One dark moonlight Halloween night at Littlest Pet Shop, Blythe enters the day camp area dressed as a cowgirl. Youngmee attempts to enter too, dressed as Mount Rushmore. With enough force, she gets pulled in. Blythe calls for the pets, but they're nowhere to be found. Suddenly Penny Ling stumbles in, and it's revealed she is a zombie! Russell and Vinnie appear as well, also zombies. As the others enter, Blythe and Youngmee panic and run. As the pets corner Youngmee, she screams and she too becomes a zombie. Suddenly Sunil appears at the dumbwaiter, declaring the zombie virus is in the pet treats. Sunil exclaims there's no known cure for Z.I.T.S.: Zombie Infected Treat Syndrome. Blythe realizes the pets aren't saying "brains", they're saying "bran". Blythe sees that the treats have no fiber in them, so the pets must be bloated. Blythe rushes to the food supply and gets the Call of Nature All Natural Fiber Flakes. She feeds all the pets and Youngmee and they return to normal.
Pepper comments that really wasn't Blythe's best, revealing that this was all a Halloween story. None of the pets except Vinnie found it scary. Pepper comments that anyone could create a scarier story, so since the pets' owners are out on Halloween, there should be a scary story contest, and the winner gets a candy coated liver ball. Vinnie is appointed to be the judge. Meanwhile, Roger is at the airport, tired from jetlag, not even certain what day it is. Suddenly, in the full moon, a werewolf in seen, scaring Roger. He runs away, and the werewolf reveals he's actually in a costume.
Back at the pet shop, the story contest begins. Russell starts with his story. At the day camp, Mrs. Twombly shows the new day camper, Vlad the bat, who Penny Ling, Pepper, Zoe, and Minka immediately fall for. The girls introduce themselves, and Vlad talks about how he is looking for true love, eliciting responses from the girls, and Blythe as well. Confused, Russell is wondering how Vlad is putting the girls in a trance, and he comes to the realization that Vlad must be a vampire, cueing a song about him being a vampire, in which Russell rescues the pets from Vlad's advances. At the end of the song, Russell opens the window shades and blinds Vlad with daylight, ending the story. Zoe responds that the story is more gross than scary, Penny confused at the brooding bat, and Pepper thinking the song is gimmicky. They ask Vinnie, the judge, and he is so scared he says Russell wins, even though they haven't all got a turn yet. Meanwhile on the Downtown City streets, Roger is driving home, scared. At a stoplight, he witnesses people in costumes. As he drives off, he runs out of gas.
Zoe finishes telling her story, about how the craft services table at the photo shoot was out of low-fat muffins, with everyone being unimpressed. Pepper starts her story. Waking up one day, Pepper realizes she will be late for a gig of hers. Driving on a snowy mountain road, Pepper loses control and wakes up in Penny Ling's house in bed. As Penny Ling brings her food, she says she is Pepper Clark's biggest fan, laughing maniacally, scaring Pepper. Penny Ling says she found Pepper and brought her back to her house. Pepper tries to escape, but is tied to the bed by rubber chickens. Pepper comments she has to get to a show, and Penny Ling says she does too, pulling a book from the bookcase and converting a wall into a stage where she tells terrible jokes dressed like Pepper, tormenting her as she tries to escape. Pepper wakes up, as this is all a dream, relieved, however once she gets to her show, everyone in the audience is Penny Ling. The story ends, and the pets and Blythe are scared and impressed. Blythe believes they have a winner, although Vinnie says Sunil hasn't had a turn yet. Sunil runs away instead. Meanwhile, hiding in a dumpster, Roger is scared of monsters. He hides from trick-or-treaters and runs away.
Blythe proceeds to give the candy to Pepper, but Sunil re-enters, wearing a lab coat he claims is from his great grandfather Doctor Sunilenstein, and proceeds to tell a story. Doctor Sunilenstein experimented in the unnatural. He asks his assistant, who looks like Minka, for the brain (which is actually a peanut), and puts it into a monster that looks like Vinnie. Minka throws the switch, and Vinnie comes to life and walks away, bumping into a record player that plays music, and Vinnie proceeds to dance. Suddenly, the other pets, with pitchforks and torches, enter, claiming Doctor Sunilenstein has violated the laws of nature (not to mention the blackout when he threw the switches). Vinnie is focused on dancing, asking the others to dance, but they back away. The other pets charge, but Doctor Sunilenstein tells them to leave Vinnie alone, as he means no harm. Vinnie proceeds to dance, but spins out of control, slamming into the generator, causing an explosion. The story ends, Sunil says everything was destroyed except the lab coat and the monster, who continues to dance alone forever. The story scares everyone. Vinnie scares everyone, and Sunil and Vinnie laugh together. Blythe gives the candy to Sunil.
