The Devil Made Him Do It

Having Jesse Ventura as your governor is one thing. But a cloak-wearing vampire and Satanic priest?

In January 2006, Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, a former wrestler himself, announced that he was running for governor of Minnesota. On the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans ticket, naturally.

And practitioner of dark arts or not, he announced, there would be no abiding by evil in the Sharkey administration, oh no; his platform called for publicly impaling terrorists and drug dealers. Oh yeah, and there would also be farm aid and better schools.

Needless to say, this candidacy became an international incident.

“Impaler” is W. Tray White’s new, full-length documentary about the brief candidacy of the vampire politician, who didn’t let others dig up the skeletons in his closet so much as put all his blood-sucking, God-rejecting ways out there for the world to see. In the film, shot over eight months, Sharkey’s wife, family and others offer glimpses into the enigma that is Sharkey.

The doc (which, to be perfectly fair, was deemed meandering by the Minneapolis Star Tribune) caught the eye of the folks over at the University of Maryland’s Hoff Theater, which has picked it up for a multi-screening run.

It kicks off with a special showing tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. with filmmaker White on hand. And on Oct. 5, Sharkey himself will visit the theater for a talk.

So what happened to the Vampire Who Would be Governor?

With the glare of the spotlight bearing down, Sharkey’s wife, Julie, lost her job.

And within three weeks of the campaign’s launch, Indiana authorities recognized Sharkey as the same fella wanted there on warrants accusing him of escape and stalking a former girlfriend. What happens next is bizarre. Even for a vampire movie.

$5; U-Md. students, $4. Hoff Theater, Stamp Student Union, Campus and Union drives, College Park. 301-405-0569. For a schedule of screenings, visit http://www.union.umd.edu/hoff.

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