemed to be displaying symptoms of dissociation (a state of detachment from oneself or surroundings) and/or psychosis (a loss of touch with reality). Examples of people in dissociative states can include a person under hypnosis, a person intoxicated with drugs like ketamine, a Vietnam veteran experiencing a “flashback” and believing he is back in a combat situation, and someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder). Examples of psychotic symptoms include experiencing hallucinations or believing bizarre things that are not really true, e.g., shape-shifting aliens have replaced my family members.
Dr Kambam: There is some evidence to suggest that Mrs. Voorhees is psychotic. First, she appeared to be talking to herself as if she were experiencing command auditory hallucinations (hearing a voice she believed to be Jason ordering her to do things). She might have been hearing and responding to a false perception of Jason’s voice. For example, when Mrs. V and Alice meet, Mrs. V said aloud, “Help, Mommy!” and then responded by saying, “I am, Jason.” Mrs. V then said to herself in a childish voice, “Kill her, Mommy! Kill her! Don’t let her get away, Mommy! Don’t let her live!” Mrs. V answered herself and stated, “I won’t, Jason! I won’t!” She repeatedly said, “Kill her!” in that childish voice, “Kill her, Mommy! Kill her! She can’t hide…No place to hide…Kill her!…Kill her!…Kill her!…Kill her!…”
Dr. Pozios: Mrs. V’s statements may indicate she held a delusion (fixed, false belief) that Alice (and other camp personnel) actually let Jason die. When Mrs. V and Alice meet, Mrs. V did appear to have thoughts of Jason drowning. She told Alice, “You let him drown! You never paid any attention! Look what you did to him…” If these were, in fact, delusional thoughts, it’s possible that the counselors weren’t even having sex the day of Jason’s death – Mrs. V might just have falsely believed that.
Dr. Kambam: When considering whether Mrs. V actually has a psychotic illness, it is important to consider her age. Given that Jason died at age eleven, Mrs. V was likely in her late 20s or 30s at that time. She would have been at a typical age for a woman to develop Schizophrenia (a psychotic disorder).
Dr. Pozios: Despite the above information suggesting that she had some psychotic behavior, other evidence suggests that she was not psychotic. First, it is atypical for someone genuinely experiencing auditory hallucinations to parrot or speak the auditory hallucination. That is, Mrs. V responding to Jason’s voice may be consistent with experiencing auditory hallucinations but her speaking in his voice is unusual. Second, assuming that the counselors truly were negligent of their duties when Jason died, Mrs. V might not have been delusional in thinking that Alice actually let Jason die. Instead, Mrs. V might have been communicating her anger and displacing that emotion onto anyone that was related to the camp (much like someone angry with the police after experiencing a perceived wrong from one or two police officers). Finally, experiencing the symptoms in question in an episodic fashion is atypical for a primary psychotic disorder compared to dissociative episodes.
Dr. Bender: Some evidence suggests that Mrs. V was actively dissociating – experiencing a separation from her surroundings and/or her physical and emotional experience. In fact, Mrs. V appeared to experience (at least) two personality states/identities as evidenced by her conversations with herself. She also appeared to act as if she were reliving or flashing back to the traumatic event (Jason’s drowning). Her actions might reflect symptoms of possible disorders in which someone can experience dissociative symptoms.
Dr. Pozios: First, she might have some form of Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder). Could it be that the trauma of losing Jason was so devastating that she had a “split” in her personality and now has at least one other “alter” personality? At times there seemed to be two or more distinct personality states – an avenging, enforcer personality and a more childlike-sounding personality. There may have been a third “alter,” which could explain Mrs. V’s periods of relative wellness and not killing.
Dr. Kambam: But some things may not fit Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). We don’t have evidence for the other criteria of DID. Also, while it isn’t absolute, many with this disorder have a history of experiencing abuse – it is unclear from the movie alone whether Mrs. V had such a history.
Dr. Pozios: It’s also possible that Mrs. V had Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). She experienced the traumatic event of her son dying. She re-experienced the event by possibly experiencing flashbacks of Jason dying when talking to Alice. She displayed problems with anger and irritability (which may be indications of hyperarousal symptoms).
Dr. Bender: But the problem with trying to apply a PTSD diagnosis is that Mrs. V didn’t display a hallmark feature: avoidance. Instead of avoiding reminders of the trauma, she actively sought them out by returning to the camp, the counselors, and the setting of the traumatic event. Also, hyperarousal symptoms of anger and irritability that can be part of PTSD have to be a change from baseline – we don’t know if these existed for Mrs. V before the events of the movie.
