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Bloody Face is the alter ego of a male serial killer that began a reign of terror in the early '60s. It is a character in Asylum primarily portrayed by Zachary Quinto (as Oliver Thredson);Dylan McDermott (as Johnny Morgan).

Story[]

The First Murders[]

1964[]

While Kit Walker is committed at the Briarcliff Asylum with the charge of being "Bloody Face," the real killer appears to Wendy Peyser in her home. Though she begs for her life, it's unlikely her words were heeded.[3]

Dr. Oliver Thredson assists Lana Winters in escaping the Asylum. He takes her to his home and chains her up in his "workroom" alongside a freeze-dried Wendy, where he skins his victims, revealing himself as "Bloody Face."[4]

Dr. Thredson keeps Lana chained to a bed inside his "workroom" and, while caring for her, explains that his behavior as "Bloody Face" stems from his childhood. After being abandoned by his birth mother and left to grow up in an orphanage, he sought out a replacement mother figure and murdered all those who seem inadequate, skinning and decapitating them afterward. After studying Lana from afar he came to the conclusion that she was "The One" – the surrogate Mother he sought – and her incarceration in Briarcliff simply made it easier to abduct and imprison her. When Lana later attempts to escape, he dons his Bloody Face mask and prepares to murder her, but she takes on the role of his Mother-figure in order to save her life, and he tearfully nurses from her breast.[5]

After raping a near-catatonic Lana, Dr. Thredson becomes emotionally unstable, believing that their relationship has reached an "impasse" and that he must now kill her. In the ensuing struggle, while he attempts to drug her into unconsciousness, Lana stabs him in the crotch with his hypodermic syringe and escapes her bonds, violently kicking him back into the "workroom" when he tries to prevent her from leaving. When readmitted to Briarcliff, Lana later tells the newly-powerful Sister Mary Eunice that Thredson is Bloody Face. Though Mary Eunice believes Lana, recalling the Demon inside her referring to Thredson as "Bloody Face" during the exorcism held at Briarcliff Asylum[3], she does not act upon this information.[6]

Thredson tracks Lana down to Briarcliff after stories of the car accident appear in the newspaper. He blames her for making him share his story with her. He attempts to strangle her with the phone cord. She struggles and fights back. He picks her up and tells her skin will be the start of a whole new Bloody Face. Kit comes into the room and knocks Thredson unconscious. Kit believes they need Thredson for his freedom. The two move Thredson's body to an abandoned storage room. They think no one will find him while they come up with what to do with him. Thredson lays bound and gagged on the floor as Lana threatens to bury him one day.[7]

Thredson lays bound and gagged in the storage room. Lana visits him and shows him the papers that say that she is pregnant with his baby. Thredson pleads that he can change for the baby, and Lana manipulates him into confessing to the murders of Donna Burton and Allison Reidel. When she asks about Wendy, Thredson says that Wendy never loved her as she is reason Lana was admitted to Briarcliff in the first place. Lana tells him that she killed the baby, and Thredson says that she is sicker than he is as he would never kill an innocent child. Kit records Thredson's confessional onto a tape recorder, and Lana says that she will slit his throat with a knife during bakery duty. However, an orderly catches her and takes the knife away. Later that night, Lana takes the coat hanger she used during the attempt to abort the child and tries to kill Thredson, but upon entering the storage room, Thredson is nowhere to be found. Confronting Sr. Mary Eunice, Lana alleges that the Sister must have released him; the demon-possessed nun then informs her that her baby is still alive, and will be a boy – the implication being that he is Johnny Morgan, the Bloody Face of 2012.[8]

Thredson appears to Kit and Lana in the common room, informing them that he has been offered a permanent position in Briarcliff and will resume his evaluation of Kit. Thredson also informs Kit of Lana's pregnancy, as well as her failed abortion attempt. While searching for Dr. Arden, he finds his office empty, and Grace giving birth to a baby in his laboratory. Kit visits him for the evaluation, and Thredson learns that Kit is not in possession of the tape. Thredson goes into the bathroom, where he finds a baby book under the tub. Lana appears and tells him that she is in possession of the tape and that if he kills her, he will never find the tape's location.[9]

1965[]

