God Bless You, Mrs. Voorhees

    

     A list of the top 5 highest grossing U.S. horror film franchises has been released. Let me first state that I do think there are particular flaws in how the series were ranked (for instance, not accounting for the inflation of ticket prices in recent years, or for the ability of one franchise with more sequels to generate greater revenue than another franchise that knew to call it quits at Part 27). Therefore, I wouldn’t turn to this as an accurate measurement of the genre’s profits.

     However, one thing did stick out to me. The supposed #1 horror film franchise, Friday the 13th, is also the only one to originally feature a killer who was a woman (Mrs. Voorhees, immortalized on screen by actress Betsy Palmer). I cannot say that I’m honestly convinced there’s a connection between Mrs. Voorhees’s gender and the success of Friday the 13th, but nevertheless, the coincidence is quite fascinating. Mrs. Voorhees, the original helicopter parent, truly was a cut above the rest. It's too bad she didn't last long enough to keep her son, Jason, from taking over the family business.