Vampires & The Surreal: The
Surrealist Devices That Fuel
Vampirism
From Valerie to Orange Blood
Eliška Belejová
Yu, K. G. (2023) Orange Blood
Available at https://youtu.be/LqxMyWLZtwM
If I say “surreal” , what comes to your mind? A daydream? A feverish nightmare of
blood lusting Vampires? This research will attempt to identify the surrealist
devices that aid the vampire genre, bridging the gap between the world of
Vampires and the realm of The Surreal.
, So what is Surrealism?
Escapism for the Czechoslovak New-Wave Filmmakers
Born among the ideas of modernism, the surrealist movement is an avant-garde
style form artists used to depict what lies at the core of our imaginations, our
imagination itself. Though it also made its way to the land of nightmares. Noted for
its dreamy visuals complete with a hazy and faded finish, often glowing and
ethereal, surrealism conveys the unusual, strange and everything that lies beyond
common sense, combining an infusion of madness with what exists beyond the
real world; a movement that is directed by the wildest thoughts of the human
psyche which directly dismisses the concept of realism.
“Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express - -
verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual
functioning of thought. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any
control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.”
Breton, A. (1924)
Chytilová, V. (1970) Fruits of Paradise
Available at https://hero-magazine.com/article/189560/vera-chytilova
The Czechoslovak surrealist movement was driven underground twice: by Nazi’s in
1939 and by the Communists in 1948. (The Courtauld, 2024) When surrealism