Wrenshall News: Love of horror films meets opportunity

The cult horror film "Plan 9 from Outer Space" was Bela Lugosi's last film, and was shot without a script because director Ed Wood didn't really know what it was going to be about. This is the kind of important trivia that a puppet named Rentfield shares on a new horror movie TV show shot partially in a pole building in Wrenshall. Local resident Mike Sholtz is the puppeteer for Rentfield as well as the co-creator of "Uncle Clutch's Video Horror Shop."

The show takes its inspiration from the likes of "Svengoolie," "Elvira," or "Joe Bob Briggs" and it came about when Peter Luke from Superior public television found a list of public domain horror films online and wanted to find some local talent to "host" the movies in a regular segment. He posted a handwritten sign on the door of the Superior Public Library, and Scholtz and his friend Joe Klander happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Klander is an optometrist by day but a professional wrestler for fun, and his stage name is "Uncle Clutch." Scholtz shot a documentary film on Klander titled, "Kinderchomper," which followed his time wrestling in Japan. The two had already been talking about doing some sort of goofy horror show in the vein of "Svengoolie," and Luke's post gave them the outlet.

Building on his "Uncle Clutch" persona as the host, Klander acts as the creepy owner of a video rental establishment who is only interested in making his customers watch horror movies.

Scholtz is borderline-obsessed with the outdated medium, so it seemed like a natural progression to develop a giant blue puppet in the shape of a VHS tape as a regular character who occasionally interrupts the movie to provide fun facts and trivia. The name "Rentfield" is a pun on Dracula's sidekick Renfield, which gives you a taste of the kind of hokey humor the show will deliver.

"When I watched the Muppets as a kid, I thought I would be a puppeteer when I grew up," says Scholtz, "not realizing that really wasn't really a usual professional outlet." Instead, he became a documentary filmmaker, but he is finding it delightful to be able to perform. "Usually the only performing I do is for Q&As after screenings, so it is really fun to operate the puppet and help create any other characters that Joe and I dream up."

The two friends had planned on shooting the series in Klander's basement, where he had created an entire set of an independent video store, complete with kooky tchotchkes and movie posters. But then the pandemic hit, and the two didn't want to spend hours in an unventilated space, so they got creative. "We shot it all on a green screen either in my pole barn with the door open or in Joe's garage," says Scholtz.

The old TV technology fits well with the 1970s and '80s feel of Uncle Clutch's video store.

You can watch Uncle Clutch's Video Horror Shop on Joe Klander's YouTube channel (youtu.be/7xvIdUnDrO4) or on Duluth and Superior public access channels.

Sholtz and Klander have shot four episodes so far and plan to do a few more this winter.

"When the weather gets nice again, it will be easier to shoot, and then we can hopefully start airing them in other places - like the public access channel in Cloquet," Scholtz said.

If you have a Wrenshall-related story, let Annie know at 218-310-4703 or [email protected]