Line #33 NightmareFuel/TheFrighteners


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_frighteners_nightmare_fuel_0.jpg]]
2	'''WARNING''': Spoilers are unmarked.
3	----
4	!!The Movie
5	* Everything about [[TheGrimReaper the Soul Collector]], later revealed to be Johnny Bartlett. He appears as a [[DarkIsEvil dark]], [[EvilIsBigger towering]] [[InTheHood cloaked]] figure that [[EvilSlinks prowls and lurks about]]. He also makes [[HellIsThatNoise unearthly snarls and screeches]]. On top of that, he can "''[[DeaderThanDead kill]]''" other spirits.
6	** There's also his [[{{Wormsign}} traveling through walls, floors, and carpets]].
7	** The opening scene has him flying out of the carpeted floor (after Old Lady Bradley shoots off his head while he's in {{Wormsign}} mode) and right at the camera.
8	** The bathroom scene. Frank sees a fellow patron with [[YourDaysAreNumbered a number glowing on his head]]. Then he sees ''something'' moving through the walls and slide into a stall. He tries to get the jump on whatever the hell this thing is, only to find an empty stall and [[HopeSpot starts to relax]]. [[JumpScare THEN]] the Soul Collector comes out of the mirror in front of the unseeing guy with an unholy screech. The malevolent specter then reaches into the poor man's chest and squeezes the life out of his heart as Frank can only watch in horror.
9	** As Frank, the Judge, Stuart, and Cyrus pursue the fleeing Soul Collector, he stops to face Frank's oncoming car. Then he charges straight through it and its driver, at which point we get a glimpse of his face. [[NightmareFace It isn't a pretty sight]].
10	** His scythe can even affect items and people in the living world, as shown when he pursues Frank and Magda. He even manages to cut Frank's chin and cause him to drive off the road.
11	** Imagine you're one of the Soul Collector's victims. You're perfectly healthy and just minding your business. Then suddenly you get a horrible pain in your chest, like something is crushing your heart, to paraphrase Sheriff Perry and Lucy. And you have no idea what the hell is going on. Worse, unless [[ISeeDeadPeople you're psychic like Frank]], [[InvisibleToNormals you can't see]] that some dark and evil thing--actually the depraved spirit of a SerialKiller--is directly causing your heart attack. Seriously, it's ParanoiaFuel at its finest.
12	* [[ScarsAreForever All the scars on Dammers' torso]]. Just imagine the pain he went through to help the government take down cults. [[BodyHorror Including having both nipples seemingly burned off]]. In the DirectorsCut, he directly mentions [[ThePowerOfBlood drinking goat's blood]], [[ImAHumanitarian ritualistic cannibalism]], and [[BondageIsBad sadistic sexual orgies]]. All for his country.
13	* The manner in which the Soul Collector's identity is revealed. After gunning him down into piles of blackened sludge, Frank picks up the spirit's skeletal face and repeatedly whacks it against a tombstone. It gradually becomes more human until it's revealed to be Bartlett. The manner in which his very human face exists on the sludge generates a creepier feeling than the skull face, [[UncannyValley due to how deliberately human it looks]] with blackened teeth. He gradually slithers down while talking with [[VoiceOfTheLegion a distorted voice]] underneath the cemetery as a sludge ghost until Frank robs him of his powers.
14	** Of course, the revelation that this isn't some wild and mindless monster but a SerialKiller that escaped from {{Hell}} because he wants to keep killing is very harrowing. It shows that [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters he's just as much a monster than what he disguised himself as, if not more so]].
15	--->'''Frank:''' Johnny Bartlett. I thought guys like you fried in Hell.
16	--->'''Bartlett:''' I got out, Frank. Been carrying on the good work. Got me a score of forty.
17	* The [[AndIMustScream implications]] of a spirit missing both chances to move on. You are stuck on this plane of existence until you just fall apart. The Judge has been around for quite a while and showed no signs he was about to [[{{Pun}} give up the ghost]] anytime soon. And if no one around has had near-death trauma, then the only people who can hear you are other ghosts, who are equally stranded.
18	** Since Bartlett is able to follow Frank and Patricia when they go through the tunnel, it seems that ghosts can hitch a ride on another spirit's ascension. [[FridgeBrilliance Which may explain]] why places like hospitals often seem haunted. It's like a bus station for ghosts; they're just waiting around for the next ride out of town.
19	* The finale in which Frank and Lucy have to evade Patricia, who's armed with a shotgun, in the AbandonedHospital as Frank constantly shifts between the present and the past, bearing witness to the horrible massacre that happened many years ago, often from the perspective of the people being slaughtered.
20	* An example from the DirectorsCut that crosses over with {{Squick}}. Frank sees Bartlett and Patricia playing around in the morgue, then the couple starts making love on an examination table, with Patricia's foot dipping into a scale filled with some corpse's innards. ''Gross''.
21	* Patricia: "I'm in the mood for vivisection!" Bartlett: "Me, too! Me, too!" They're referring to vivisection with a ''pick ax''!
22	* The final fate of Johnny and Patricia, while deserved, is still pretty gruesome. The tunnel of light they are using to return to Earth while [[EvilGloating gloating about all they are going to do back on the living world]] suddenly turns into [[BloodyBowelsOfHell a very womb-like tunnel]], then snake-like protuberances come out to bind and go through both ghosts until the tunnel closes, revealing it to be an infernal worm that then [[DraggedOffToHell takes them into Hell]]. "This isn't going to be pleasant," indeed.
23
24	!!Behind the Scenes/Other
25	* The menu screen for the DirectorsCut has the Soul Collector ''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou coming right at the screen towards you]]''! All the while he makes [[HellIsThatNoise that god-awful screech of his]]. [[SarcasmMode Sweet dreams]]!
26	* The behind-the-scenes feature on the DirectorsCut shows some pieces of concept art of the Soul Collector, one of which [[ParanoiaFuel shows the thing standing behind a young woman seated in a chair]].
27	* Michael Jahn's {{novelization}} provides extra creepiness, even if it is based on an early draft of the script.
28	** The Soul Collector has the habit of whispering "[[BondOneLiner Don't fear the reaper]]" to his victims as he kills them. It's also described as having a ShadowedFaceGlowingEyes look.
29	** Hell, the blurb on the back is absolutely chilling:
30	--->''Forty years ago, he stalked the streets of Fairwater. A dark, hooded figure who claimed the lives of twelve people. Now he is back for more.''
31	--->''[[ParanoiaFuel He enters your home. He lives in your walls. He's after your soul.]] Because he is the Grim Reaper. And nothing ''alive'' can stop him.''
32	--->''That's why the folks of Fairwater have enlisted the help of The Frighteners. They're more than supernatural experts--they're the best ghost-hunting team in the business. Because they're already dead...''
33	** Even '''more''' ParanoiaFuel:
34	--->''And where was this Reaper? What if he showed up now, before Frank had his out-of-body experience? The creature seemed able to go anywhere--inside walls, even into the floor of the jail. What if it were lurking in the walls of the medical center? What if it were in the walls of the cryolab itself?''

Context NightmareFuel / TheFrighteners