Charles McCulloch

Charles McCulloch is a supporting character in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. He is played by the late Peter Mark Richman.

Biography[]

McCulloch was a biology teacher at Lakeview High School, and was hired to chaperone the graduating seniors during a trip to New York on board the SS Lazarus. His fellow English teacher Colleen Van Deusen had brought McCulloch's niece Rennie along for the trip as well, much to McCulloch's chagrin since Rennie suffers from aquaphobia. Before the SS Lazarus set sail, however, Jason Voorhees sneaks his way on board, and begins killing a few of the ship's passengers.

Later on, prom queen Tamara Mason blackmails Charles (since she thinks he plans on suspending her and her friend Eva for doing drugs) by getting him in a compromising situation, which she gets video student Wayne Webber to record. Tamara is killed shortly thereafter by Jason, who also kills Eva, and Captain Robertson and his first mate. Rennie's boyfriend Sean discovers the latter two's bodies, and tells the others before calling for an emergency. The students agree to search for Jason while McCulloch decides that the deckhand is responsible, but the deckhand is found soon after with a fire axe in his back.

After Jason kills Wayne by throwing him into an electrical box, the ship starts to take on water. With all the other students presumed dead, McCulloch, Van Deusen, Rennie, Sean and Julius escape aboard a life raft. They row to New York where Jason stalks them through the streets. The group manages to find a police officer who tries to help them, but the officer is killed by Jason soon after.

Renee ends up accidently crashing the police car after being distracted by a hallucination of Jason as a young boy, and Van Deusen is killed in the crash. Here, it is revealed that McCulloch is responsible for Rennie's fear of water, having pushed her into the lake as a child, where she encountered young Jason firsthand.

Death[]

After the others leave McCulloch behind, Jason finds Charles and begins pursuing him. Charles is chased into a building, where Jason catches him and throws him out of the second story window. Jason then picks Charles up and kills him by poisoning him in a barrel of sewage.