Quick show of hands. Who here owns a gynecological exam table and keeps it in their living room? No one? So then, do you find it strange that Jason’s parents do in the Friday the 13th universe? What I’m referring to is a table shown prominently in the old Voorhees home in Jason Goes to Hell. It’s a long, solid-looking piece of wood with stirrups attached to one end. It’s been fitted with ropes, straps, and chains for God knows what all.
Credit: New Line Home Video DVD
The room it’s in is actually the only room in the house that we see, besides an unfinished basement. Five people die there. The first time the table enters our view is when Jason (controlling the “Coroner”) uses it to restrain and shave Josh before transferring his essence to him in uncomfortably homoerotic fashion. In that same room, Steven thumbs through the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, Josh in turn transfers his essence to Robert, the local sheriff gets stabbed, another officer’s throat is slashed open, and Duke’s back is broken.
But why is there a gynecological exam table smack dab in the center? That’s the million dollar question. Has anyone ever thought about how weird that is? Was Jason’s father Elias an OB-GYN? If so, does this mean he practiced at home while Pamela worked as a cook for the Christys at Camp Crystal Lake? Did he use said table to perform insemination procedures on Pamela? Did Pamela use it to give birth to her two children there? Maybe she was a part-time midwife. Is that a possibility?
Or, is the explanation more… sexual? Did Elias and Pamela use it to spice up their love life? What was inserted, and where? Nevermind, I’d rather not know.
Could they have used the apparatus to rape and/or torture unknown early victims, like the so-called “Toy Box Killer” of Elephant Butte, New Mexico?
As you can see, there are multiple reasons why such a piece of furniture could potentially be there, but no definitive answer is given.
Now, before you link me to Wikia articles, let me say that I am aware Elias and Pamela’s backstories are fleshed out in various comics and novels, and let me also say that I’ve never considering anything outside of the films to be “real”, or “official”, or “canon”.
The simplest conclusion I’ve come to for why the table exists is that it serves to foreshadow or symbolize Jason’s rebirth. Over the course of the movie, the revenant commandeers surrogate bodies to carry out his goal of reverting back to his normal hockey-masked form, which he does, eventually.
However, I can’t confirm that it’s there for this purpose as writer/director Adam Marcus and screenwriter Dean Lorey don’t even acknowledge the table on commentary, or in any interviews that I’ve seen.
My theory is, even though it’s not explicitly stated within the film that Pamela gave birth at home, we’re supposed to assume she did, so when Jason is reborn there later (and ultimately dragged to Hell), his story comes full circle. He was born there, he gets reborn there, he dies there. It’s poetic, in a way.
I’ve honestly never seen this idea discussed among fans, so let me know what you think down below. I welcome all comments.
The Devil's DVD Bin 