Adrienne King: The Episode That Defines Horror Heals

When we launched Horror Heals, there was one guest we knew we had to have: Adrienne King.

Best known as Alice Hardy, the original final girl from Friday the 13th, Adrienne gave horror one of its most unforgettable survivors. But her most remarkable story happened after the cameras stopped rolling.

Following the film's release, Adrienne endured years of trauma after being stalked, leading her to step away from acting and disappear from the horror community for decades. When she finally attended her first horror convention, everything changed. The fans she thought had forgotten her became the community that helped her heal.

Today, Adrienne has become a source of hope for countless people navigating trauma, grief and life's darkest moments.

This conversation was one of our very first episodes, and after nearly two years of Horror Heals, we wanted to revisit it. We've remixed and tightened the interview to focus on the heart of Adrienne's journey and the reason this podcast exists.

You'll also hear why Alice Hardy has always been Kendall's favorite final person and why the Friday the 13th family became part of our own found family after Kendall's DNA reunion changed our lives forever.

If you've never listened to Horror Heals, this is the perfect place to begin. And if you've been with us from the start, thank you for helping make this community what it is.

About Adrienne King

Adrienne King is an actor, artist and advocate best known for portraying Alice Hardy in the original Friday the 13th. Through convention appearances, artwork and countless one-on-one conversations with fans, she continues to remind people that surviving is only the beginning. Healing is the chapter that follows.

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals. 

Share the show with someone who loves horror and someone who needs a little healing.

If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

You can also listen to our sister podcast Family Twist, a show about DNA surprises, identity, and the families we find along the way.

Horror Heals is produced by Mosaic Multimedia LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm happy to say final girls do win. They fight and they win. It may take a long time, but we get there. We get there and we protect each other. That's the key.

Corey 0:12

If you're new to Horror Heals, welcome. I'm Corey. If you've been with us since the beginning, thanks for coming back. Every episode of this podcast starts with the same belief. Horror is about so much more than monsters, mass killers, and jump scares. Time and again we found that the people who create horror and the people who love it have incredible stories of resilience, healing, and hope. That's why we do this. One of the questions we ask every guest is, who's your favorite final person? Kendall's answer has never changed. It's Alice Hardy, the character Adrian King brought to life in the original Friday the 13th. Not because Alice is fearless, because she survives. She's frightened, she's overwhelmed, and somehow she finds the strength to keep going. Long before Kendall understood why that character meant so much to him, Alice had already been his favorite final person. There's another reason Friday the 13th will always have a special place in our hearts. Just weeks after Kendall found his biological family through DNA, we flew to New England to meet them for the very first time. That weekend happened to coincide with the horror convention. We discovered Kendall's newly found sister was a lifelong horror fan too, and before we knew it, the Friday the 13th family had become part of our own fun family. Those friendships have been with us ever since. Which brings us to Adrian. On screen, she gave us one of horror's most iconic survivors. Off-screen, she's survived a terrifying ordeal of her own. After years of living with the trauma of being stalked, it was the horror community itself that helped bring her back. Today she spends her time helping other people heal from their own trauma. If someone ever asks us what horror heals is all about, this is one of the first episodes we tell them to listen to. So whether you're discovering this for the first time or listening again, glad you're here. This is our conversation with Adrian King.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Because all of us, I think, relate to being underdogs or having gone through some kind of trauma in our life. And I think we bond on that with each other. So many of my fans have become very good friends because it's not I'm on this side of the table, you're on that side of the table to me. It's we listen and we share and we feel. And I always say, I give what I get, and it's always beautiful. I never meet anyone who comes up to the table with bad energy, you know. So it's all about us healing each other.

