20 Most Badass Female Horror Characters Ever

The original Friday the 13th spends the entire movie keeping the killer off screen only to reveal that the murderer isn’t a giant, bulky man; it’s an innocent looking, middle aged woman.

Pamela is the mother of Jason Voorhees, who returns to Camp Crystal Lake to avenge her son’s death. She was an extremely overprotective mom and worked as a cook at the camp, but one day Jason snuck out into the lake in the middle of the night and drowned. Pamela blamed the camp counsellors because they were not watching him, presumably off having sex.

So she goes insane and starts hearing the voice of Jason telling her to kill all the counsellors, and in an amazingly creepy moment she develops a split personality, talking both as herself and as Jason saying “kill her, mommy!” The late Betsy Palmer is so damn good that she’s just as terrifying in the original movie as the zombified murderer Jason is in the sequels. It's also really creepy how she starts off as just a random, kind looking woman who tries to help Alice, only to suddenly turn and reveal herself as a psychopath. 

Beyond all the wacky deaths and the memorable soundtrack, the innocent looking, knife-wielding Mrs. Voorhees is what made Friday the 13th stand out from the crowd.