Designers at Škoda Auto have unveiled a bold reinterpretation of one of the most distinctive vehicles in Czech cinematic history: the Ferat car from the 1981 horror film Ferat Vampire (Upír z Feratu). This newly imagined concept, created as part of the Czech automaker’s Icons Get a Makeover series, fuses the eerie atmosphere of the original with the company’s current Modern Solid design language.
Designed as an electric concept vehicle rather than a production model, the reimagined Ferat is the work of Škoda designers Giuseppe Campo and Stanislav Sabo. The pair were drawn to the project by its unique blend of film heritage and bold visual storytelling. The result is a sleek, stylized homage to a car that once symbolized cinematic mystery—and literal bloodlust.
Revisiting a horror icon through design
The original Skoda Ferat was created specifically for director Juraj Herz‘s horror film Ferat Vampire, based on the short story Upír Ltd. (Vampire Ltd.) by science fiction writer Josef Nesvadba. The movie tells the story of a mysterious foreign company whose racing cars appear to drain the blood of their drivers, causing anemia and addiction-like behavior among those who drive them.
The filmmakers started with a Škoda 110 Super Sport prototype, a unique sports car built in 1971 that never entered production. Czech painter and graphic artist Theodor Pištěk, who would later win an Academy Award for costume design on Amadeus, redesigned the car’s appearance for the film. Under his direction, the vehicle received a distinctive black paint job, new front and rear lights, and a massive rear spoiler that gave it an unmistakably menacing appearance.
The car’s most memorable scene involved a nightmare sequence where the protagonist looks under the hood and nearly gets consumed by the vehicle. For this sequence, Herz enlisted the help of renowned stop-motion animator and special effects artist Jan Švankmajer, who would later become internationally famous for his surrealist films.
Working within the constraints of his early career at Barrandov Studio, Švankmajer visited Prague slaughterhouses to collect hearts, livers, stomachs and blood vessels that resembled motor hoses. He created a mechanical system that made the organs move like living tissue while blood was pumped through the accelerator pedal, creating the illusion that the car was literally feeding on its driver.
Though heavily stylized, the film was less a traditional horror story than a dark satire. Herz himself described it as a “film about irrational automotive obsession” and a critique of how cars had become idolized in modern society. The movie maintained a level of ambiguity—never fully confirming whether the Ferat car was actually powered by blood or merely the product of the protagonist’s paranoid delusion.
From horror to electric elegance
More than 40 years later, designers Campo and Sabo set out to reinterpret the Ferat with a futuristic lens. Campo, who oversaw the exterior design, sought to retain the dark, ominous aesthetic of the original. “I tried to capture the feeling of something mysterious, slightly dangerous, and striking, emerging from the darkness,” he said. The car’s silhouette preserves the wedge shape that defined the prototype’s aerodynamic profile, a design feature both men gravitated toward independently.
In place of the oversized rear spoiler, the modern Ferat sports rear fins—an homage that maintains visual aggression without retro excess. The windshield ends in a red line, which separates it from a roof section that now tilts backward, subtly nodding to the original’s unconventional cabin entry. The sharp lines and glowing red elements across the body evoke the menacing tone of the film, while modernizing its form with electric vehicle sensibilities.
Inside, Sabo’s interior design embraces immersion. “The interior is meant to literally engulf the crew,” he said, describing a space defined by sweeping lines, a floating dashboard, and monolithic seats integrated into the structure itself. A red-light strip running through the center tunnel doubles as a battery-level indicator, reinforcing the car’s electric concept. In contrast to the blood-fueled mythos of its predecessor, this Ferat is powered by the grid.
Both designers emphasized that their concept, while fantastical, is rooted in real automotive design. Their collaboration, involving 3D modeling and iterative feedback over several weeks, ensured a cohesive final product that balances form and function while paying tribute to Škoda’s unconventional cinematic past.
Though it was only one of two films classified as horror in Herz’s oeuvre, Ferat Vampire has achieved cult status that makes it a favorite more than four decades later. With its unsettling tone, ironic distance from genre norms, and curious blend of horror and social commentary, the film has had enduring impact—even from horror fans outside Czechia. Released in West Germany under the title Der Autovampir, it was broadcast by ZDF in 1985 and remains a classic of 1980s European horror cinema.
The car itself remains a pivotal symbol of the film’s themes. More than just a menacing prop, the Ferat represents obsession, speed, and the darker side of modernity’s romance with machines. In classic horror, the monster is often human or beast; in Ferat Vampire, it’s a vehicle. The ambiguity around the car’s vampiric nature—whether a supernatural entity or an embodiment of consumerist addiction—makes it a fitting subject for reinterpretation in an era increasingly defined by automation and energy transition.
