MovieChat Forums > Fright Night (1985) Discussion > billy cole classification theories?

billy cole classification theories?

posted 10 years ago by alljokers
3 replies | jump to latest

i find billy's "nature" somewhat confusing.
this also seems the case with many others,so I wasn't able to get a clear hypothesis.
if you take a look at the faq,the last question answered states he's something along the lines of either a lesser undead or a created being similar to what occupy the demiplane of dread in ravenloft.
not sure I buy those explanations.
i can dig the whole goo and sand doom reminding one of a lot of mythological figures,including a scarecrow or a strawman.
wait,check it.
why's a skeleton attached?
looks like our boy billy here was once human in origin.
puddle of goo and pile of sand.
'kay.
ancient dead,maybe?
again,no.
this dude doesn't strike me as a mummified type,especially since he isn't an intelligent fighter (walking into bullets and leaving himself WIDE the hell open like that).
also,he's not anywhere NEAR that level of power.
not getting anything frankensteinian,for that matter.
wicked witch melting.
lurch asking if anyone rang.
uncle frank returning from hell in reverse.
I enjoy unique characters like narcisse from nightbreed.
billy is in the same category,as far as i'm concerned.
so what the *beep* is he?
any takers?

[–] pandoranoire 10 years ago

He's a minion of the vampire, under his spell, sort of like Willie Loomis in Dark Shadows.

[–] cookieman108 10 years ago

I always assumed he was once a human turned into a thrall and infused with some minor powers (enhanced strength, durability, immortality) by his master in order to be able to protect his master while he slept. As for the sand after he's dispatched, I figured it was due to his being much older than he looked, and when he was staked, he lost his immortality and reverted back to what would have been his original state, that of dust.

[–] Smug_Grinch 10 years ago

I believe they're sometimes referred-to as ghouls. Daytime guardians for their vampiric masters. They're given just enough vampire blood to give them minor powers, as stated by others, but not enough to make them turn into a vampire or become weak in the sunlight. I think somewhere in a shooting script, a cut scene described that Billy had been with Jerry for centuries and, after he died, his body desiccated all at once.

---
We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.