Suddenly a moaning noise is heard outside with a zombie-like silhouette. It's actually Roger, who found his way to the pet shop. Freaked out, he asks Blythe to run, but Blythe says it's Halloween. Blythe asks Sunil about the monster in his story, asking if he was doomed to dance alone forever, and he says Doctor Sunilenstein created a bride for him, played by Buttercream.
This episode contains examples of (YMMV entries go here):
- Abhorrent Admirer: Penny Ling in Pepper's story.
- Absurd Phobia:
- It isn't Jason Voorhees Roger is scared of. He's just scared of hockey players in general.
- Zoe seems to be horrified of shortages of low-fat muffins.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Russell and Sunil figure this is why the girls love Vlad so much.
- All Just a Dream: Pepper wakes from the nightmare and thinks this in her story. It turns out the audience in the comedy club is filled with Penny Ling clones.
- Angst? What Angst?: Roger gets over his fright incredibly quickly. When Blythe tells him it's Halloween, he is suddenly no longer afraid and trots off to bed.
- Big Blackout: The electricity Dr. Sunilenstein uses to awaken his monster causes the surrounding town to lose power. This is what prompts the angry mob to come over to the doc's castle.
- Big "NO!": When Roger's car stops due to running out of fuel.
- Bookends: This episode begins and opens with a scene of a Baxter family member in silhouette in a dark room, then revealed as they step into a beam of light — Blythe at the beginning, Roger at the end, excluding the continuation of Dr. Sunilenstein.
- Bookcase Passage: In Penny Ling's cabin is a bookcase on a revolving platform. By tugging on a book, it turns around to reveal on the other side...a comedy stage.
- Brick Joke: In Pepper's scary story, Penny Ling tells a joke about how awful airplane food is. The next scene, Roger, being surrounded by people in scary costumes, tells himself that he deals with much worse every day - he eats airplane food.
- The Bus Came Back: Roger's co-pilot Steph returns, having last appeared in "To Paris with Zoe".
- Call-Back:
- Pepper comments that Penny Ling is a master storyteller, referring to her story from "So Interesting".
- Blythe talking about how Sunil and Vinnie love scary stories refers to "Door-Jammed," where they spent the day watching scary movies on TV, and to "A Day at the Museum," where they expressed interest at an ad for a new horror film. Their experience watching horror films and learning their tropes is what allows Sunil to take the prize.
- The Cameo: Steph appears in a non-speaking role in one scene, and Buttercream appears for the first time in Season 4 as the Bride of Frankenstein.
- For out-of-universe characters, Applejack from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic appears as part of Blythe's costume in Blythe's story. See Shout Out below.
- Cassandra Truth: Roger always figured werewolves would show up at an airport, but no one believed him until it happened. Averted, as it was just a guy in a costume scaring Roger.
- Russell cannot convince anyone that Vlad is a vampire.
- Catapult Nightmare: Pepper in her story wakes up from one.
- Caustic Critic: Pepper is particularly critical of the others' stories. When it's her turn to tell a story, the other pets and Blythe consider it a step up in scariness than the ones before it, so she can both dish and give out.
- Chained to a Bed: Penny does this to an unconscious Pepper using a bunch of rubber chickens to ensure Pepper never leaves the cabin.
- Chirping Crickets: During the cold open, a ball bounces into the room in much the same way as a tumbleweed.
- Classical Movie Vampire: Vlad.
- Collapsing Lair: Dr. Sunilenstein's lair explodes.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Russell demonstrates Vlad does not have a reflection, proving that he is a vampire, Minka simply perceives the situation as Vlad being too handsome to have one.
- Continuity Nod:
- The dolls of the little girl and the gray alien are two of the toys Blythe keeps on her bed. They can be seen most clearly in "Room Enough".
- Theodore Roosevelt was previously used as a joke in "The Tortoise and the Heir". In addition, Mount Rushmore was also previously used as a joke in "Back Window".
- Youngmee eats pet food, whose flavor she finds revolting. In "The Secret Recipe," Youngmee creates pet food that tastes awful to non-humans.
