Editorials
Zeke the Plumber: Remembering the Most Traumatic Episode of “Salute Your Shorts”
Horror tends to be at its most effective when we least expect it. When fear catches us completely off guard. Take children’s comedy series Salute Your Shorts, for example. The Nickelodeon ‘90s sitcom ran for two seasons, and revolved around a group of teen campers in the fictional summer camp, Camp Anawanna. Often the episodes centered around pranks, camp life, and the dynamics between the diverse personalities at camp, but the second episode opted to go for the jugular with its creepy slant on a camp staple: the ghost story.
Titled “The Ghost Story,” episode two sees the campers gathered around to spook each other silly with tales of terror. Resident bully, Budnick (Danny Cooksey), spins the yarn of Zeke the Plumber, the camp’s former custodian that had no sense of smell because his nose had been bitten off by a parrot. Because of this, Zeke couldn’t smell the gas leak when digging a hole. He strikes up a match and sparks an explosion, leaving only his beloved plunger behind. Anyone who finds and touches the plunger is cursed with nightmares of Zeke.
“What is this guy? The Freddy Krueger of custodians?” a skeptical camper asks Budnick.
In a way, the description fits. Both Michael (Erik MacArthur) and Telly (Venus DeMilo Thomas) touched the plunger during Budnick’s story, and both dream of Zeke the Plumber soon after. Or rather, suffer traumatic nightmares. In these nightmares, Zeke is waiting for them, digging into their deepest memories and twisting them to evoke fear. There are even threats of death. Just like Freddy Krueger. And also like Freddy, Zeke died in an explosion, and he’s covered head to toe in disfiguring burn scares. What makes Zeke so traumatic for the unsuspecting child, though, is that he covers his scars with a stiff human mask stretched over his face. His eyes lost behind it. He speaks through it in hushed tones. It’s deeply unsettling.
Granted, Salute Your Shorts is a comedy aimed at kids, so the terror eventually eased up and delivered the requisite cheerful ending. That is, Zeke the Plumber was just a figment of imagination, save for Counselor Ug Lee (Kirk Baily) trying to seek revenge by donning the costume and sneaking around the woods. Budnick did get his comeuppance in the form of arachnophobia, and all was right in Camp Anawanna again.
Still, though, for the target audience, Zeke the Plumber’s appearance was unexpected and terrifying. The mask, the unassuming outfit, and the gravelly quiet voice instilled actual nightmares for the generation that watched this infamous episode in 1991. A boogeyman that appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly. At least with Nickeoldeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which had just wrapped up its inaugural season a month prior to the airing of this episode, you knew to expect the horror and could brace yourself accordingly. There was no mentally preparing for “The Ghost Story.” For a certain age group, Zeke the Plumber remains one of the most traumatic figures from childhood.
The problem with filming sequels back-to-back is that, unless you can afford expensive reshoots, there’s no easy way to adjust course in between movies if fans react badly to where the story is headed. That’s why it’s important to have a complete narrative thought out well in advance lest you accidentally kill a budding franchise.
However, this isn’t always the case. Every once in a while, it seems like the cinema gods smile upon certain chaotic productions and gift moviegoers with complete franchises that feel like more than the sum of their hastily produced parts. Ted Nicolaou’s Bloodlust: Subspecies III is precisely one of these miraculous pictures, with the raw talents of the artists involved (as well as the continued support from Romania) turning the feature into an effective conclusion for a series that kind of made things up as the filmmakers went along.
That’s why I’d like to invite my fellow readers to join me on this third part of our journey through the Subspecies franchise as we look into Bloodlust and talk about how it remains a surprisingly satisfying finale to the original trilogy.
A Trilogy Planned on the Fly
Released only a year after Bloodstone found plenty of success in rental stores and mail-in VHS catalogues worldwide, 1994’s Bloodlust was produced at the same time as its predecessor in (mostly) the same locations and with the same team. This means that the movie benefited from all the same upgrades as Bloodstone, with the crew now being more experienced with the ins and outs of surviving a low-budget Romanian production and the cast really settling into their characters.