Dr. Kambam: It’s also possible her behaviors and dissociative episodes might reflect Borderline Personality Disorder. People with this disorder can experience dissociative episodes, especially when stressed, frantic, and feeling like they aren’t in control of a particular situation. (Borderline Personality Disorder was originally named for the borderline the patient walks between being neurotic, or distressed, and psychotic.) Mrs. V’s rapid, unpredictable mood shifts might have been affective instability of this personality disorder, while her murderous rampage might have reflected the inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger that someone with Borderline Personality Disorder can have. At the same time, blaming the counselors could have been a transient, stress-related paranoia.
Dr. Pozios: However, with Borderline Personality Disorder, the dissociation seen in Borderline Personality Disorder is often that of depersonalization (experiencing the sense/feeling that you’re observing yourself from outside your body with controlling it) or derealization (experiencing the sense/feeling that you’re surroundings aren’t real), rather than experiencing multiple personalities. So that doesn’t exactly fit. Also, people with Borderline Personality Disorder are much more likely to engage in self-injurious behavior rather than violence toward other (despite what we saw in Fatal Attraction).
Dr. Bender: What’s more, personality disorders are chronic and pervasive – from the first movie, we don’t know if Mrs. V had problems across the board throughout her life. In addition, Mrs. V didn’t meet enough criteria to be diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (she might have met three of criteria but five is required for the diagnosis).
If she has dissociation or psychosis, why isn’t she always killing or acting in a bizarre manner?
Dr. Pozios: If Mrs. V were experiencing dissociation, we could expect a worsening during periods of particular stress and/or reminders of trauma. The potential re-opening of Camp Crystal Lake might have been too much for her to handle. In a primary psychotic disorder like Schizophrenia, symptoms of psychosis would be relatively constant. However, this diagnosis would be inconsistent with an almost 20-year period in which she didn’t have any erratic, bizarre behaviors (or so we assume). At the same time, it may be that she had treatment during this time and that treatment controlled her symptoms.
Dr. Bender: While primary psychotic disorders like Schizophrenia have natural ebbs and flows in symptom severity, episodic psychotic symptoms are more typically seen when they are secondary to another illness that is episodic. One such illness is Major Depressive Disorder with Psychotic Features. Here, only during severe episodes of depression does one experience psychotic symptoms. In Mrs. V’s case, the death of Jason might have been such a significant stressor that it triggered grief then led to a Major Depressive Disorder in her. It is also possible that Mrs. V had periods of improvement (perhaps with treatment) and worsening. Perhaps the times when she got worse were in 1962, when she presumably poisoned the water at the camp, and in 1980, when she went on a killing rampage.
That’s it for this week! Tune in next week to find out if Pamela Voorhees was indeed a serial killer. Or if she was in fact insane…
Horror was thriving so well in the 1980s that movies like Pen Densham’s The Kiss (1988) would understandably get lost in the shuffle, only to then gain their fans later on in life. Even still, this one Canadian-American curio has had a more challenging time than others, as far as contemporary reevaluations go, which is very likely due to the movie’s limited availability—at least as of this write-up.
However, the scarceness of The Kiss, while a bit annoying, makes it like catnip for ‘80s horror completists everywhere. Hopefully, a lot of them will walk away satisfied after watching this hidden gem.
Even though The Kiss was intended as the first of several horror collaborations between Astral Pictures and TriStar, as well as the first feature produced by Densham, Richard B. Lewis and John Watson’s Trilogy Entertainment Group, it ended up being the only one produced from that former union. Once the movie was released, TriStar’s distribution jitters—they opted for a regional rollout—did the $6-million flick no favors. TriStar’s cold feet toward horror releases have been well noted, but The Kiss still did a tad better than Night of the Creeps (1986), another genre outing that flopped due to its regional opening.
Shot in Montreal, but set in Albany, New York, The Kiss—which was still called The Host just a few months before its October premiere—concerns an average middle-class family and their forthcoming situation. The uncanny problem in store for them was, in fact, set in motion some years earlier. As that hot and dusty flashback to the Belgian Congo shows, a familial curse was set upon the two Dunbar sisters well before Meredith Salenger’s teenage character was born.
Meredith Salenger, Nicholas Kilbertus and Mimi Kuzyk in The Kiss
The Kiss, which was based on a story by co-writer Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch) and penned by both Volk and Tom Ropelewski, has the outward appearance of The Stepfather (1987). This movie, though, is anything but a gender-flipped retread of that classic domestic disturber. For starters, The Kiss is far less grounded in reality—that much is clear from its unsettling opening scene. There, a trusting girl (Priscilla Mouzakiotis) is the victim of her own deceptive aunt (Céline Lomez); the movie’s titular act, and the story’s first shock, becomes the means of transferring an ancient evil from one host to another.