Corey 2:38

It was Kismet meeting you for the first time because I was in some flashy blue, you were in some flashy blue. We totally matched. You made for a great photo. I gave you the 30-second version of Kendall's story. You were so sweet.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Great story specifically when you said healing that little part of your heart that you think you're fine, and you've gone through whatever therapy you've gone through to get through it, and you have a partner who understands and gives you the love you need, but it's not until you actually find what it is that you don't even know you're missing, and you feel that beautiful puzzle piece. And that happened to me in 2004. My first convention, it was a chiller convention. It was January. My first one, I didn't even have eight by tens. If the fans were lined up, it was January outside. And everybody was like, Where have you been for the past 20 odd years? Where had you been? Without social media, how would one know that I was hiding from a stalker? You know, how would anyone know I went into voiceovers and looping instead of on camera because I still had anxiety about going on camera? And do you know I shared just a tiny bit of that story that day on stage for the first time? And there were hundreds at least packed into that room. And Betsy Palmer was there, and so was Amy. And you could have heard a pin drop, I heard sobbing. And at that moment, I realized I wasn't alone. And I realized that that little puzzle piece you were talking about was just I felt it, I felt my heart. I felt it, I felt it happy. And it was because I realized that everything I'd gone through maybe was for a reason now. And maybe somehow the empathy that I was able to garner through my experience, I could possibly share with everyone out there who, like me, had gone through some trauma or could survive something. And we all, I say no one goes through this lifetime without some kind of trauma. No one gets through life unscathed, you know. And it's uh I think it's a matter of how you get back to your whole self that is the key and allowing yourself to heal and finding you maybe not realizing it where it's coming from that you're gonna find that wholeness back in your life again. But I think we all go through it, and that's why when you were talking about your experience and feeling that, I know exactly what you were talking about because it's happened to me. And I think your listeners, a lot of them probably understand that same feeling because I mean, I felt like an underdog too after that. I mean, women were treated like scum. I mean, like absolute dirt. That when uh I had a stalker, the authorities literally said to me, You did a movie like Drive the 13th, what do you expect? The critics gave out Betsy Palmer's address. What kind of crazy world were we living in? I I mean, at least we've moved forward with stalking laws, you know.

Corey 6:29

Well, and that and that's the thing, like back then, you know, there weren't horror conventions back in the early days of Slasher Films for the Thirteenth. Oh horror.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Horror was not considered a normal we were all outcast. Right. We all bonded and are still bonded, I think.

Corey 6:46

I love that you shared that because you're talking about going back 20 years and there's this mutual healing through horror now, healing for you and then healing for the fans, or you're share you're opening up your story, sharing with them. And even before that, I'm sure there's countless times you've heard, oh my goodness, Alice saved my life.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yes. I've heard the most incredibly poignant stories that are even possible. A woman when I went up to the camp shared with me, she was in the military in Yemen. And honest to God, in a closet with other people, and all she could do is think of Alice in the pantry. And she said, if she can make it, I can make it. And Alice has always been a touchstone. I mean, that's just one of the stories that I've heard from people that like brought me to my knees sobbing. You feel that energy between each other that, oh my God, if I can make it, anyone can make it. Or at least if I can make it, because there were nights when I didn't really care if I made it. And I know a lot of people go through that because you feel like the world is against you, and why bother? Not having a support group, not having an entourage and no one believing. It's like start going into this am I the crazy one? And wondering how am I gonna get out of this? It took me a long time and a lot of therapy, but now it makes sense to me because I really full circle, I have touched so many lives the way Alice is a touchstone. I've become a touchstone. And I am so incredibly happy at this juncture of my life. Uh, you know, the Emily Dickinson poem, If I can stop one heartbreaking from breaking or ease one pain, I have not lived in vain. And that's always been one of my favorite poems growing up. And I feel like I'm I'm actually living it now. And that's why I like to go to conventions. But that knowledge and that that beautiful sharing of energy that says it's okay, you will you'll you're gonna get through this. So I'm not saying it's easy. I'm just saying hang in there. Hang in there. And if you have a support system, God bless. But you know, if you don't, I'm your support system. Talk to me. I can say I've really been able to ease some pains.