At this point, everything from location scouting to the makeup process had been streamlined, with Wayne Toth and Norman Cabrera, the main duo behind special effects, even switching out time-consuming prosthetics for latex gloves in order to speed up Anders Hove’s monstrous transformation. The titular “subspecies” demons were also once again relegated to a mere cameo appearance due to the laborious puppetry required to bring them to life.
The only real hiccup came from the fact that actress Denice Duff had replaced the first film’s Michelle (Laura Mae Tate) and was immediately expected to portray the character as both an innocent victim in part II and as a secondary villain in part III. According to behind-the-scenes interviews, the hectic production schedule that blended two different movies meant that Duff would often find herself having to alternate between two incredibly different versions of Michelle during the same shooting day – though it’s obvious that she’s having more fun with Bloodlust’s more traditionally vampiric version of her character.
In the finished film, we pick things up immediately where the previous entry left off as Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) is forced to leave her vampire sister Michelle (Duff) behind in the dungeons of Castle Vladislav due to the rising sun. This allows Mummy (Pamela Gordon) to use Michelle’s blood to revive the vicious Radu (Hove) so that he may continue his quest for the coveted Bloodstone – a magical artifact that perpetually drips the Blood of Saints.
Meanwhile, the dreamy US embassy agent Mel (Kevin Blair) agrees to help Rebecca plan a rescue mission, though they’re unaware that Radu has become infatuated with Michelle during his attempts to guide her growing bloodlust. This all culminates in a climactic confrontation meant to tie up all of the series’ loose ends in one of Full Moon Pictures’ most ambitious productions.
The Evolution of Radu
Like its predecessor, Bloodlust: Subspecies III was also warmly received by fans who argued that the series was an even bigger success than Full Moon’s other major horror franchise, Puppet Master. This praise wasn’t unanimous, however, as 1994 had seen the rise of a more modern breed of sexy vampire popularized by Anne Rice, with old-school Nosferatu like Radu being viewed as obsolete when compared to the likes of Lestat and Gary Oldman’s take on Dracula.
In a way, one might argue that Nicolaou’s film is something of a swan song for the classic vampire story, as Bloodlust combines all of the traditional elements we tend to associate with these tales into a single tragic yarn that ties a neat little bow on Radu’s story as well as the old-fashioned monster movies that he represents. The finale remains shocking despite the fact that this is the third time we see Radu get brutally killed onscreen, with the brief tease that he may one day return feeling more like a nod towards the nature of evil rather than sequel bait.
The film dabbles a bit in gothic romance and even explores the inherent power fantasy behind transforming into an immortal creature of the night, but the filmmakers never lose sight of Radu as a demonic force even when he’s willing to betray his beloved Mummy for Michelle’s sake. In fact, his twisted “love” for his fledgling makes him even creepier as we get the feeling that his passion comes from a dark and disturbing place.
Anders Hove is at his absolute best in this film, with the effects department boosting his moments of what the younger generation would call “aura farming” whenever Radu emerges from shadows like a 90s version of Count Orlok. There are even a couple of surprisingly effective jump-scares here, which is why I’d argue that Bloodlust cements Radu as one of the most memorable cinematic vampires of all time despite his humble origins.
Subspecies Saves Its Best For Last
Nicolaou and Vlad Panescu also saved the best for “last” (more on that in a bit) regarding the film’s visuals, with the cinematography and overall atmosphere of Bloodlust absolutely surpassing what we saw in the previous films. Everything feels appropriately climactic this time around (including the wonderful soundtrack that was co-composed alongside an authentic Romanian orchestra), and I appreciate how this is the fastest-paced entry in the trilogy since the film doesn’t need to waste time setting anything up.
Bloodlust still suffers from some of the same low-budget blemishes as its predecessors, but there’s so much creative passion here that no amount of wonky effects work or stilted dialogue can get in the way of appreciating the flick’s gothic grandeur. That’s why it’s not surprising that the movie’s definitive(-ish) ending would later be retconned as fans begged for more Radu.
Of course, the next entry in this series would be a different kind of vampiric endeavor altogether, with the filmmakers attempting to engage with the same trends that ultimately killed Radu and his antiquated kin. That, however, is a story for another time. For now, I’ll merely insist that Bloodlust: Subspecies III remains a highlight of Full Moon’s expansive catalogue and is definitely worth seeking out today.
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