Whitney Miller

Whitney Miller was a central character featured in Marcus Nispel's 2009 remake of Friday the 13th. She was played by actress Amanda Righetti. In the realm of slasher film archetypes, Whitney served as the "final girl" in the film though the climax of the movie leaves her survivor status somewhat ambiguous. The character is unique in that she is the only would-be victim in a Friday the 13th taken prisoner by the killer rather than be murdered outright.

Biography
Whitney Miller was the younger sister of Clay Miller. When their mother fell ill, Whitney was the one who volunteered to look after her. This caused the siblings a great amount of stress and they had a falling out. Clay left town and Whitney and he did not speak to one another for months.

In the Spring of 2009, Whitney and her boyfriend Mike went on a hiking trip to Camp Crystal Lake with their friends Wade, Richie and Amanda. Whitney was uncomfortable leaving her mother with a live-in nurse and she was very reluctant to even go on the trip. That evening, Wade told the group about a twenty-year-old urban legend involving a crazy woman named Pamela Voorhees who murdered a group of counselors at the campground. As legend had it, Pamela's disfigured son Jason witnessed his mother being beheaded by a surviving counselor and grew up into a murderous psychopath himself, stalking the forests of Camp Crystal Lake. The story bothered Whitney, so Mike and she left the campfire to go for a walk. Their trek brought them to the old Voorhees house, which had fallen into severe disrepair. As they explored the house, they found an old black and white photograph of a young woman. Mike mused how much the woman in the photo resembled Whitney. They soon discovered however that the mysterious Jason Voorhees was more than just an urban legend. He was real and alive and still living within the crumbling home. Jason attacked Mike and Whitney from beneath a cellar, ultimately stabbing Mike multiple times. Whitney ran screaming from the house, but Jason caught up with her. Rather than kill her however, he instead dragged her back to his home and chained her in a dungeon within the tunnels that ran beneath his house and the rest of the campground.

Whitney remained a prisoner of Jason Voorhees for six long weeks. She didn't understand why Jason allowed her to live, but often showed her a cameo containing the photograph that Mike had presented to her earlier. The photograph was of Jason's mother. In June of that year, Jason returned from one of his sojourns and dropped a bag of materials at the floor near Whitney's feet. Inside were stacks of missing persons fliers with Whitney's picture on them. Jason had collected them as he came across them to discourage people from snooping around looking for her. Whitney felt a slight twinge of hope for she knew that it meant that at least someone was actively looking for her. Also inside the satchel was a GPS that had belonged to Wade. Once she was alone, she broke the GPS open, removed a spring and used it to pick the lock on her manacles. After six terrifying weeks, Whitney was now free. Escaping the house, she ran away from the campground and made it to a nearby lake house. Unfortunately, Jason caught up with her and re-captured her before she had a chance to alert the people living inside the house. He brought her back to his dungeon and chained her up again.

That same evening, her brother Clay, who had never given up the search for his sister, came to the Voorhees house along with a young woman named Jenna. They found Whitney and Clay broke her chains and the three of them tried to escape from the tunnels. Jason came after them and succeeded in killing Jenna, but Whitney and Clay managed to reach a hatch that took them above ground. Covering the hatch was a tour bus that had been overturned. Jason trailed after them and injured Clay by smashing his face through a bus window. Whitney kicked him and he fell back down the hole.

The two ran off, but Jason doggedly kept after them. He trailed them to a nearby barn and attacked Clay. Whitney, who had managed to grab a hold of the cameo, shouted Jason's name and held the photograph of his mother before his eyes. Jason was transfixed for a moment, which gave Clay enough time to stab him in the back with an open bear trap. Together, Clay and Whitney managed to rope a length of chain around Jason's neck. The other end of the chain was fed through a woodchipper, which tightened the chain, ultimately breaking Jason's neck. Just to be certain though, Whitney took up Jason's own machete, shouted "Say hi to Mommy for me... in Hell!" and ran him through. Whitney and Clay then took Jason's body and dumped it in the lake. As the sun rose over the lake, they breathed a sigh of relief confident that the nightmare was finally over. Without warning, Jason burst up through the boards of the dock and attacked them. Whether Whitney survived this renewed assault or not remains unclear.

Notes & Trivia

 * Whitney's surname, Miller, is derived from Victor Miller, screenwriter of the original Friday the 13th.


 * Actress Amanda Righetti is better known for playing the role of CBI detective Grace Van Pelt on the television series The Mentalist.