Programmes featuring the immortal Count Homogenized are among the most-requested by visitors to NZ On Screen. Homogenized - a vampire with a white afro and cape and a lust for milk - made his debut in this children's show, ultimately going on to star in his own series. In this early episode the Count turns up at Major Toom's haunted house on his unending search for bovine liquid sustenance, and befriends Toom over some wine. Shark in the Park actor Russell Smith's mischievous Count has lodged itself in the hearts of many Kiwis of a certain vintage.

Long before he became the stuff of nostalgia and t-shirts, Count Homogenized debuted on this pilot episode of A Haunting We Will Go. Made in 1977 but unscreened till 1979, this pilot follows Major Tooms and his long-suffering butler as they take the audience on an extended tour of their haunted house. In the second half, scene-stealing Homogenized (Russell Smith) appears, a vampire whose raison d'etre - an endless quest for milk - proves as ridiculous as it is delightful.

Haunting Douglas is a documentary portrait of dancer and choreographer Douglas Wright. It weaves interviews with footage of past performances, and extracts from his autobiography; from drug addiction and illness, to determination and triumph on the New York stage with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Award-winning director Leanne Pooley captures Wright's resilience: "I need to make things to feel that I can cope with whatever reality is. For me, dancing, performing for people, is the ultimate mystery and the ultimate joy." Wright passed away in November 2018.

Based on a classic novel by Margaret Mahy, The Haunting of Barney Palmer is a fantasy about a young boy who is haunted by his great uncle. Young Barney fears that he has inherited the Scholar family curse; a suite of 80s-era effects ramp up the supernatural suspense. The TV movie was a co-production between PBS (United States) and Wellington's Gibson Group. American actor Ned Beatty (Deliverance, Network) was part of the cast. Mahy based it on her Carnegie Award-winning novel The Haunting; it marked an early fruitful collaboration between her and director Yvonne Mackay.

This animated series follows the adventures of Tamatoa, his cousin Moana and their animal mates Manu the moa, Moko the tuatara and Kereru the kereru. In this episode Tamatoa sets out with Moko and Kereru after his uncle tells him about an island where the pipi grow "as big as flax bushes", and the kina are bigger than his appetite. They arrive in search of giant kaimoana and stumble upon an army of giant hermit crabs ... it seems Tamatoa may have bitten off more than he can chew. Set in pre-colonial times, the series was made by Auckland company Flux Animation.

Featuring a rare star turn by stand-up comedian Raybon Kan (who also co-wrote the script), Diagnosis: Death is a genre-stretching tale of oddball nurses, haunted hospitals and bedside romance. Kan plays a cynical teacher sharing a hospital ward with a young student (Jessica Grace Smith), after both are diagnosed with cancer. Trapped in the ward during an experimental drug trial, the duo investigate a strange case of haunting. Shot specifically for DVD, Jason Stutter's second feature also features cameos by Conchords Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, and Rhys Darby.

Roughly four years after debuting on A Haunting We Will Go, Count Homogenized made a memorable re-entrance in his own series. This fifth episode has the simplicity of a good cartoon: disguised as a movable charity bin, the vampire endeavours to trick or talk his way past the local dairy owners, on his endless mission to make it to the milk supplies. Aside from Russell Smith in full comic flight as the Count, Lynda Milligan takes the New Zild accent in dramatic new directions as no-nonsense shopkeeper Rhonda Dearsley.

“In the dark and scary depths of a subway, one young man finds fear has a new name: FIZZ.” Jemaine Clement (pre-Flight of the Conchords fame) is the young man who faces up to a sentient soda machine in this short from Jason Stutter. Made for $2000 and filmed over two wintry Wellington nights, Fizz screened at festivals including Locarno, New York, and Clermont-Ferrand. Stutter would successfully repeat the combo of dark wit and dangerous appliance in his Careful with that … series; Clement starred in Stutter’s debut feature Tongan Ninja (2002).

Anthropologist Max Scarry goes missing in Fiordland, while searching for a fabled Māori tribe. The local policeman believes Max broke local tapu. Max's partner Ruth sets off with his twin brother, murder suspect Edward, to try to unravel the mystery. John Laing's second feature attempts an ambitious Hitchcockian plot, and the cast — especially John Bach's terse doppelganger performance — testifies to the talent on hand in the early days of the Kiwi film renaissance. Atmospheric camerawork makes the most of damp Wellington, and remote bush settings.

Filmmaking team Jason Stutter and Kevin Stevens plunge back into the paranormal with this feature, which sees three investigators arriving at a rundown farmhouse, to discover just how haunted it really is. The ghost hunters are played by screen veteran Jeffrey Thomas (Mercy Peak), Jed Brophy (The Hobbit) and Laura Petersen (Shopping). The Dead Room’s Halloween release saw a perfect storm of publicity, from a contest involving a special app which allowed contestants to photograph ghosts, to a video blogger who claimed to have tracked down the house where the movie was filmed.