There has been a lot of talk about Jason Voorhees and his heinous crimes, yet his violent nature and vicious on-screen portrayal has overlooked a few important topics, such as Jason’s father’s past and how a small child survived drowning and growing up alone in the forest. Is it possible that Jason’s transformation was aided by Crystal Lake itself? What role did Jason’s father have in shaping who Jason became later in life? In this video, we’ll discover about Jason Vorhees’ father, as well as the supernatural past and bloody history of Crystal Lake.
The Bloody and Grim History of Camp Crystal Lake
Crystal Lake was home to multiple generations of peaceful and friendly Indian tribes including the Tillamooks, Nehalems, and Nestuccas long before it became renowned as the horrific residence of young men and women, and years before Jason Voorhees allegedly drowned in the cursed lake.
According to estimates by Lewis and Clark, around 2200 Indians inhabited the region south of the Columbia River, but by the beginning of the 20th century, less than 200 remained. The reason behind this massive decrease in population was twofold. Firstly, the diseases that the white settlers brought to the native tribes proved fatal as they didn’t have any immunity against those diseases.
This is true for various tribes that exist even today. For instance, the government of India passed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Act of 1956 to protect the North Sentinel Island from any outside contact because the Sentinelese people have no immunity against modern diseases.
Coming back to Crystal Lake, the second prominent force behind the deaths of several native tribes was the greed that filled the hearts of the white settlers. In order to take over the land, the settlers would often carry out genocide, and these grievous crimes often went overlooked, and the culprits would hide from the watchful eyes of the law.
A gang of settlers slaughtered an entire tribe of indigenous and dumped their dead in Crystal Lake in one such instance. Hundreds of men, women, and children were injured or murdered before being tossed into the river. But they felt that that was not enough, so the settlers went after the Shaman of the tribe, the leader.
It was on the Shaman’s orders that the tribesmen chose to fight back instead of retreating, so the settlers wanted to cut off the root of the problems. At first, the Shaman’s wife was slaughtered, and then they went on to abduct the Shaman. The slaughterers almost escaped that night, but out of nowhere, a group of Tillamook tribesmen arrived at the scene and surrounded them.
The leader of the tribe asked the Shaman to ask his men to drop their weapons. But the proud native leader wouldn’t have any more of that, and he asked his men to fight. Enraged by this, the leader of the settlers slashed the Shaman’s throat on the banks of Crystal Lake.
Before dying, the Shaman claimed that he was immortal, and he would return. The blood that gushed out of his neck seemed to me endless; it turned the entire lake red and added a quarter-mile to the circumference of the lake.
While those who witnessed the event, perished. Since that night, the lake and the woods around it claimed scores of lives, both young and old. These lives were claimed to turn one of them into a vessel that would carry the hatred that was buried and drowned in the bottom of the lake.
Jason Voorhees would finally be the vessel that the dead souls and the cursed lake have been looking for all this time. Was it the vengeful Shaman who took over the body of little Jason when he was left to drown? Or, was it the souls of all the natives who were left to die in the lake? Whatever may be the answer, one thing that’s clear as crystal is that Jason would become a dark force that was unkillable.
The Life and Death of Jason’s Father from Friday the 13th: Pamela’s Tale
The plot of the comic is similar to that of the 1980 film Friday the 13th. Annie, a little girl, walks into a restaurant and asks for directions to Camp Crystal Lake, which is about 20 miles away. She wanted to get conveyance, but the camp was far within the woods, and no public transport headed that way.
However, she was lucky enough to get a halfway lift from a truck driver named Enos. Despite warnings from an old haggard named Crazy Ralph, she went up Enos’s vehicle and left. Enos dropped Annie at the crossroads and headed for his destination while Annie started walking towards Camp Crystal Lake.
She still had a long way to go, but to her temporary relief, she saw a vehicle coming in her direction. The car stopped close to Annie, and the young girl asked the driver if she could hitch a ride to the camp. The driver welcomed Annie and introduced herself as Pamela Voorhees. Annie had no idea what she had gotten herself into.
The two ladies began talking about children as a result of one thing leading to another. Annie inquired about Pamela’s children. Oh, my goodness! Pamela has a jewel of a child in the form of her son Jason. It was going to be a long ride, so Annie asked Pamela all about her child, and Pamela was more than welcoming to divulge information about her child. Pamela started her tale of horrors from the September of 1947 in Cadiz, Ohio.
