More than virtually any other horror franchise, Friday the 13th has had numerous, incredible side characters over the course of twelve movies. From the funniest characters to the annoying as hell douchebags. There are a lot of different, vibrant personalities to have met their end via Jason’s machete or other household instruments. This list is not counting main characters, such as the numerous “final girls” or their useless boyfriends who happened to survive, and it obviously does not include Mr. Voorhees himself or his lovely mother.
10. TRENT (FRIDAY THE 13TH 2009)-
Trent is the ultimate Friday the 13th douchebag. Everyone in the reboot was a collective “who’s who” of character types that had come before in the series. And that was the role that Trent filled, so he was a preppy college tool to the nth degree. Trent was one of those characters that simply needs to die, but his death was expertly prolonged, making him worse and worse by the second until he finally gets his (which had the audience cheering every time I saw the film in theaters.)
9. DR. CREWS (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD)-
As arrogant and annoying as Trent was in the reboot, he was no bad news Crews. Dr. Crews was the doctor in Part 7 who came to the lake to help young Tina from the mental hospital reconnect with her past but was in actuality just there to exploit her telekinetic ability. Yeah, Part 7 was a weird one. Everything he does is evil and self-serving to the point where he pushes Tina’s mother in front of Jason’s blade in order to prolong his life just a few more minutes. His death via weed whacker would have been one of the best in the whole franchise, but like all the deaths in the movie it was trimmed to hell.
8. JOEY (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING)-
Joey is only onscreen for a couple of minutes, and like the rest of the movie’s characters, he’s not even a victim of Jason himself. Hell, Joey’s not a victim of the actual killer in the movie, but his death does set the whole thing up. Joey’s a poor, socially awkward fat kid you can’t help but feel for who has candy bars hidden strategically all over his body and is really very good at doing laundry. Unfortunately, he got on the nerves of wood-chopping Vic, and his time on the movie is cut short.
7. VIOLET (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING)-
Violet doesn’t have a ton of dialogue, but she has a ton of attitude. And one of the best fashion senses out of any of the Friday the 13th characters. She also has a memorable dance sequence that (because she can’t hear the killer come in due to her oversized headphones) is where she meets her tragic end. Violet’s death was totally changed because the first death in which the blade went between her legs was deemed completely over the top.
6. EDDIE (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD)-
Eddie is the resident writer and enormous horror nerd, and also the most memorable teenage character in the whole movie. He’s got no luck with the girls and is only able to make friends through smoking weed. He tries his luck with resident bitch Melissa and it goes as well as you might expect. He winds up alone, opening other people’s birthday presents when Jason comes along and decapitates him. Which by that point, Eddie probably didn’t mind too much.
5. CREIGHTON DUKE (JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY)-
Creighton Duke is one of the most larger-than-life characters in the whole franchise. He’s a bounty hunter who, out of everyone that’s ever been in the franchise, seems to know the most about Jason Voorhees. He clearly has a backstory with Jason that is simply never explained in the finished movie (although it is explained in the script that Duke had a girlfriend who was killed by Jason). The weirdest thing is that Duke knows all these things about Jason that have simply never been mentioned through the previous eight films. Like the fact that Jason is actually a body-hopping entity. Funny how he never mentioned that to anyone before.
4. ETHEL AND JUNIOR (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING)-
This is a package deal. These characters are so intertwined that it’s hard to separate one from the other. Ethel and Junior can be a bit cartoony. As a result, they’re characters that people either love or hate. They add a lot of personality to the film, and may take it over-the-top… but A New Beginning was over-the-top to begin with. So these characters are just a welcome, redneck delight. They’re also two of the most incredibly quotable characters in the entire franchise.
3. JIMMY AND TED (FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER)-
Like Ethel and Junior, they’re a package deal. These aren’t two combined characters so much as they’re two individual characters who perfectly complement each other. And they really do. They’re characters who are a perfect teen comedy duo and at the same time are fully-fledged and sincere in their own ways. It’s hard to find anyone who can keep up or fit with Crispin Glover, but he was a perfect introvert here contrasted by Lawrence Monoson’s extroverted Teddy Bear.
2. SHELLEY (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III)-
Shelley is probably the most important victim in the franchise because, first and foremost, he gives the character his iconic hockey mask. Jason would never have become the hockey mask wearing icon without Shelley. The character was created as someone that the hardcore horror audience would identify with. As many fans seem to hate this character as love him though, and that’s because he is obnoxious. He is over-the-top in his gags, his practical jokes. But that’s a strong part of what makes him memorable.
1. CRAZY RALPH (FRIDAY THE 13TH)-
Crazy Ralph is definitely the number one important side character because he established the dread in the first film. He warned everyone that the place had a death curse, and of course he was right. But Ralph also became a certain type of character in slasher movies where there really hadn’t been one before. All of a sudden every slasher movie, not just every Friday the 13th, had some old-timer warning kids about the danger they were getting themselves into. He created an important archetype in horror film that has become big enough in the three decades since to now be a cliché. So that’s something.