- Two characters in love eating spaghetti in an Imagine Spot previously occurred in "Sweet Pepper".
- Some of Pepper's previously-seen comedy props appear on posters in Pepper's room in her story. These include her rubber chicken, joke glasses and mustache, rainbow wig and clown nose, and her bicycle horn, which is used in the intro. Some of these posters can also be seen in front of Pepper's theater too.
- Just as Russell couldn't prove to the other pets that Josh was stealing Blythe's rejected designs and that he's been caught in a time loop, Russell cannot prove in this episode that Vlad is a vampire, even though Vlad makes no attempt to not look like one.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: The Gundersons cook candy-coated liver balls to give out to trick-or-treaters. Unappealing to humans, but apparently, the pets love them.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Parodied. Sunil's story begins with an aged sepia tone. Dr. Sunilenstein then snaps his fingers, inventing color.
- Disguised in Drag: Russell dresses like a Victorian woman to lure Vlad into a trap.
- Dr. Fakenstein: Doctor Sunilenstein.
- Drives Like Crazy: Roger, more so than usual, due to also being sleepy and incredibly scared.
- Dutch Angle: Done with the shots of the Penny Lings at Pepper's comedy club to accentuate their unnerving nature.
- Dwindling Party: In the first story, only Blythe and Sunil remain un-zombified.
- Evil Laugh: Penny laughs maniacally when she says she's Pepper's biggest fan. This makes Pepper uncomfortable.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: On Roger upon leaving from the airport. Steph seems just fine though.
- Explosive Instrumentation: Dr. Sunilenstein's Monster crashing into a control panel causes it to explode, and with it the whole castle.
- Eyedscreen: When Vlad talks about his nights.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Zoe and Blythe fail their stories for this reason.
- Framing Device: The scary story contest.
- Frankenstein's Monster: A Vinnie-flavored variant in Sunil's story. He gets a Buttercream-flavored bride.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Vlad's owner is at least friendly enough to do business with Littlest Pet Shop.
- Funny Background Event: Call of Nature All-Natural Fiber Flakes, true to its name, has a small picture of a toilet on the bottom-right.
- Fun with Acronyms: Z.I.T.S. is Zombie Infected Treat Syndrome in Blythe's tale.
- Halloween Episode: The second one, after "Door-Jammed".note
- Hidden Depths: Sunil and Vinnie, despite being the two biggest scaredy-cats in the series, are shown in this episode to be very good at telling scary stories, at least in-universe. Could be explained by them watching a lot of scary movies.
- Ho Yay: Averted with Vinnie this time. He shows no signs of infatuation towards Vlad, even though Penny, Minka, Zoe, Pepper, and Blythe are head-over-heels in love with him.
- Humiliation Conga: Between Roger having to pilot four consecutive flights, getting scared out of his wits, his car running out of fuel on the road, and him winding up in a dumpster for a spell.
- Idiosyncratic Wipes:
- The usual pawprints have been replaced by Jack-o-Lanterns.
- Smoke pours in to start "Dude Is a Vampire".
- Vlad's silhouette swoops by after the first chorus in "Dude Is a Vampire".
- The shot after that gets replaced via one of Vlad's wings.
- A flock of bats fly up after Vinnie and Sunil try to push each other into being the scary story judge. The same wipe happens after Roger runs away from the dumpster.
- If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You: Everyone agrees that the bran flakes taste awful.
- Interspecies Romance: Female pets seem to instantly get crushes on Vlad, even non-bats. Eventually, even Blythe, a human, falls in love with Vlad.
- It's All About Me: In Pepper's story, her room is lined with photos of herself.
- Lampshade Hanging: Pepper is inexplicably shown able to drive. She points it out to the camera.
- Laughing Mad: Penny Ling in Pepper's story.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Penny Ling stops Pepper's story to say that she agreed to guest star in stories, but that the dress is underwhelming.
- When "Dude Is a Vampire" starts playing, Sunil looks around and asks who has a drum machine.
- Love Floats: Blythe drifts over, in midair, to Vlad.
- Mad Eye: Minka in Sunil's story.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Sunilenstein, naturally, as he is based off of Victor Frankenstein.
- Musicalis Interruptus: Russell interrupts Vlad's verse in "Dude Is a Vampire".
- Named After Somebody Famous: Vlad, a vampire bat, is named after Vlad the Impaler.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Pepper is suddenly able to drive in her story. She shows it off to the camera.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Vlad locks Russell in a bank vault and heads left, only to find Russell in front of him again.
