Screen-Used Head From 'Voorhees' Lit Up

 

I got a mounted light over my Pam Voorhees 3D print master copy (printed from a scan of the screen-used head from Friday the 13th Part 2 and used in the fan film Voorhees). So now I have her lit at will just like it was on set. I sold two runs of these back in 2017-2018, right after I sold the original.

A screen cap from Voorhees (2020)

The director of Voorhees and I are working on a new film called The Crow: Days of Sodom and you can find the project group on Facebook.

New Fan Film "Vengeance 2" Using One of My Pam Heads

 

You can see in the new trailer for Vengeance 2 that they used one of my copies of the screen-used Mrs. Voorhees head, with some modifications to the neck to remove the stand and flatten the base so it sits on its own. This one looks interesting and pretty FX heavy. They even set an actor on fire here, which is pretty hardcore for a fan film. Check out the trailer here.

How to Do a Proper Pam Wig

 I've gotten this question a few times. I included fully completed wigs with every order of Mrs. Voorhees heads I did, but there may be copies out there that no longer have them. I've also noticed that most replicas have hair that looks off. Sometimes its too cottony or too stringy. Sometimes she almost looks coiffed, like she just got out of the hair salon. But almost always in need of improvement.

So I'm going to do a quick tutorial here to tell you exactly how I got the look I did. While not exact, its pretty close to what they did for Friday the 13th Part 2.

Here's a screen shot of how my personal copy looked in the fan film Voorhees.

The wig I used for this and every copy I sold was something I found on eBay. It was a light brown-gray wig classified as a "JF1971" model fashion wig from some Chinese manufacturer. Here is a screenshot of the advertisement.

This listing is long gone, so I don't know where you'd find one now. But any similar wig will do.

The first thing you have to do with a copy like this is cut the whole wig down to a four-inch length. You can start with a short-haired wig as well and don't have to cut anything of course, up to you. The whole thing should be roughly uniform in length.

Once you've got it cut down, you get a heat gun and blast the hell out of it. This will cause the fibers to fray out into a sort of "rats nest" texture, creating the fuzzy, thinned-out look you see in the original film wig. You can also pull hair out to thin it even more, but that's not something I did for any of my copies.

Then you have the most time-consuming part: one your fibers are sufficiently heated, they will tend to stick together in clumps. So you have to spend quite a bit of time pulling them apart to make the hair look fuller. You can of course leave a few clumped up so that you have some stringy elements as well. Variance helps to create a more natural, chaotic look. But pulling hair fibers apart will help to create a very dirty version of the grandma perm that the movie head had.

 From there, it comes down to styling. The wig hair will end up really stiff at this point so whatever styling you do will stay put. You can use your hands or a brush to curl the hair back, away from the face to get something approximating the movie look.

There's a lot of ways you can customize it. Yours might turn out better than mine. But don't skimp on the heat gun. It's the most essential part of the look.

The Origin of the Mrs. Voorhees Head Used in "Voorhees"

At this point pretty much all the backers of the fan film Voorhees have seen the film, released this past Halloween night, so I think with nearly 400,000 views tallied up its a good time to reveal a little "easter egg" of sorts that connects this film to its big-budget predecessors.

Some fans seem to have noticed the head used in Voorhees bore a strong resemblance to the head used in Friday the 13th Part 2. That's because its the same head.

Well, almost. The head used in Voorhees was actually a 3D print of the original head used in Friday the 13th Part 2 back in 1981.

As regular readers of this blog already know, I bought the original head straight off of Lloyd Albin, who owned the camp that they filmed Part 2 at back in 1980. The head had been left in a net suspended from a tree branch after the cast and crew's wrap party, and Lloyd found it and kept it for 35 years. I bought the head off him in 2015 and had it restored by Tom Spina, owning it for about two years before selling it to another collector in November 2017. You can read the full story here.

Before I sold it, I had it 3D scanned and had an SLS print made. A silicone mold was made from that and resin copies produced. The copy we used in Voorhees was my urethane prototype, and the only copy I painted using the screen-used original head as a direct reference.

I'm very proud of the final result. Check out the photo below. On the left is the head used in Voorhees. On the right is the original screen-used head from Friday the 13th Part 2. The copy is propped up with a barbell because I didn't have a finished stand yet. You can see the old strips of wig tape on the back of the original head used to hold the wig in place.

I had the head on set in Centerville, Virginia for two nights in November 2018 and a third night of re-shoots in July 2019. We filmed Blaine discovering the shrine, getting stabbed by Elena, crawling to his gun and his original death in November, and his re-shot death the following July. Cody basically let me have free reign to set up the shrine so it was almost entirely put together with old junk that we found in the stable (an easier place to shoot than the crumbling house the scene actually takes place in). Producer Chris Plaushin bought the candles, sweater and the sheets used to hide the shrine from the camera during the approach and I destroyed everything and ran it through the mud to make it as disgusting as possible.

