Claudette Hayes

Claudette Hayes was a character who appeared in Friday the 13th. Not much is known about this character in the first film. The role of Claudette was a small one. She only appears briefly in the opening scene and no background information is provided in regards to this character. However, some information is offered such as the fact that she was a camp counselor hired to work at Camp Crystal Lake for the summer of 1958. She was the girlfriend of fellow camp counselor and victim, Barry Jackson. Claudette is notable for being Pamela Voorhees' second murder victim.

Claudette is also a character in comic books that pertains to the Friday the 13th film franchise. These comic books attempt to provide more information about this character's background.

Biography

Claudette was hired to work as a Camp counselor at Camp Crystal Lake alongside her boyfriend Barry. Claudette and Barry were left in charge of young Jason Voorhees in 1957 when the boy's mother, camp cook Pamela Voorhees, took him to the camp due to her inability to find anyone to look after him while she worked.^[1]

Barry convinced Claudette to sneak off with him into the woods to have sex. Unknown to the two lovers, Jason had snuck out to the waterfront to test his swimming skills, to which he overestimated his ability and drowned. No one was held responsible as Jason went swimming without permission and at a time when the waterfront was closed. Nevertheless, Pamela blamed both Claudette and Barry for her son's death due to neglect and swore vengeance.^[1]

After closing for a short period of time due to Jason's drowning, Camp Crystal Lake reopened in the summer of 1958, and Claudette and Barry returned as counselors. One night after a campfire sing-along, Barry convinces Claudette to sneak out with him to the barn and have sex. Going upstairs to make love, Claudette and Barry were unaware that they were being watched by Pamela Voorhees, who had sworn revenge on the counselors following her son Jason's supposed drowning the previous year. As she and Barry kissed, Claudette became aware of Pamela's presence and alerted her boyfriend. Embarrassed, Barry stood up and began to explain, only to be slashed in the stomach with a machete. Claudette, terrified, attempted to flee the attic, but Pamela blocked her escape route and slowly walked towards her. Claudette desperately threw small, random objects at the killer in hopes to escape, but her death was inevitable. Pamela cornered her and sent the machete across her neck.^[2]

Claudette's and Barry's bodies were found later that night by Claudette's roommate. The girl went into hysterics and had to be sent to the county hospital. The police and paramedics were called and when they arrived, they found their bodies and took them away.^[3]

Legacy

Claudette was Pamela's last victim in her quest for vengeance for her son's death and the last Camp counselor to die by her hand until Annie Phillips at the beginning of her summer 1979 murder spree. She and her boyfriend's death signaled the end to the peaceful operation of Camp Crystal Lake which had lasted for 22 good years and the beginning of its troubles. After this, the Camp would remain closed and all attempts between the years spanning 45 troubled and bloody years to reopen, it would fail always ending in mass murder. Claudette and her boyfriend's murder can be described as the end of a good dream and the beginning of a long nightmare.

Trivia

• She is Pamela Voorhees' 2nd victim.
• 9-1-1 was not established as a nationwide emergency telephone number in the United States of America until the year 1968. Prior to that year, if there was an emergency, a person would have to get in touch with a telephone operator who would then connect them with the police etc. This would have been the case in the year 1958.
• In the original Friday the 13th, shortly before her death Claudette had confronted and asked Barry "Does Mary Anne kiss as good as I do?" But Barry denied having kissed Mary Anne (presumably another camp counselor) and sweet talked his way out of it. Claudette then gave in and agreed to make love with him.
• Claudette is the second murder victim in Friday the 13th. Her boyfriend, Barry, died a couple of seconds before her after being stabbed in the stomach with a machete.
• In Friday the 13th, two decades after Claudette and Barry's deaths, a young woman named Annie Phillips hitches a ride to the newly reopened Camp Crystal Lake. During the ride, Enos, the truck driver, briefly mentions the murders of Claudette and Barry as well as a series of other follies that befell the former owners of the camp in an effort to warn her of the danger ahead.
• It can be assumed that Claudette was born some time in the 1930s or very early 1940s which would have made her a teenager or place her in her early 20's at the time of her employment and death at Camp Crystal Lake in the year 1958.
• Her death was not shown on camera but is revealed in the script as having sustained a slit throat. However, there are production still photographs that have been circulated on the internet showing Claudette's throat being slit by a machete.
• In the script she was listed simply as GIRL.
• In the script Claudette was killed before the BOY.
• Claudette is featured and or mentioned in the Friday the 13th novel (1987) and in Friday the 13th comics which attempt to provide more background information about this character.
• One cryptic hint of the murders of Claudette and Barry was later seen in 1979 when the counselors were playing a game of "strip Monopoly". The words "I LIKE IKE" can be seen as graffiti in the fireplace mantle, which was a political slogan of Dwight Eisenhower. President Eisenhower was in the White House at the time of the 1958 murders; showing little has changed at Camp Crystal Lake between the 1958 campfire scene and the 1979 renovations.
• Her death won the Dull Machete Award in Dead Meat's "Friday the 13th (1980)" kill count.
• The character of Claudette was created by director Sean S. Cunningham and screenwriters Victor Miller and Ron Kurz.
• The opening sequence from Friday the 13th featuring the deaths of Barry and Claudette was originally intended to be a longer scene, which involved Pamela Voorhees chasing them around a barn at the camp. Shooting of these scenes was to commence in September of 1979, but due to heavy snowfall, they had to be scaled down. According to special effects artist Tom Savini, these are the only omitted scenes from the final draft of the shooting script.
• The death of Claudette takes place off-camera. This was due to changes in the script due to inclement weather as well as the fact that Tom Savini was unavailable that day to provide the special effects work. A production still exists showing Claudette with a machete blade lying against her throat.
• Claudette was the second murder victim featured in a Friday the 13th film.
• Playing the role of Claudette is actress Debra S. Hayes' first, and to date, only work in film.
• Actress Debra S. Hayes appeared as herself on the 2006 documentary Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film.

Appearances

Film

• Friday the 13th (1980)

Comics

• Friday the 13th Special (2005)
• Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale (2007)
• Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation (2007)

Novels

• Friday the 13th (1987)

Gallery

Claudette just before her death.

Claudette's death at the hands of Pamela Voorhees.

References