Billy Johnson

Species
 Gender
 Skin Color
 Eye Color
 Occupation
 Starting location
 Age
 Residency
 First appearance
 Relatives

**“***Did you kill the boogeyman?***”**
— **Billy after the garage fight**

**Billy Johnson** is a supporting character in *Babysitter Bloodbath*, as well as its novelization of the same name.

## Description

### Appearance

Billy is a short Caucasian boy in his pre-teens with dirty blond hair. He wears a pair of light blue-white checkered pyjamas and black socks.

### Personality

On his surface, Billy is an exemplarily typical spoiled brat: he's prone to causing mischief, acts picky and needy about what he wants and appears inconsiderate of other people's boundaries. Unlike most however, he does not act out of malicious intent; in fact, Billy seems clueless about the way life works, having never really learned the role of respect in human interaction nor how to keep his impulses in check, how to pick up on social cues, or how to recognize authority from his parents' lax teaching methods. Outside of this behavior, Billy has shown that he is capable of compromise and can act in an situationally appropriate manner once he sees the importance of doing so.

### History

Billy is the 10-year old son of Linda and Mark Johnson and lives with them in the suburbs of Monroe, Washington. His mother, a stereotypical soccer mom and new age meditation practitioner, is a firm adherent of permissive parenting, thanks to which, compounded with the indifference of her career-oriented husband, has enabled Billy to enjoy a carefree and indulgent upbringing, in which he is allowed to make his own bedtime, constantly watch TV and take no care in keeping his room or the rest of the house tidy, as seen by the toys scattered around most of the home. This has contributed to Billy developing an uninhibited, hyperactive nature, which the Johnsons are painfully aware of, yet completely fine with, going as far as to tell his regular babysitter, Sarah, that she should "feel free to do whatever he says", meaning that they don't even bother to reprimand him for his often brazen, cheeky behavior, which includes making Sarah's job more difficult by playing tricks on her and being a general annoyance.

## *Babysitter Bloodbath*

One Friday night, Sarah comes over to watch over Billy while his parents are out for dinner at Frank's Chateau. She had made plans to bring Jack over to their house and get drunk, but with Billy as energetic as ever, running around the ground floor in circles, Sarah spent the first hours of the evening giving into Billy's requests, hoping that this will eventually wear him out enough for him to be put to sleep. To placate Billy, Sarah looks for the remote to turn on the TV, which she finds hidden in the kids room and puts on a channel playing *Night of the Living Dead* for him to watch. She is then forced to play a game of catch with Billy when he takes Jack's phone number from her coat. Upon Billy's wish, she fixes him dinner, in the form of a bowl of cereal, which Billy agrees to trade for the liquor cabinet key with bridled enthusiasm, falling asleep shortly after, leaving the half-eaten knocked over bowl on the carpet. She then brings the tuckered out boy to bed.

As Sarah is hanging out with her date, Neokalus Burr, a demented mass murderer and night-time prowler, breaks into the backyard and kills Jack when he goes to investigate. Sarah is almost killed as well when she follows after him, but she manages to wake Billy by banging at the jammed door, so that he can open it from the inside, then telling him to hide in a safe location until she's dealt with the threat. He comes out of hiding after Sarah guns Burr down in the garage and they are able to make a joint escape in the Johnsons' second car to a nearby police station.

## Babysitter Bloodbath: The Book

Due to Billy's more prominent role in the novel, his character is given more depth through extended interaction and more dialogue, which differes slightly from his original portrayal.

