Blood Red SkyPits a Vampire Against Hijackers and Almost Lives Up to That Killer Concept

Blood Red Sky begins with a frame of reference story — an aircraft make a rickety landing place in Scotland as military personnel gather below — before introducing us to a mother and Logos get up to trip from Germany to New York . She ’s plain gravely inauspicious and hope that a specialist in America can bring around her . However , as anyone who’sseen the traileror even read the movie ’s threatening title can guess , this journey is run short to getcomplicated . Horrifically complicated .

At two hour , lineage Red Sky is overly drawn-out . This becomes more obvious as the moving-picture show drags on , but it does n’t squander any time get to its first freehanded story pulse , as highjacker take control of the planing machine and set it on a new path . The hijackers all form of blend together , except for the hulking yet reasonable guy played byLegends of Tomorrow ’s Dominic Purcell , and the “ gravely , how did nobody vet this trigger - glad maniac ? ” hombre played by veteran German actor Alexander Scheer . Their criminal motivations are never quite explicate , which is easy enough to let sloping trough in the name of MacGuffin ; really , they ’re only part of the motion picture because we need a intellect for Nadja ( Peri Baumeister ) to reveal the sickness that ’s inspired her to nervously room this overnight flight ( a traveling decisiveness that ’s reminiscent ofOnly Lovers Left Alive , a very different film in the same genre ): she’sa vampire ! Specifically , a self - loathe lamia who believes she ’s evil . Though she craves bloodline as all vampires do , she ’s dictated not to pass that immorality along to anyone else .

Since Nadja ’s condition has been heavy foreshadowed , it ’s exciting anticipating the moment when she ’ll show her unfeigned face and start campaign back against well - armed thugs who are n’t just jeopardize the aliveness of her son , Elias ( Carl Anton Koch ) , but a sheet full of innocent passengers . Those passenger include Farid ( Kais Setti ) , a physicist who befriends Elias , and a few notables like a snobby asshole who harass the flight attendant . Most , though , are voiceless to distinguish — this is a jamming - pack transatlantic trajectory , after all . Still , there ’s a certain amount of social class divide that emerges as chaos begin to establish , similar to what happens when the zombie eruption begins inTrain to Busan .

Don’t make her angry. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.

Don’t make her angry. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.Image: Netflix

While stock Red Sky is clearly a vampire fib — we get the backstory on how Nadja became infected , and there ’s the expected aversion to sunlight , the magical healing force , the sprouting of fang , etc.—at times it does have a zombie movie feel . Director Peter Thorwarth , who co - write with Stefan Holtz ( the original idea come to Thorwarth while on an overnight trajectory from Europe to the U.S. ) sagely makes usage of every conceivable inch of the plane set , with the cockpit , the cargo hold , the various cabin , and even the bathrooms help to make things feel appropriately claustrophobic — but not too limit in damage of the amount of running , hiding , chasing , and brawling necessary to do the story .

If all of this voice potentially campy , it ’s not ; Blood Red Sky is act mostly direct , though there is one outstanding moment when Farid points out that they ca n’t convey the real situation aboard to the waiting war machine on the ground , because , well , who ’s gon na believe an account need vampire ? Most of the surprisingly serious tone come good manners of the relationship between Nadja and Elias ; Baumeister gives a boisterous , strong-arm execution , but also manages to make sobbing while in full lamia make - up ( lineage - sop , no haircloth , pointy ears , pointier teeth ) feel authentically moving . On the other mitt , Elias is one of those shaver characters define by his ingeminate unfitness to obey his mother and other adults ( even in life - or - expiry situations when there are , like , induction - glad hijackers and thirsty vampires running wild ) ; this helps actuate the plot but sure form the kid come off as kinda bratty .

If line Red Sky sometimes gets too catch up in angst , at least it tries to make the viewer invested in Nadja ’s plight . The movie also squeezes in a little commentary about xenophobia and racism when Farid and a smattering of other passengers actualize they ’ve been singled out as scapegoat by the hijackers because they fall out to be Arab and/or Muslim . ( The fact that police enforcement immediately buys into this stereotype is both depressing and belike precise . ) But mostly this is a beast feature article through and through , bundled with a routine of wishing - fulfillment — who among us would n’t want to suddenly let out badass supernatural powers to a bunch of pitiless hijackers , mugger , ruffian , cat - callers , whoever — that unfortunately does n’t lead to a completely comforting resultant . It is , however , as ghastly and gory as a movie about vampires ripping out pharynx on a hijacked aeroplane ought to be .

Dominic Purcell is good at those “I’m a villain but also still a decent enough guy” character types.