June 4: Junesploitation’s topic of the day — as suggested by F This Movie— is Cars! We’re excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what’s next.

The Ferat rally car used in the film wasa prototype for the Škoda 110 Super Sport, which is now known as the Škoda Super Sport Ferat Vampir RSR because of this movie. The car is so famous in Czechoslovakia that Škoda remade it as part of their Icons Get a Makeover series.

This was directed by Juraj Herz, who also made the must-see films Morgiana and The Ninth Heart. He also wrote this with Jan Fleischer. It was based on “Upír Ltd.” by Josef Nesvadba. Another movie based on that writer’s work, Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea, also has the Škoda Super Sport Ferat Vampir RSR in it. That movie is a science fiction film about the Third Reich trying to go back in time to give Hitler a nuke and the twin of the pilot of the time machine — who choked to death on a croissant — trying to stop them.

Dr Marek (Jirí Menzel) loses his driver Mima (Dagmar Havlová) — who he obviously has feelings for — to the Ferat team, which has developed a car that just may be fueled by human plasma through the lead foot of the driver.

The real vampire is the Ferat company, which sucks the blood of all who work for it. Or, well, uses them and throws them away, like any big corporation. The car is also a vampire in a way that may not be about blood. Once driven, it obsesses everyone that has felt its power.

I love that Juraj Herz is the vampire in the silent movie within this film, just as much as how Ferat is taken from Nosferantu and Mimi is very close to Mina Harker.