* The restaurant Billy's parents go to is named Frank's Bistro instead of Frank's Chateau.
* Sarah's view of Billy is much more favorable, with her noting that she had come to know him as "an all right kid" during previous stays and found him unusually cranky this time around.
* The Johnsons' laissez-faire parenting is delved into. Though only vaguely implied in-game, it's shown that Billy's parents are neglectful to a certain degree, making up for it by giving their son the freedom to entertain himself any other way at home. While Billy does enjoy these privileges, he still feels ignored by them outside of the occasional show of affection during seldom family time. Due to this, he acts unintentionally rude and dismissve towards Sarah's presence as an emotional outlet, rather than mischievous or listless.
* The order and fashion in which Billy's demands are met is changed. Billy insists on making dinner himself, actually favoring the low-effort cereal, only to spill milk all over the floor while Sarah searches for the TV remote in his bedroom.
* Billy does not have the liquor cabinet key on him, but while scouring the living room for it, she finds a clown mask and rusted knife in a ventilation shaft, both belonging to Neoklaus Burr, the former owner of the Johnson house. Billy sees the items, but neither he nor Sarah recognize their significance.
* Instead of waiting for Billy to fall asleep by himself, Sarah manages to send Billy to bed despite his protests when Jill arrives at the house.
* Billy opens the backdoor for Sarah on two occasions: the first time when she and her friends look themselves out of the house while disposing of the mask and knife, and later again when Sarah and Jill are trapped in the backyard with Burr.
* Billy voices his fear about Burr, whose escape had appeared on the news earlier, when he is put to sleep a second time. He also mentions here that his fear of the Boogeyman was instilled in him by his grandmother.
* Sarah gives her own characterization about Billy, saying that while he is "kind of an unreasonable little punk", he was one of the more well-behaved ones. This, along with her stating that Billy was a perceptive, smart kid, with more self-awareness than most would give him credit for, contrasts immensely from his in-game appearance, in which he is in a near constant state of oblivion about the nature of Burr and people's general thoughts of him, though this may also be on account of Sarah's more tempered and empathetic approach in the novel.
* To avoid potentially a panic or even run risk traumatizing Billy, Sarah lies to him and claims that the Boogeyman, rather than a homicidal home invader, is out to get them all, which is why they must hide until they can safely flee. In the game, Sarah simply told him to hide, with Billy coming to the conclusion of an attack by the Boogeyman himself.
* Billy's safety becomes Sarah's main motivation in stopping Burr. Throughout the events of the night, she takes several risky maneuvers to secure an escape for both of them and, more importantly, protect Billy from any harm Burr might want to inflict on the young boy, knowing that Burr has a propensity for killing children in particular.
* Billy is sent to hide in the crawlspace in the living room, ironically the same place in which Burr's daughter Ginny had unsuccessfully tried to hide from her father during his murderous outburst, though Billy luckily only spends around an hour in there before Sarah retrieves him, saving him as Burr starts sifting the house for hiding spots.
* Sarah and Billy's first escape attempt fails when Jill's car fails to start, courtesy of sabotage by Burr. The pair come face-to-face with the killer, but Sarah can distract Burr long enough for Billy to rush back into the house to hide in the garage under a tarp in the back of the Johnson's spare car.
* After Sarah takes down Burr, Billy is heavily bemused by her sudden and oddly calm demeanor, meekly answering back at her untimely banter. Covering himself in the tarp once more at Sarah's behest, Billy does not witness his babysitter running over the already battered Burr during their escape with the car.
* The ending has Billy being questioned by police before he is reunited with his parents, who follow up on their long-overlooked promise of paying Sarah for overtime. Billy also thanks Sarah personally for saving his life by hugging her and apologizing for being mean earlier. He overhears Sarah raging at Lieutenant Breaker for failing to locate Burr's body, which had mysteriously vanished from the house.

## Trivia

* Billy Johnson is based on Tommy Doyle, a recurring character in the *Halloween* franchise. In addition to their similar appearances and shared role, both mistakenly believe the main antagonist to be the boogeyman, a figure both characters intensely and irrationally fear.
* In the novel, Sarah once calls Billy "Damien", a reference to Damien Thorn, the main antagonist of *The Omen* franchise, who, as the Antichrist, has become synonymous for a spoiled, outright demonic child.
* A popular theory by fans is that Billy Johnson would grow up to become Billy from *Feed Me Billy*, who, in adulthood, wound up following the footsteps of his would-be killer. Some aspects, such as their shared names and the similar outfit to Burr, are often brought up, but the discrepancy in appearances, with Billy Johnson having blond hair, while Billy from FMB is depicted as having brown hair in the demake, as well as the uncertain settings of both games' (late 70's/early 80's for *Babysitter Bloodbath* and mid-late 80's for *Feed Me Billy*) make it difficult to pin down whether this would even be possible from a chronological standpoint.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://puppetcombo.tumblr.com/post/179212325995/the-babysitter-bloodbath-cd-rom-is-here-this-has