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Killerwatt is a powerful ghost and the main antagonist of the Real Ghostbusters episode "Killerwatt." The power blackouts across New York are the work of a veritable army of ghosts, but the power drain leaves the Ghostbusters' Containment Unit dangerously vulnerable. He styles himself "the grand ghoul" and "the ethereal master of many," and is the first villain to have an episode named after him in the series.
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Killerwatt first appeared in "Killerwatt," the second episode of the first season of The Real Ghostbusters, which first aired on September 20, 1986. The episode was written by Len Janson and Chuck Menville and carries production number 75001, making it the first episode of the series to go into production.12 On the episode call sheet, the antagonist was listed simply as "Beast."2
James Avery voiced Killerwatt, with the regular cast of Lorenzo Music, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, Arsenio Hall, and Laura Summer filling out the ensemble.2
Killerwatt commands an army of electric possessor ghosts that feed on electricity. His army began draining a power plant in Brooklyn, then spread through the city's power lines, causing a citywide blackout and bringing the firehouse Containment Unit close to failure. After the Ghostbusters disrupted his minions at Stacy's Department Store, he was traced back to the Brooklyn plant. Confronted there, he attacked, possessed Ecto-1, and then took over the plant's machinery to form a giant body. Drawing on the generators, he shrugged off proton fire until Slimer cut the main power, dropping his shield and leaving him open to capture.
He later makes a brief cameo inside the Containment Unit in Xmas Marks the Spot.
Killerwatt's abilities include firing electric bolts from his eyes, possessing anything electrical, and flight. In his giant machine form he displays great strength, absorbs electricity from the plant's generators, and can soak up proton streams, one of the few ghosts in the series shown to do so. He can animate the power plant itself into a monster body, and his electric bolts grow more powerful in that form. He is portrayed as an egotistical leader who laughs while tormenting the team; told he would win only over their dead bodies, he responds that dead bodies are his specialty.
The Insight Editions edition of Tobin's Spirit Guide classifies Killerwatt as a Class VII elemental entity composed of electricity and psychokinetic energy.3 The guide describes it as a highly evolved elemental that can manipulate electricity, possess virtually any object running on an electrical charge, and create subservient minion-clones of itself with similar but weaker abilities.4 In that account, Peter Venkman names the entity "Killerwatt," and the Ghostbusters defeat it by cutting power to Manhattan, Queens, and much of Brooklyn, which dissipates its clones and severs its flow of current so it can be trapped. The guide references the entity again in a later entry comparing it to a separate case at the East River Generating Station.5
Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 3. CPT Holdings, Inc. ↩
Marsha Goodman (1986). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "Killerwatt" (1986). ↩ ↩2 ↩3
Insight Editions (2016). Tobin's Spirit Guide, p. 56. "Class VII. Elemental entity composed of electricity and psychokinetic energy." ↩
Insight Editions (2016). Tobin's Spirit Guide, p. 56. "It can manipulate electricity and possess virtually any object that runs on an electrical charge. It is also able to create subservient clones of itself, with similar yet less powerful abilities." ↩
Insight Editions (2016). Tobin's Spirit Guide, p. 60. ↩