10 Most Unlikeable Horror Movie Heroes

3. Shelly Finkelstein - Friday The 13th Part III

Dashcam Annie
Paramount Pictures

Being honest, you could easily fill out the bulk of this list with dislikeable protagonists from the Friday the 13th franchise. Rather than clog up this list in such a fashion, though, it's Friday the 13th Part III's Shelly Finkelstein who gets the nod here; edging out the likes of Part 2's Ted and The Final Chapter's Teddy.

For Shelly, he spends the majority of his screen time playing annoying 'boy who cried wolf' pranks, such as being found in a bloody mess with an axe wedged in his head. Of course, that axe and the blood were fake. Elsewhere, his antics are faux attacks on his friends, such as pretending to drag Vera into Crystal Lake.

In addition to that, Shelly's actions - as in running over one of their motorbikes - brings bikers Fox, Loco, and Ali to Higgins Haven, which so nearly results in Fox and her pals burning down the barn. Also, the presence of this trio stirs Jason into murderous action, with Voorhees having only killed a shop owner and his wife prior to this.

Shelly's constant pranks put all of his buddies on edge, later make them think the very real presence of Jason is just Shelly d**king around, and his own actual death at the hands of Jason is viewed as just another prank when his dead body is discovered.

One positive, though? It's Shelly who's responsible for giving Jason his iconic hockey mask.

In this post: 
Dashcam
 
Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.