Thredson and Carl escort Kit from his cell to the common room where Grace sits with their baby. When Pepper defends Grace, Thredson orders her to be taken for hydrotherapy. Kit distracts Thredson while a disguised Lana makes her escape from Briarcliff. Thredson intends on framing a new suspect, Arthur Arden. Thredson gets suspicious and heads out of Briarcliff, seeing Lana in a taxi with the evidence as she flips him off. Back at his house, he finds Lana waiting there with a gun. Lana has turned the evidence into the police, and Thredson requests at least getting one last drink. Lana asks what he did with Wendy's body and he says that was going to dispose of the body, but kept it for practice. He had sex with the corpse in a variety of ways until he was finally able to climax. He disposed of the dismembered body after Lana escaped. Thredson goes to refill his drink, the police sirens wailing in the distance. Lana speaks of the sweet justice that the electric chair will dole to him. He insists that because he is insane, he will be institutionalized, and not go to prison. He secretly eyes a gun hidden in one of his bar cabinet's drawers. As he begins to say that she might as well be his last victim, Lana shoots him in the head.[10]

1969[]

Thredson appears in Lana's hallucination at her book signing for the bestseller, Maniac. Thredson chastises her for falsifying events which he only threatened to bring about in order to boost sales of the book. Bitterly, he claims that she is only interested in fame, rather than truth.[11]

Later Murders and Copycats[]

2012[]

Bloody Face is introduced by graffiti[12] on the wall of the ruins that were once Briarcliff Manor. Visiting couple, Teresa and Leo Morrison, appear to be big fans and take a picture. After Leo's arm is torn off by an unknown assailant, Teresa is confronted by the serial killer while searching for an exit.[13] Bloody Face pursues Teresa through the ruins and, after she takes refuge behind a door, he repeatedly stabs the incapacitated Leo in the chest.[3]

Despite perforating Leo's chest, Bloody Face is overtaken, with the help of Teresa, and gets a taste of his own medicine (i.e. orbitoclast to the chest). As the couple attempt escape, they encounter another Bloody Face... And another. After the newlyweds are shot, the assailants remove their masks and reveal young men, Devon and Cooper (the other was Joey). They look shocked by the arrival of a fourth Bloody Face.[14]

The 2012 Bloody Face uses Leo's phone to contact the police, stating that he's been "a busy boy". When officers arrive at Briarcliff, they find that he has murdered all three of the "Imposters" and hung them from the upper stairwell of the institution's lounge. Police investigators find Leo's phone still ringing in his hand; Bloody Face calls to politely inform them that he is responsible only for the murder of the three "Imposter" Bloody Faces. When the police realize that Leo came into the house on his honeymoon, and hence that Teresa is missing, she is shown in the clutches of the modern-day Bloody Face, a leaner man than Dr. Thredson and with less chest and arm hair.[5]

Johnny Morgan visits Dr. Gardner, a therapist he found in the newspaper, to learn about hypnotherapy and he explains his backstory. As a child, he went into foster homes after developing a habit of skinning animals, but by adolescence had developed urges to hurt and skin women. These urges became more pronounced after he retraced his roots during a term in prison. He has attacked and killed several women under the mantle of Bloody Face (including Teresa), but he lacks the experience of his predecessor and idly wonders about undergoing medical training. Johnny tells the therapist his biological last name is Thredson. He later murders Dr. Gardner and is caught in the act by another patient who arrives for her session.[8]

Johnny hires a prostitute named Pandora (who is a new mother) and pays her to allow him to suckle from her lactating breasts. Johnny says that he would kill for the sensation. Johnny begins to angrily reminisce about his birth mother, and Pandora attempts to console him. This proves useless, however, as Johnny only becomes further enraged and begins to throttle her.[10]

Johnny walks through the halls of the dilapidated Briarcliff while listening to Lana's audiobook, Tales from Briarcliff. Johnny envisions Lana saying that he was born out of hate and that he is an abomination, and Thredson telling him that he loves him, and that Lana stole that from him. Hearing Leo and Teresa coming in, Johnny hides and flips over a table while the couple is having sex. Leo sticks his hand in the room where Johnny is smoking his hash pipe and listening to the tape still. Johnny resignedly dons the Bloody Face mask and hacks off Leo's arm when he sticks it back in with the iPhone.[15]

2013[]

