What is the name of the ghost serial killer in the film The Frighteners?

The ghost serial killer in The Frighteners is Johnny Bartlett. In the film’s backstory, Bartlett was executed in 1964 after murdering 12 people at the Fairwater sanatorium, driven by a desire to become the most prolific serial killer.

Decades later, Bartlett returns from Hell as a murderous supernatural force disguised as a Grim Reaper-like figure. He can attack both living people and ghosts, which makes him especially dangerous to Frank Bannister, the film’s reluctant ghost hunter.

Johnny Bartlett is played by Jake Busey. His teenage lover, Patricia Ann Bradley, survives the original execution because she is underage, but she remains devoted to him and helps continue his killing spree in the present-day story.

Viewers sometimes confuse Bartlett with Frank Bannister, the protagonist played by Michael J. Fox, or with The Judge, one of Frank’s ghostly partners. Bartlett is the villain; Frank is the architect who can communicate with spirits, while The Judge is an Old West gunslinger ghost.