In the present day, Salenger’s role of Amy Halloran, a religious schoolgirl, is dealt a harsh blow in life once her mother, Hilary Halloran née Dunbar (Pamela Collyer), suddenly dies in a freak accident. But rather than a complete stranger sweeping the Halloran widower (Nicholas Kilbertus) off his feet some months later, Joanna Pacula’s character is that chosen temptress. Here, Pacula plays the grown-up version of the afflicted girl last seen in the movie’s opener. Since Amy’s mother is insistent about there being no reunion between estranged sisters, and she even contemplates buying a gun shortly before her tragic demise, it’s presumable that Aunt Felice poses a threat to her family.
The Kiss isn’t a movie ever too concerned about its own predictability. The audience is indeed often one step ahead of the story here, but also keep in mind how every one of those steps is loud. Take, for instance, the death of Amy’s mother; the Halloran matriarch goes out in garish, gruesome fashion, as a supernaturally commandeered truck sends Collyer’s character through a store window first, then leaves her one leg short. The directorial enthusiasm truly comes out in horrific moments such as these.
The Kiss is always sure to revel in its characters’ ills and misfortunes. So if the plot doesn’t impress, then its lurid parts should. Amy’s mother’s exit scene was proof of an eager, first-time horror director proving his worth. Then, bestie Heather (Sabrina Boudot) survives to tell the tale of a bizarre escalator mishap that, despite showing relatively less gore, spikes viewers’ empathy meter. The wilder bits of this movie, however, commence with that inevitable hookup between Felice and Amy’s bewitched father; their kitchen coitus is paralleled by Amy’s feverish classroom terror. The outcome there is a disquieting cross-cut of sex magic and a young woman’s menstrual onset plus hallucinations.
Sabrina Boudot in The Kiss
From foam appliances to bladders, that parade of special effects in The Kiss casts its own spell on the audience. Felice’s familiar, a visibly malevolent cat, was realized here with several models, some more articulate than others. Admittedly, the demon cat’s not as convincing as most of the effects here, but accepting that artifice, as opposed to fighting it, will make the whole experience way more enjoyable. As for the makeup used to manifest Felice’s inner villainy, it is more minimal and subtle than one might like; yet the work done to turn Pacula into an antithesis of herself is nonetheless compelling.
The otherworldly perils and dreadful goings-on wouldn’t work half as well as they do in The Kiss without the story’s contrast effect. Finding frights in picturesque, extremely ordinary settings was something that took off in the ‘80s, thanks to that sweeping shift to locales like the suburbs. And Amy’s home, a replica of a real Montreal suburban house, is the ideal battleground for any proper good-versus-evil story. It’s also prime real estate for this movie’s satanic panic-inspired horrors.
Because of their ostensibly similar plots, The Kiss has been compared to The Exorcist (1973). Except in Densham’s movie, the sinister, non-Christian entity targeting a teen girl lies within something less apparent and, perhaps, more devastating upon its exposure. To an outsider, Pacula’s Aunt Felice is too beautiful and unobjectionable to ever suspect of being a monster. More suspicious is how quickly she rips into the fabric of the Halloran home. Felice’s mere presence upsets the “texture of family life,” according to the director.
The demon cat in The Kiss
Taking out Amy’s mother and best friend, and distracting her father, would suggest The Kiss is playing by a different set of rules. It is initially leaving its adolescent target unsupported in a rather grim scenario. In contrast, though, this story offers up a surrogate parent who does her best to fill in the holes of Amy’s eroding home life. Mimi Kuzyk does good work as that family friend and doctor, Brenda, who guides the lost child without also steering her in any one direction; she is naturally skeptical of Amy’s accusations until it’s almost too late to do anything about them. So although The Kiss does an admirable job of undoing the main character’s support system, it never leaves her without a lifeline. This dark movie, in spite of everything that’s transpired, doesn’t deprive itself of light and hope.
The Kiss is a potent mélange of familiar ideas. If not for the director’s surprise flair for horror, though, the movie would have been less effective. What a shame that Pen Densham didn’t continue with the genre. As for Joanna Pacula, she is, too, owed credit as the wicked vixen opposite Meredith Salenger’s pitiable Amy; she never fails to be unsettling in her role. Pacula makes Aunt Felice a sexy yet intimidating character.
For horror that steadily doles out madness and menace, while also delivering a flashy and ghastly conclusion, The Kiss is certain to please. Yes, it’s cheesy all the way, but most favorably, everyone involved plays everything straight. That kind of commitment goes a long way with this movie.
The Kiss
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