Johnny Bartlett
Johnny Bartlett is a male film character who features in The Frighteners.
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Biography
Johnny Bartlett was a serial killer who was crazy about being a prolific serial killer and often compared his achievements to those of other murderers. In 1963, he came to work as an orderly at a hospital but he soon lost his mind and killed pretty much all the patients and hospital workers. In order to accomplish his goal of being better then others, he murdered 12 people at the mental hospital with the aid of his girlfriend Patricia Bradley. Both were tried and arrested with Patricia being sent to prison while maintaining her innocence though she eventually was released to live with her overbearing mother who kept her under careful observation. Barlett himself was put into the electric chair where he shouted "one more than Starkweather" at which point he was killed as the electricity was channelled into his body. However, that was not the end of Bartlett became a ghost and was determined to continue his reign of terror. Unable to move to the afterlife, Bartlett became a ghost and learnt to manipulate his ethereal form to form a grim reaper appearance that embarked on a series of mysterious deaths in he mortal world. By 1990, Patricia was finally released from prison where she used a Ouijia boards to contact and resurrect Johnny. They continued killing again where his first new victim was Debra Bannister, the wife of architect Frank Bannister. He found them both after Frank had crashed the car while driving drunk, and slew Debra in front of her husband with this being an experience Frank blotted out for many years. Bartlett continued to add to his count, slowly at first, but gradually speeding up as his strength increased with each death. He altered his ectoplasmic appearance to take on the form of the Grim Reaper or Soul Taker as other ghosts referred to it. Johnny then began to disguise himself as an ethereal Grim Reaper-like figure where he continued murdering people. During this time, Johnny racks up 24 more murders. Unknown to Bartlett, the experience witht he Bannisters led to Frank Bannister gaining the ability to see ghosts. Encountering one of the Soul Taker's victims after they had been murdered, he was asked to help establish contact between the newly dead man and his widow, Lucy Lynskey. Taking her to dinner, Frank got to witness Johnny in action, claiming his next victim in the men's rest room. The local police, with no other suspects, placed the blame at Frank's door, and Frank had little choice except to try and stop the real killer.
Now a local psychic, Frank Bannister began predicting the people who are going to die, and becomes a suspect in the eyes of FBI agent Milton Dammers.
Frank realizes the truth and Johnny returns to his girlfriend. She viciously kills her mother and is about to kill Lucy who was trying to help her. But Frank comes to the rescue and they hide and run in the now vacant hospital where it was abandoned after the murders years ago. Patricia chases them with a shot gun. She succeeds in killing Frank by choking him to death with her gun. Frank's ghost then seizes Patricia's soul and takes her with him through the ethereal portal known as the Corridor of Life. Johnny chases after him to rescue his girlfriend and manages to get her back. Frank enters Heaven, as Johnny taunts him over how they will go back and kill more. Frank's ghost friends tell Frank to step back and they watch as the portal became the bloody and horrific stomach of a giant worm-like creature, that takes both Johnny and Patricia to Hell, ending their rampage for good.
Overview
Personality and attributes
As an undead being, he came to shape his form to resemble that of the Grim Reaper where he was a hooded figure.
He was a prolific and vicious mass murderer who continued his work in the afterlife, focusing on increasing his body count as a form of competition with other famous murderers.
He and Patricia Bradley were madly in love with one another with him keeping contact with her even after he became a ghostly entity.
Powers and abilities
Originally, Johnny Bartlett was an ordinary human being with no special inherent powers or abilities. By adulthood, he came to be a prolific serial killer having murdered people.
In his grim reaper form, Bartlett appeared as a spectral black mass shaped as a cowl creature with two arms but no legs. His face was not visible and a black mass which appeared almost feral in its actions. This Reaper Bartlett used a scythe to achieve his goals of killing ghosts or mortal Humans.
He was capable of thrusting his hand into the body of a living mortal and crushing the life from the victim.
Notes
- Johnny Bartlett was created by Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson where he was portrayed by actor Jake Busey and featured in the setting of The Frighteners (1996).
Appearances
- The Frighteners: (1996)
External Link
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