Kendall 9:28

It's funny, until we had this conversation, I really hadn't thought about the fact that something that I connect with my adoptive parents over was horror. They were both horror fans. They introduced it maybe earlier than they should have for me. No judgments. And I never I've never been like like you would assume a child would be scared. I wasn't because they explained it well.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

You know, they're like, this is make-believe, and this is I think it's not the worst idea in the world to let your kids see that the bullies on the big screen, you know, that we can take care of them.

Kendall 10:07

And it's funny because I've never really bonded with my birth family, the family that I found seven years ago. I've never really bonded with them over horror, but it brings back so many positive memories of my first parents.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Well, how blessed are you that you have two families, you know?

Kendall 10:25

Well, I lost my adoptive parents really young. I was 10 and 16 when they passed. So I lost my dad in '87, and 30 years later in 2017 is when I found the biological families. I'm an optimist by nature, and I adjusted well.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Right. So which is probably because they gave you enough of a foundation that you could trust your own instincts. And that's a good parents, you know, to be able to give you the equipment you need to carry on.

Corey 10:57

Well, an important part of our relationship at the beginning was Kendall just sharing with me who his adoptive parents were. Like I never got to meet them, but I feel like I know them, you know, and we talk about them every day.

Kendall 11:09

Every day. Yeah. It really is. They really were just wonderful people. And I with the other podcast, we talked to so many adoptees who did not have great experiences in their adoptive family. So I know how fortunate I was. And yes, I lost them young, but to your point, they built the foundation that I've always relied on.

Corey 11:33

So, Adrian, I'm sure there was some trepidation going into that first chiller convention just based on the stalker experiences and all that. How long did it take you to sort of like realize like, oh my gosh, this is a safe space?

SPEAKER_01 11:45

It was that very same day when I was in that room with hundreds of tattooed big guys that had tears coming down their cheeks and hugged me and said, if you ever need anything, we are here for you. I got two cards from FBI guys who have you know, there's a lot of people in the law enforcement that are big horror fans. And I have a lot of their uh cards and some phone numbers on my speed dial now. Coal, go when I tell you I had no clue walking into that incredible, like you said, it seemed like thousands of people. It was freezing out and the lines, and we're out the door and round the hotel and up this escalator or the stairs, and I walked in and I said, What is going on here? Why are why why are all these people here? And the lady I happened to meet first, is now my manager, which is hysterical, super fan, right? She goes, They're here for you. I said, get out, you know. Peter Brackey, who wrote the Crystal Lake Memories book, was the one who convinced me that I should plug into the convention, meet my fans, because I had three generations around the world who loved me. And he said, Trust me on this, because he had actually dug to find me. I was still doing looping behind, you know, on the sound stage because I did not feel safe. It's some things, you know, go for a long time. Sometimes the psychological hurt is more than the physical hurt. It's because it doesn't go away very easily. And so, yes, it was that day that I had this connection. I knew that I would always have my fans in my heart. I appreciate them. And it's hard for me to even refer to them as fans. I call them my campers. Well, first it was my happy campers, and I went way too much pressure because I know I know that every day is not happy. So, you know, and that's the days we have to fight through. And so we are campers and we get through life together. And and hopefully I'm still a counselor, a camp counselor. And, you know, I'm here for my my campers, and I make myself available either at the shows or through social media now. If somebody reaches out to me, I I respond because that one response can make a difference in someone's life.

Corey 14:22

I didn't know that much uh about your story before this chat. So I love that like the horror community started you on your healing process 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Isn't that crazy? Not only did I need it. Sometimes you don't. I thought I was fine, you know. I thought everything was hunky-dory until I realized, wow, does this feel better? You know? Yeah. And the sharing part is so good for healing. So when people share with me, they heal and it makes me heal.

