Friday The 13th Villains: Charles McCulloch (Friday The 13th Part 8)
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. The Random House Dictionary defines a villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot". Our next character certainly fits the bill in that respect.
Charles McCulloch is Rennie Wickman's uncle and legal guardian due to her parent's death. This overprotective and overbearing family member is one of the chaperons for the last graduating class of Crystal Lake High's Senior trip to New York in Friday The 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan. It isn't hard to dislike this character from the get go as his first introduction in the film shows how vile he is when he scolds Rennie for attending the cruise and gives an equally verbal berating to fellow trip chaperon Colleen Van Deusen. It only gets worse from there as he continually intimidates Rennie's potential flame Sean Robertson by talking down to him as he tries to put the S.S. Lazarus back on course. McCulloch even takes a shot at Sean when they are rowing to New York City in the life boat, stating, "We all don't want to drown out here". This is while he lays in the boat not helping to man an ore just one time to help row.
While looking for Rennie, McCulloch even takes time to take another shot at a student, this time he sets his sights on A/V geek Wayne. While the two talk about Rennie's whereabouts, Wayne makes the statement that some of the students may not want their future predicted. McCulloch says to Wayne, "In your case, I am sure that's true". What a jerk! With all that being said, Charles' true villainry is exposed when Rennie finally remembers and reveals that many years ago when she was a child, her uncle pushed her into Crystal Lake to teach her to swim, which caused her to almost drown.
Of course, McCulloch gets what he deserves when Jason Voorhees finally catches up with him and dumps him head first into a large drum of disgusting water and toxic materials. It was a fitting end to another villain in the franchise. What do you think of Charles and his place in the films? Is he the most vile person and truest villain in the franchise?