She had recently been married to Mr. Voorhees, and according to Pamela, she was leading the life of a lucky newlywed. To Annie, Pamela only told those things that wouldn’t spook her out. So, as per her, Pamela served her husband as a dutiful wife, taking all the interest and love in the domestic chores.
In reality, Elias was a huge, muscular man who was a wife-beater. And Pamela would always be scared to death because of Elias. She was practically his slave and agreed to do as he commanded because of the fear of being beaten up. Interestingly, she was also pregnant with a child, but she hadn’t told Elias just yet, because she feared how he’d react.
Pamela lived in a dire situation with her cruel husband, and although grim, it’s a life that many wives live. But what’s not usual is the fact that Pamela seemed to be able to talk to her unborn child. Of course, this was merely a figment of her imagination, but she wasn’t aware of it.
Mr. Elias Voorhees, Pamela says Annie, was a straightforward and manly guy with simple interests in life. Furthermore, Elias had a gentler side hidden under his tough persona. When they made love, Pamela would feel that a cyclone had hit their little house. Such was the passion of this master of performing arts.
But in reality, Elias would brutally abuse her, to the point that their love resembled marital rape. Beating the hell out of Pamela for petty and trivial things was the norm in the Voorhees house. Pamela would often discuss with her unborn baby when she should reveal to Elias about her pregnancy, but she could never gather the courage to speak up because of Elias’s temper.
She was probably scared that he would hurt her and her baby because pregnancy meant a stop to the lovemaking and the beginning of expenses. But one night, when Elias returned home, he once again brutalized Pamela. She was worried about her baby. And, a decision was made right then and there. Her fetus spoke to her and asked her to kill him.
Pamela informed Annie that Elias had died unexpectedly, and Pamela had become a victim of events. But, in actuality, she grabbed Elias’ double-edged axe and smashed his head open while he was still sleeping. She was the mastermind of this bloody carnage, and it seems that the event took a toll on the fetus.
Pamela then stashed Elias’s corpse in the back of their truck and drove it to a riverside, where she dumped the body. She was a pregnant widow with no money or family. Annie was listening closely to the woes of this poor lady, who faced the adversities of life and rose from the ashes like a phoenix.
Eventually, Pamela drove away from Cadiz and ended up in Crystal Lake. She found a job and home here, and most of all, a safe haven to peacefully raise her child. It wasn’t before long that Mr. and Mrs. Christy offered Pamela the job of a chef for 75 kids and a few counselors for the summer camp at Crystal Lake. But before that could come to place, Pamela went into labor and delivered Jason.
He was diagnosed with several diseases like Hydrocephalus, a brain disease in which the body produces excess cerebrospinal fluid, and this condition led to other ailments in Jason like a deformed face, an enlarged head, stunted mental growth, etc. By now, Annie had noticed that something was wrong with Pamela and that she was not really heading towards Camp Crystal Lake.
Sensing danger, Annie jumped off the moving vehicle and tried to escape, but of course, to no avail. Pamela eventually caught up to her and killed her. Interestingly, Pamela was pretty particular about finishing her story. She brought back Annie’s body to her car and drove off once again while continuing the story.
Jason eventually developed into a disturbed and aggressive adolescent. He considered killing kittens and soaking in their blood to be practically a sport. He couldn’t be left alone in these conditions, and Pamela informed the Christys in 1957 that she wouldn’t be able to attend camp that year. Mrs. Christy suggested that if she brought Jason along, both their problems would get solved. Pamela agreed to it, but that would be the worst mistake for everyone around.
Here, the comics take a slightly different turn from the film. Jason witnesses a couple of counselors making out in the woods and ambushes them. One of the counselors chases Jason, and the kid jumps into the lake and drowns. The police ran a combing operation in the lake to find Jason’s body, but they came up with nothing, and the case was closed. But Pamela was angry at everyone, especially the camp counselors.
Camp Crystal Lake saw its first murder in 1958 when an assailant killed two counselors who were having sex. By now, Mrs. Voorhees reached the house of the Christys, where another camp counselor rushes out in panic. She reveals that someone had killed everyone inside. And that’s how it all started.