- Oh, Crap!: Pepper has one when she sees the Penny Ling clones in her story.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The zombie pets and Youngmee in Blythe's tale crave fiber/bran instead of brains.
- Romantic Vampire Boy: Mrs. Twombly instantly falls in love with Vlad's owners. The female pets also do so accordingly with Vlad himself.
- Rule of Three: During Roger's drive home, he utters a sentence that goes "____, ___ said" three times in a row.
- Science Hero: Dr. Sunilenstein. He wants to apply his mad science to public good, such as using his monster's dancing to spread joy around Downtown Citylvania.
- Serious Business: Zoe treats craft services tables that run out of low-fat muffins with dread and terror.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode's title takes from Little Shop of Horrors, and possibly Pet Shop of Horrors and Treehouse of Horror too.
- A not-so-subtle one with Blythe's cowgirl costume; she's riding Applejack. Doubles as an Actor Allusion, as both characters are voiced by Ashleigh Ball in their respective series.
- The Halloween stories are affectionate parodies of Night of the Living Dead (1968) (and the whole Zombie Apocalypse genre), Dracula, Misery, and Frankenstein.
- In addition, Sunil's exclamation of the zombie virus being in the pet treats parallels the famous line in Soylent Green that Soylent Green is people.
- Like in "Sweet Pepper," the romantic scene with Blythe and Vlad is based on the Bella Norte scene in Lady and the Tramp.
- Russell dressing like a woman to lure Vlad over to where he can be harmed may be an homage to Bugs Bunny doing similar things in Looney Tunes.
- The destruction of Dr. Sunilenstein's lair plays out very much like Dr. Drakken's lairs in Kim Possible.
- The format of non-canon short stories with a Halloween theme where very strange things happen to the characters may have been taken from The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror" episodes.
- Shown Their Work: When Sunil talks about mongooses having over 40 teeth.
- Subject 101: Russell refers to Vlad's sleeping during the day as "Vampire 101" (that is, this is basic knowledge of vampires).
- Take That!:
- The story about the zombies seems to be one aimed at the rise in pet foods advertised as being all-meat, which is not necessarily the healthiest option for cats and dogs.
- Russell's story and the girls' reactions seems to be one for The Twilight Saga and the like. Reinforced with Blythe talking about being "Team Vlad".
- Roger claims that he deals with worse than monsters every day — he eats airplane food. It's also dissed in Pepper's story.
- Supervillain Lair: Dr. Sunilenstein's castle. Subverted in that Sunil only wants to do good.
- Title Drop: Blythe's scary story contest is called The Littlest Pet Shop of Horrors Story Contest.
- Torches and Pitchforks: Russell, Penny Ling, Pepper, and Zoe form an angry mob holding torches and pitchforks in Sunil's story.
- Tough Room: The girls are unimpressed with Russell's story and pick it apart, way more harshly than Blythe's story.
- The Unreveal: Instead of hearing or seeing Zoe's story, the episode cuts to Roger, leaving the viewer with only the last few parts.
- Theodore Roosevelt: Youngmee dresses up as him, or more precisely, his face on Mount Rushmore.
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Vlad steals the hearts of the four female pets in the day camp, then Blythe. Mrs. Twombly also falls in love with Vlad's owner.
- Vampires Hate Garlic: Russell defends Zoe from Vlad in "Dude Is a Vampire" with a garlic bulb with a huge bite taken out of it.
- Vampire Vords: The way Vlad speaks, naturally.
- Vignette Episode: With a story contest as the framing device.
- Villainous Widow's Peak: As is expected on someone like Vlad.
- "The Villain Sucks" Song: "Dude Is a Vampire".
- The Virus: The cause of the zombies. Sunil traces the source to a brand of pet food everyone was eating, and it's contagious, as Youngmee got infected without eating the pet food.
- Weakened by the Light: Russell defeats Vlad by opening the curtains on the day camp, letting the sunlight in.
- Weirdness Censor: Vlad never attempts to not act like a stereotypical vampire, but he still somehow manages to avoid suspicion from everyone except Russell.
- Wheel o' Feet: Roger as he runs from the man disguised as a werewolf.
- Wingding Eyes: Every girl in the day camp gets hearts for eyes staring at Vlad. Even Blythe.
- Yandere: Penny Ling in Pepper's story.
- Zombie Apocalypse: This happens in the cold open and part of Act 1 due to everyone failing to eat enough fiber.
