Ferat Vampire aka Upír z Feratu (the name is a pun on Upír Nosferatu, or Nosferatu the Vampire) is a 1981 Czechoslovak horror feature film directed by Juraj Herz (The Cremator).
Doctor Marek (Jiří Menzel) is shocked when his beloved nurse, Mima (Dagmar Veškrnová), signs a contract with foreign car manufacturer Ferat to work as a rally-driver. Rumours abound that the Ferat sports car runs not on petrol, but on human blood.
Reviews:
“Highlights include the hand-drawn opening credits, the brooding industrial soundtrack and a delightfully gory dream sequence. Herz admits that the best scenes were all destroyed by the censors.” Film Walrus Reviews
“Akin to the paranoid thrillers that littered the cinematic landscape of the 1970s, with, of course, a touch of David Cronenberg thrown in there for good measure, Ferat Vampire is many things: A horror film with science fiction overtones. A satire of mindless consumerism. But it’s also an attack on driving. Think about it. Driving is one the most unnatural activities the human body partakes in during the modern era.” House of Self Indulgence
” …this is about the corporation, embodied in Madam Ferat, and how it sucks its employees dry, how it manipulates the press and how it cares about nothing but getting its own way. […] This was a fascinating, highly politicised film. It used the vampire as metaphor more than anything else.” Andy Boylan, Taliesin Meets the Vampires
Cast and characters:
Jiří Menzel … Doctor Marek
Dagmar Veškrnová … Mima
Jana Břežková … Luisa / Klára
Petr Čepek … Kříž
Jan Schmid … Doctor Kaplan
Zdenka Procházková … Madame Ferat
Film Facts:
The Ferat rally car used in the film was a prototype for an unrealised sports model Škoda 110 SuperSport produced by Škoda Auto, now generally referred to as the Škoda Super Sport ‘Ferat Vampir RSR’ in homage to the film.
