John Shooter

John Shooter in Secret Window.

"I'll burn your life and every person in it like a cane field in a high wind."

— John Shooter to Mort Rainey

John Shooter is the main antagonist of both the novel Secret Window, Secret Garden and the 2004 movie adaption Secret Window. Shooter was brought to life by actor John Turturro in the 2004 film. 

Secret Window

Shooter is an enigmatic and deranged aspiring writer and dairy farmer from Mississippi who accuses author Mort Rainey of stealing his story "Sowing Season" and threatens his life and the lives of those around him if he doesn't admit to the theft of his story. Mort dismisses him as a lunatic, but Shooter isn't about to give up. Shooter winds up not only killing Mort's dog with a screwdriver. Shooter shows up again, this time demanding Mort fix the story's ending, and Mort feigns agreement. Back at the cabin, Mort receives a call from Shooter requesting a private meeting in the woods and when he arrives he finds Ken and Tom dead in Tom's truck. Shooter indicates he has implicated Mort in the murders, requiring Mort to cover up the crime by running the truck into a water-filled stone quarry, losing his watch in the process. Mort's literary agent sends a copy of the magazine with his published story via UPS and Mort picks it up at the post office. When he arrives home with the magazine he opens it to find that the specific pages containing the story have been cut out. Mort realizes since the magazine was in a sealed package, Shooter couldn't have tampered with it. This leads Mort to realize that Shooter is merely a figment of his imagination; brought to life through Mort's multiple personality disorder which began after discovering his wife was having an affair. Mort realizes that he created Shooter to carry out the acts of killing Chico, Tom, Ken and burning down his home. By now, the cabin is completely disheveled, with the word "shooter" carved throughout. Mort suddenly appears and Amy is struck by fear when she realizes the word is Mort's desire to "shoot her." Mort, now wearing Shooter's hat and speaking with a southern accent, chases Amy outside to her car and stabs her in the ankle to prevent her from leaving. Ted arrives shortly afterwards and Amy watches helplessly as Mort ambushes and beheads him with a shovel while Amy screams vainly. Mort then recites the ending of "Sowing Season" as he beats Amy to death off-screen.