Two kids set their mom up on a date with a vampire!
The Hansen kids are in a jam. Adam and his best friend Duffy have gotten their hands on some tickets for the Headless Horseman concert, and his sister Chelsea has a date with her dreamy boyfriend Peter. The only problem is they're both grounded. Chelsea and Adam will do whatever it takes to get their mom Lynette out of the house, even if it includes a chance meeting with a very mysterious man. Everything seems to go according to plan until their little brother Taylor realizes that this stranger might be a vampire.—Anonymous
Divorced, ex-rockabilly singer Lynette Hansen [Caroline Rhea] comes home from work tofind her 15-year old daughter Chelsea [Laura Vandervoot] on the phone with her boyfriend,instead of doing her homework. Thirteen-year old Adam [Matthew O'Leary] is entranced in "TheReturn of Count Krelski," and 8-year-old Taylor [Myles Jeffrey] is hiding behind thecouch. Ah, the joys of being a single Mom.
As luck would have it, Adam's friend Duffy gets backstage passes tothe Headless Horsemen concert at Saturday night's Harvest Festival, thevery weekend that Adam is grounded for not writing his history essay andtrying to pass off some story from the Weekly Secret tabloid about vampirehunter Malachi Van Helsing. To make matters worse, Chelsea (who had a hotdate on Saturday night) is also grounded for smarting off. What to do? Thesolution is obvious--get Mom a date for Saturday night. Where to find adate for Mom with only one day to go? Again, the answer is simple. Matchher up with someone from the Personals column in the Weekly Secret. Thissounds like a good one: Continental gentleman, handsome, debonair, suave.Enjoys long strolls beneath the full moon. Loves adventure, travel, wild animals,and women who long for romantic nights that will never end. Hates Italian food and turtlenecks. [email protected].
Adam sends Wolfsbane an email asking him to meet Mom at theFoodmaster at 8 pm. Now to get Mom there. Easy. Remind her how the familyused to have chocolate chip pancakes together every Saturday morning. Makeher feel guilty enough to go to the store for chocolate chips.OK. Got her to the store. Now to find Wolfsbane. No, it's not the guybuying spaghetti. No, it's not the guy buying the cake that says, "HappyAnniversary." Maybe it's the guy in the long overcoat with the pulled downhat who appears to be looking for someone? He certainly looks like aWolfsbane. Before Chelsea and Adam can link up with Wolfsbane, however,Lynette bumps carts with someone else--Dr Dimitri Dentatos [Charles Shaughnessy] from Romania.They get to talking and, not long after that, Mom's got a date with avampire...but the only one who knows it is Taylor, because he saw Dimitriturn into a bat after leaving the store.
It's Saturday night. Dimitri has arrived, and Adam has invited himin. Dimitri has a nice evening planned. First, dinner at Renfield's, thendancing, and finally a romantic carriage ride in the park.Meanwhile, Taylor is trying to convince Adam that Dimitri is avampire, but Adam only knows about vampires in the movies. If it's a realvampire, you have to call someone like Malachi Van Helsing, so Taylordoes. Unfortunately, Van Helsing isn't answering his phone, so Taylorpedals over to Renfield's to bring Mom home. Since that would spoil Adamand Chelsea's plans, they go after Taylor. Taylor refuses to go homewithout telling Mom that Dimitri is a vampire, so Dimitri performs theTransylvania spoon test to assure Taylor that he is not. On the way out ofthe restaurant, however, Adam happens to glance in a mirror and realizesthat Dimitri casts no reflection. He really IS a vampire.What to do now? First, take Taylor home to the babysitter. Thenfollow Mom. She and Dimitri have left the restaurant and gone for a walk.Since dancing was next on Dimitri's list, Lynette takes him into arockabilly place where she used to sing. Next, they go to the HarvestFestival, all the while it is apparent that Dimitri hates every dance,every song, every ride, and wants only to get Lynette alone. Fortunately,Adam and Chelsea are never far behind, until Dimitri catches Adam andwarns him to follow no more or die.
Lynette has come to the conclusion that she and Dimitri aren't rightfor each other, so Dimitri mesmerizes her, and they leave the festivaltogether. Chelsea and Adam figure that Dimitri is taking Mom to his lair,which is the old Mather house out by the lake, because he told themearlier that he was renovating that place. Adam and Chelsea on the way!
Meanwhile, Van Helsing [Robert Carradine] hasn't been able to get through to the Hansenresidence because the babysitter has been tying up the phone, so he goesover to Taylor's house. Taylor remembers Van Helsing as the guy in the longovercoat with the pulled down hat from Foodmaster, and Taylor offers tocome along to help look for his Mom. When Van Helsing refuses ("I work alone"),Taylor hides in the back seat of his car until they're well on theway...but to where? Well, they don't know where Dimitri and Mom are going,but they do know where they'll end up...at Dimitri's house, probably somebig old mansion somewhere out by the lake, of course. All the old mansionsare out there. Now Taylor and Van Helsing are on the way.
Chelsea and Adam get there first and haul Dimitri's coffin down tothe lake. When Dimitri arrives, he discovers his coffin floating on thewater with Adam sitting on top. Adam tries to make a deal--Mom for thecoffin--but Dimitri grabs Chelsea and changes the deal--the coffin forChelsea. Adam has no choice but to return the coffin.Taylor and Van Helsing finally find the house. Dimitri manages to knock outVan Helsing. Then he turns on Chelsea and Adam, who start screaming for their Mom.Lynette comes out of the trance (Love is stronger than any vampiretrance), pushes Dimitri into his coffin, and Van Helsing rivets it shut with silvernails. Dimitri will be shipped to the South Pole for the winter and thento Finland for the summer. And tomorrow morning, Van Helsing will join theHansens for chocolate chip pancakes. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]