Johnny murders a member of a crew interviewing Lana and takes his place. Lana, aware of Johnny's presence in the room after the interview is over, tells him to come out and get it over with. Unbeknownst to Johnny, Lana is aware of who he is due to police investigators questioning her on him, days before. Johnny tells her he was aware of who he really was, feeling a connection with Lana that day on the playground when he was younger. Johnny reveals he also found Thredson's confession tape on eBay, even hearing where Lana threatened to abort the baby. She admits that neither of his parents loved him, despite his assertion that Thredson did. She confronts him about what he wants, and he holds a gun to her head, though ironically enough Thredson claimed (falsely) not to believe in guns. Though Johnny just wants his father to be proud of him, Lana forces him to realize that his father was a monster, one that he can never become. She cradles his face and gets him to put down the gun. He begins to weep, feeling the guilt of his crimes. "It's not your fault, baby", Lana tells him. Taking the opportunity to redirect the gun and shoot him in the forehead, she adds "It's mine".[15]

Identity[]

The first Bloody Face from the early 1960s was thought to be Kit Walker, a gas station employee. Eventually, it was revealed to be psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Thredson. The identity of the 2012-2013 Bloody Face turned out to be the child of Oliver, Johnny Morgan.



Bloody Face Copycats[]

Devon[]

Devon is a copycat of Bloody Face that appears to Leo and Teresa in the dilapidated Briarcliff Manor. He has a twin brother named Cooper. After Devon attacked Leo and Teresa, Bloody Face showed himself and killed Devon and his brother.

Cooper[]

Cooper is a copycat of Bloody Face that appears to Leo and Teresa Morrison in the dilapidated Briarcliff Manor. He has a twin brother named Devon.

Cooper appeared with his brother as Devon gunned down both Leo and Teresa, who were fleeing Briarcliff Manor after killing what they thought was the real "Bloody Face" (actually the brothers' accomplice Joey). Cooper is disturbed by the killing of the couple but does notice something has ripped off Leo's arm and wonders what it could have been. A fourth (and real) Bloody Face appears to the shocked brothers.[14] The real Bloody Face killed Devon and Cooper, and their bodies are later found to be strung by cables attached to the ceiling and staircase rails.[5]

Notes[]

  • In "Welcome to Briarcliff", Teresa's reading of a Wikipedia entry on Briarcliff states that Bloody Face was its' most famous resident. This is, as it turns out, inaccurate, as while a Bloody Face suspect (Kit Walker) was incarcerated there, the actual Bloody Face, Dr. Thredson, worked there as a doctor. Thredson was kept in a room in the Asylum by Lana and Kit for a brief time, but this was not an official incarceration.
  • The 2012 Bloody Face is less skilled at skinning than his predecessor, as he admits in "The Coat Hanger". He also confesses to practicing on dead animals at an early age. This seems to be true as his skin mask is more mangled than his father's.
  • When Zachary Quinto played Chad Warwick in the first season of American Horror Story, he purchased a rubber suit for his boyfriend Patrick that later became the costume of the serial-killing Rubber Man; at the time, Patrick dismissed it, saying he preferred leather. In Asylum, as the serial-killing Bloody Face, Quinto dons a mask made of the leathery remains of women's skin.
  • While the 'mouth' of the 1960s Bloody Face is arranged in a demented grin, that of the 2012 Bloody Face appears as an angry snarl.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. In Chapter 10 he makes no appearance, but is mentioned by Lee Harris.
  2. Appears as a character and is mentioned by Dylan inside the Video Game Escape From Murder House.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Episode: Tricks and Treats
  4. Episode: I Am Anne Frank: Part 2
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Episode: The Origins of Monstrosity
  6. Episode: Dark Cousin
  7. Episode: Unholy Night
  8. 8.0 8.1 Episode: The Coat Hanger
  9. Episode: The Name Game
  10. 10.0 10.1 Episode: Spilt Milk
  11. Episode: Continuum
  12. Meet Bloody Face
  13. Episode: Welcome to Briarcliff
  14. 14.0 14.1 Episode: Nor'easter
  15. 15.0 15.1 Episode: Madness Ends
  16. In The Origins of Monstruosity his corpse appears.
  17. In The Origins of Monstruosity his corpse appears.

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