Initially I had suggested getting a dim overhead light on the head to get it lit like the original film, but the raw candle light was so compelling we ended up going with that. I took a few photos on set you can see below. The first set here was taken with my Sony mirrorless on the second night; below that the more reddish photos were cell phone shots taken the first night. When it was all set up the first night I had a whopping 17 candles lit but the glare was so intense on-camera we had to remove a few.

For the eight months between shoots, most of the set was left in the stable--the candles, the sweater, the shrine (an old wooden door laid across an oil drum), everything but the head itself, so when we returned in July we just re-lit the same candles and started rolling. Between the three nights I think we were out there almost twenty hours (about 6 PM to 2 AM each night if I remember right). The abandoned farm where we were shooting was unbelievably spooky and we heard a pack of coyotes howling in the distance on the first night.

Usually, back in the '80s when Hollywood made a prop it was used for a day or two and thrown out. Having anything survive from that far back is a small miracle in itself. But I think its great that this old prop got a second life nearly forty years later in a new film. Especially since its the most iconic version of what is probably the most famous severed head in movie history.

The Voorhees head is still a part of my private collection. I am very proud to have been able to use the head to integrate this fan film into Friday the 13th history and working on the film for a few days and setting up this shot was an awesome experience I will always cherish.

The Late Steve Dash with a Pam Head

Steve at one of his last convention appearances with one of the 3D prints of the original movie head from part 2 I produced a couple of years ago. Can't remember where I found this. Happy Halloween!

Every BTS Photo of Mrs. Voorhees I Have

A Rare Mrs. Voorhees Photo

Got this one from Crash when I was hunting for reference photos for Tom Spina. Probably the clearest shot you'll ever see of Alice's corpse. Not sure why the ice pick is through her cheek rather than her temple but whatever!

Happy Friday the 13th!

Here's a photo I've never shared before of the original Mrs. Voorhees head from Friday the 13th part 2 (minus the hair). Enjoy your holiday and remember that Jason is watching you. Especially if you are having sex in the woods.

Pam 3D Second Run Underway

UPDATE 11/28/18: The second run is SOLD OUT. Thank you to everyone who supported this project. I'm looking forward to getting all the new owners their copies by (hopefully) the end of January.

The second and final run of Mrs. Voorhees heads is live. After having gone through my waitlist, I tentatively have two spots left. Leave your email in the comments (preferably with your name) and I'll get back to you.

These are resin copies of a high-resolution SLS 3D print of the original prop head used in Friday the 13th Part 2. Only 22 copies will ever exist: my prototype, one flawed copy currently with Greg Nicotero, and 20 numbered copies. That's it. This is a historic piece of film history and this opportunity will not come around again.

For those who need a little backstory on this piece, click here to learn how I came to possess the original movie head.

Click here for the original sale post.

The blanks are in.

Own a 3D Print of the Screen Used Pam Voorhees Head

NOTE: THIS ITEM IS PERMANENTLY SOLD OUT. NO MORE WILL EVER BE MADE. THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST!

The first copy!

I am officially offering a very limited number of resin castings of a high-definition SLS 3D print of the screen-used "shrine head" seen in Friday the 13th part 2.

I acquired the movie head in November 2015 from Lloyd Albin, who owned the summer camp that Friday the 13th part 2 was filmed at back in September 1980. As Lloyd explained, the head was left in a net hanging from a tree on his property after a wrap party attended by the film's cast and crew. Lloyd kept it for 35 years, taking it out occasionally to scare his campers.

As I explain in detail in this post, both photo analysis and the chain of possession indicate there can be no doubt this is the screen used head. It was in rough shape, so I had it restored by Tom Spina Designs.

LEFT: The first 3D printed copy. RIGHT: A frame from "F13 Part 2."

I'm offering a run of 10 copies pulled in black resin, painted using the screen-used head as a reference so they will be exact reproductions. No blanks will be offered. Each piece will come with a screen-accurate wig, styled to look like the original. Price is $475 plus shipping. Check out a few side-by-side shots with the screen-used head below (click any image to enlarge):

LEFT: A painted 3D print. RIGHT: The screen-used head

 

 

The finished prototype

I expect this run to fill up pretty fast, but if there is sufficient demand, I will do a second run of 10. After that, the mold will be destroyed, and the few lucky collectors who own one will have an exceptional piece of movie history in their hands!

Note: We digitally inserted a "pipe" into the base that will be attached to an acrylic disc to serve as a stand. This can of course be removed if you prefer the "raw" version of the head.

TO ORDER: Please email me at farrelljm1122 [at] hotmail [dot] com. Or leave your name and email address in the comments section below and I will get back to you with details. If you've already expressed interest, you will be hearing from me shortly.

DETAILS:

• Number of available copies: 10 (may pull another 10 next year).
• Pre-order: $250 to reserve yours.
• Price: $500 + shipping total. Shipping will be assessed individually.
• Material: white resin.
• Timeframe: 8-10 weeks from time of initial payment (I have a day job!)
• No blanks!
• Yes, it will come with hair!
• Will not be foam filled (makes the head too heavy to stand up on the stand).
• All buyers will get updates with progress photos here on the blog.