1982 - FERAT VAMPIRE, aka UPIR Z FERATU, the vampire car movie

Well here's a plot you don't see everyday.  A race car company has developed a car that runs on human blood.  A doctor suspecting something is not right tries to get to the bottom of this unusual situation.  This leads him into a conspiracy where the automobile company that has developed the car now wants to market and sell it around the world.

The director Juraj Herz really plays up the horror elements of the story but he also seems to be making some sort of statement about the need for human kind to commit suicide by getting into a moving four wheel machine and driving faster and faster until it finally kills him or someone else.

 

Unlike the previous Herz film I viewed Beauty and the Beast, which had a lot of atmospheric gloom and doom, much of Ferat Vampire takes place in the daylight and is set in contemporary Czechoslovakia to emphasize the modern horror of the situation.

 

Does Ferat Vampire succeed as a horror film or a commentary on people's fascination with killing themselves in fast cars?  I have no idea.  However one thing you can be sure of is that this is certainly a journey into weirdo film world. I know there have been other possessed automobile films like The Car and Christine, but Ferat Vampire definitely has a tire up in the evil jalopy story sweepstakes.

The film was written by Jan Fleischer and Juraj Herz, the running time is 90 minutes.

1978 - BEAUTY AND THE BEAST aka THE VIRGIN AND THE MONSTER

There have been many versions of Beauty and the Beast with Jean Cocteau's film and the Disney animated feature probably the best known adaptations of this story.  From Czechoslovakia comes this fascinating version.

The emphasis is on horror and is it ever on horror with the love story almost relegated to a next to nothing subplot.  The story is still basically the same with the daughter of a merchant substituting for her father after he violates the home of a mysterious creature living in a creepy rundown castle.   If you are looking for a Beauty and the Beast film with singing dishware you better skip over this one.  An atmosphere of decay and ruin runs through the film.  In fact the Beast is haunted by voices in his head telling him to kill Beauty a nice creepy touch.

 

The film opens with the slaughter of the Merchant's wagon train by some bandits and the killing of a woman by the Beast.  The story then moves to a not very merry medieval village where we get to watch animals being slaughtered for a wedding in a town that is one big muddy disgusting mess.  The cinematography compliments the setting with lots of gloomy and foggy night photography.

 

This version of Beauty and the Beast was directed by Juraj Herz who was associated with the "Czech New Wave." A horror film version of this old narrative war horse was an interesting approach to a frequently adapted story and definitely worth a look.

The film was written by Pavla Marková, the running time is a spooky 91 minutes.