Corey 14:53

What are some of the more interesting things fans have had you sign?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Uh well, of course, the machete. When they realized that uh Alice was the first one and not Jason to use the machete, my first scare fest in Kentucky. I signed Betsy Palmer, Kane, and I at the request of the very pregnant lady, signed her her belly, and then we'd met the little girl four years later. How cool is that?

Corey 15:20

What was it like starting to go back to the camp and have those experiences?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Wasn't that crazy, huh? Well, my manager, Stacey Lee, and she has literally become my best manager ever. She's just so reliable and knows every movie that's ever been made in my partner. Yeah. And so she's she's just terrific. She was instrumental in actually getting us on the campsite because up to that point, Boy Scouts did not embrace it. They tried to keep everybody from sneaking on. But what she finally got them to realize is it could be a win-win. And that the fans would win in, the Boy Scouts would make a heck of a lot of money. And well, they caught on real quick. But I must tell you, everyone says it's worth every penny. And it brings you right back to your childhood. It's fabulous. They know all my stories now, so they don't need me. But the fact of the matter is, I usually get back there once a year. It looks like it did when we filmed there. It's extraordinary. And they've taken the money they've made and built what was supposed to be called Alice's trading post, but it's now just some other person's trading post with all these things they sell. And the campers aren't allowed to go into that trading post. So I have a problem with that. They buy from outside. But the cool thing is that we I watched the movie some what 45, 40 years later, whatever it was, on the beach with fans on a screen. And the last time I had been there, the 40 odd years before, when we actually shot the last scene, was the scene in the canoe. We didn't know when we left the camp whether we had a finished movie because it was filmed. Couldn't couldn't do video playback. The dailies, we had to get out of there, and the dailies they didn't see to the next day. But boy, when they saw them, I knew they had it. Two weeks later, I met them in Connecticut to shoot that pickup shot in the hospital. I knew that was good. That was the third time. It took us three times to get it because it was one camera, then it was a two-camera shot, then it was a three-camera shot with a slow-mo camera. Over the course of the seven weeks that we shot it, we'd have to close for a Sean Cunningham to go ask his investors for more money so that we could get more film and more cameras. When you are at the camp, you can actually take that photo with me on the beach where I'm hanging over the canoe. And the fan can either join me in the canoe or jump from behind and pretend they're based. And we had the best time. And that was my dear manager, Stacey Leash. She comes up with the greatest ideas, and so that was one of them. I enjoy going back there because it makes me feel like I'm in my 20s again. It brings the first, however old you were when you first saw the movie, swoosh, there you are. Just it's time travel. And it's remarkable. It's goosebum time for everyone because it's all right there. You can see everything. And like I said, they really do a fabulous job preserving it. The Boy Scouts are wonderful, the leaders are great. I love the fact that they've that they were able to embrace the fans rather than chasing them off, you know.

Corey 18:44

You know, uh so many movies try to get that one last scare, that one last yeah, you know, getcha gotcha, you know. And I it's that's gotta be in like the top three, you know. I mean, that's like so unexpected.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

You know, Victor Miller admits he ripped it off from Carrie. So that that I'm guessing is one of your top three, too. Don't look now.

Corey 19:06

Oh, of course. Donald Sutherland, yeah. What an iconic moment. And as a kid watching that for the first time, it's like you're like, oh, I mean you're the you've gone through the whole thing and like oh my gosh, she just got decapitated and you know, and something's like, okay, one no and then no, no way, like three days.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

It's very interesting, like how those jump scares obviously stayed with a lot of young, talented individuals who decided, I'm gonna make a scare, I'm gonna achieve that and see if we can. So it's it's fun because I got a chance to kind of try to relive some of that insanity.

