Fans are giving the thumbs-down to a far-out idea for a spin-off of Friday The 13th, one of the most recognizable horror movie franchises in film history.
The topic came up in the r/horror subreddit when one fan tested the appeal of a film trilogy exploring the perspective of Pamela Voorhees (Betsey Palmer).
Mrs. Voorhees is the vindictive and murderous mother of Jason Voorhees, a mentally disabled boy who drowned due to the negligence of the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake in 1957. Her son posthumously develops into a masked, machete-wielding mass murderer, and becomes the main antagonist of the 11 films that follow the original Friday the 13th.
Though Mrs. Voorhees ranks as one of the greatest horror movie villains ever, there is little enthusiasm about the prospect of films centered on her narrative. Some fans think the franchise films, games, and literature already told her story in exhaustive detail.
One Redditor’s response to OP’s post was utterly apathetic.
Another did not mince words about their total disinterest in the concept.
The idea fascinated one fan, but they emphasized that the story required brevity as the previous Friday the 13th films unpacked most of the compelling components of Mrs. Voorhees’ storyline.
Part of what made the first Friday the 13th film iconic was how it depicted the overwhelming grief and rage boiling under the shaky veneer of Mrs. Voorhees’s false compassion. However, her personal story elicits little interest from fans because it is about as compelling as a deep dive into why the big bad wolf dressed up as grandma. The first twelve Friday the 13th films have already answered viewers’ questions about Mrs. Voorhees’s aggression.
Friday, The 13th is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.