Corey 19:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

It's just amazing that 45 years or whatever we are now close. That the jump scare still holds up, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Alice and I have something in common. We're both artists, and my first passion has always been my art. I'm finishing actually Alice in the pantry right now. You see, my fans give me other things, they give me permission to spend time in my art studio creating, creating fabulous paintings, I hope, because that is my what I want. I want to be a great artist. And so now I'm really digging in and finding. I've painted all my life, but I never gave myself permission to really dig in and find my true self in my art, which is what I'm doing now. And so that's a gift from my campers, you know? That was I'll never be at peace. That was that was that was just unnecessarily brutal. I never got a script. In retrospect, I trusted people who I thought were my friends. I'm a trusting person. You think having been in the business grown up as a child in the business and as a teenager, I would have learned because sometimes the business can be tough, even on a kid. I did learn my mom. Oh my God, she said, you don't cry over this business, otherwise, you're not in it anymore. It's a tough business. So remember Dark Shadows? So I'm in high school on split sessions. I finished school at noon. I take the Long Island Railroad into the city, ninth grade, 10th, 11th, and 12th. I took the train into the city myself and auditioned and took my dance lessons and my singing lessons and my acting lessons. People thought this is crazy, but I come home with my dad on the train. So it was all good. But I was up for dark shadows, and it was callback and callback and callback. For I don't know if you remember the Kathy Cody part with she had the long, beautiful blonde hair. I came down to the wire and I didn't get it. And so I was just pulverized. I mean, I was. My bathtub crying, and my mother heard me. And she goes, You are not going to survive this business if you're going to lie about everything you lose. Because it's a brutal business. Your heart is attached to an actor. You put everything into your auditions and you really want something. It's tough. So I learned my lesson at that point. You can't emotionally be so invested because you'll die. And with Alice, I died a little bit when she did. You know, I had a stalker at the time, but no one was talking about stalkers. And I was advised not to let anyone know that I had a stalker because back then people blamed you for having that. Because Alice was a lot tougher than Adrian, is all I can say. You know, because I was constantly looking over my shoulder. As a matter of fact, on my website, there's a painting called Stalking on 82nd Street that I paint. My art became my therapy. And I painted like a bag of masks because I would go outside and I wouldn't look like me, and I'd put on different clothes and I would hide hide. And I'd always be looking over my shoulder because I always felt like someone or whatever. And when I went up there, I really did feel like whoever it was at that point didn't know still was with following me there. And then I'd get to this to the set, and it's the last, it's a skeleton crew in the last night of shooting. I didn't know that. And no one was there, including the pressmaster, the director, whose name I don't mention, only because he hurt me. And I know he's very talented, but he was very inhumane for some reason. And all he needed from me was this one night. And he was going to get it one way or the other. And he said, sit in that chair and you're talking to your mom on the phone. Go. Talking to my mom and then the cat. And I always said it was a post-traumatic stress dream within a horrible nightmare because I know what post-traumatic stress is. I suffered it in 1980. I suffered it in 1990 after a plane crash. I know how serious post-traumatic stress can be. And so that is the story I stuck with because now I can get funny. I know that first of all, Alice is a dog person, not a cat person. I also know that Alice would never have been caught dead in that Kelly Green outfit. That horrible thing. That's what I think. Because I never had a wardrobe fitting, you know what I mean? So it's like I had to figure this out over the past 40 years. What happened? And you go through it over and over in your mind. Like anybody who suffers a trauma, you go through everything like, what did I do wrong? What did I do to cause this horrible thing to happen to me? It's my fault. We're programmed that way. It takes us a long time to figure out. It had nothing to do with me. And it was an another situation. I had to survive on top of my stalker. I didn't have an entourage. I didn't have the fighting, the 13 people in my corner for some reason. I couldn't count on them. For some reason, I chose the wrong people to trust. Well I can say, because when you're young, you just pray that the people you have in your life are going to protect you. Now I am surrounded by loving people and I feel very protected. And that's the message I want to give to your listeners you're not alone. Maybe you're alone for a little while, but at some point you will find your family, you know. Like you did.

Kendall 26:22

Absolutely. Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Kendall, I mean, that is just such a heartwarming story.

Kendall 26:27

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

It took that long to close that little piece of your heart.

Kendall 26:32

It's not all rainbows and unicorns in my story, but it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

You know, absolutely. Who gets through this life unscathed? That's my question. Right. I don't think anybody does.

Kendall 26:43

No. And you know, I think because I had such a good experience with my adoptive family, yeah, that Corey did so much to try to warn me. I have always been, I've always had a certain level of delusion that that might have been healthy. I kind of have a savior complex. So I'm like, I can fix this. Any little thing that's gonna go wrong and these new connections, I can fix.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Well, some things you can't, but we keep trying, don't we?

Kendall 27:12

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

There's something in our persona that says, if you you know, there are just people who are caregiving people, there are people with just big hearts, and you know, even though uh they may be kicked to the curb, that heart doesn't go away. You know, it's still there. It may take a while for it to trust again. When you find the right person, like you found Corey, you guys are so fortunate. I can see what a special team you are. You know definitely have each other's back big time and encourage each other. And that's what the key is to find someone in this world that you know just accepts you for you.

Corey 27:56

Absolutely. We're definitely the making lemonade one in this time. Because, you know, we even though we we've had the ups and downs with finding family without it, we wouldn't have started the first podcast, Family Twist, which we've been embraced by the adopte D and DNA surprises and donor conception and not current expected communities where we I mean, we love them.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Fabulous generational so fabulous that you're able to have that group that's not spoken for.

Corey 28:26

Being an entertainment journalist forever, you know, sort of being on the peripheral side of it. I've always been, you know, like horror and comedy are the two genres that I've always been drawn to as far as writing about.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Right.

Corey 28:36

But then, you know, now creating this podcast and becoming part of the horror con community and like the greater horror communities like. I mean, I'm just we're just so thrilled. I think that conversation needs to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And so thank you for coming on and being so open with your story. It's only going to inspire others to do the same.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

I think it's a common denominator for all of us. I just think that we have to be kinder to each other. And and I'm happy to say final girls do win. They fight and they win. May take them a little bit longer to get to where they're trying to get to, but like I said, eventually final girls do win. I'm here to show you it's it may take a long time, but we get there. We get there and we protect each other, and that's the key. We have to be kind to each other. And I love that you are giving to a community that all me, we all need healing. You know, we all share that. Horror is an incredible genre. The people don't judge each other, you know. Right. We don't tear each other down. And if we do, if there's someone there, then they're not one of us. They don't belong to the horror genre. Because we heal from horror. There's some aspect of it that that heals us. And it's the underdog thing, I believe. It's that we all feel like we can relate to at least one of the characters. I love that you've been able to combine horror with the healing and reach an audience that really can benefit by your podcast.

Corey 30:25

Thank you. When people ask us why we started horror heals, I think Adrian's story answers that question better than we ever could. Here's someone who spent years carrying trauma by herself. She disappeared from the spotlight. She thought the chapter of her life was over. Then the horror community found her. Not because she was Alice Hardy, but because she was Adrian. Fans listened, they believed her, they share their own stories, and somewhere along the way, healing stopped being something she was searching for and became something she was able to give to other people. That is what makes this community so special. For Kendall and me, the Friend of the 13th family has always been part of our own story. They were there during one of the biggest chapters of our lives when Kendall found his biological family, and we discovered a found family we never expected inside the horror community. That's why this conversation means so much to us. If you're new to Horror Heals, we hope this episode gives you a sense of what the show is all about. And if you've been listening since the beginning, thank you for being part of the community. Every story we tell, every conversation we have, and every guest we welcome comes back to the same idea. None of us gets through life without scars, but we don't have to heal alone. We'll see you next time on Horror Heals. And remember, when someone asks, Is horror good for mental wellness? you tell them, of course it is. The Horror Heals Podcast is produced and presented by Mosaic Multimedia LLC.