Blood Red Sky

The last time Dominic Purcell was in a vampire film the result was the absolutely execrable Blade Trinity, a film that couldn't even be saved by the combination of Parker Posey and a blood sucking Pomerian. This time around he's the most famous face in Blood Red Sky, a new UK/German action horror from Netflix. It's a better film but not because of anything he does, even if it is funny watching him slowly morphing into Vin Diesel.

Blood Red Sky is the type of film most won't even give a chance to because it's a Netflix original. Yeah, Netflix original, two words that tend to strike horror into the heart of people, but every now and then they actually turn out to be ok. Sometimes they're even fun. That's exactly how I'd describe Blood Red Sky. It's fun. Sadly it's also about 20 minutes too long though and that's it's biggest failing. Way too many modern films use the Fabula and Syuzhet structure (showing the end of the film at the beginning) and assume it's going to hook us into the story instead of having the confidence to let the story and it's characters grip us as it builds. Blood Red Sky may be a horror but at it's heart it's the story of a mother and son and they work well enough together to excuse the need for any extraneous build up.

Nadja (Peri Baumeister) and her son Elias (Carl Anton Koch) are on their way to the US of A from Germany so she can avail of treatment to restore her back to the woman she once was. On their way across Europe their plane is taken over by terrorists led by Dominic Purcell's Berg and Karl (Roland Møller) who viciously wipe out the air marshalls on board and then demand a ransom from the authorities using the passengers as a bargaining tool. Nadja realises the only chance she has of saving her son is to unleash the vampiric secret she's been hiding from him and the others around her. It's time for a showdown between fangs and bullets. Let's see who'll win.

Well, we all know who'll win but we'll have a bit of fun seeing how it happens. There's an early kill during the initial plane takeover that may have people reaching for the off button but for most of it's running time Blood Red Sky is pretty user friendly, feeling like Passenger 57 with added bloodsucking and no Elizabeth Hurley. It gets surprising mileage out of it's cramped locations and has fun finding it's cast members new and novel places to hide away from the supernatural entity stalking the plane. It's creature effects are well realised and actually quite unsettling but the best thing about it all is it's central pairing of Nadja and Elias, a mother and son who feel like they belong together. Peri Baumeister does well as a woman who's maternal instinct is in constant battle with her thirst for blood and watching her doing whatever she can to keep her son safe gives us a couple of surprisingly effective moments. It gives Blood Red Sky is own little spin on vampiric lore too. The turn is instanteous but the infection doesn't turn you evil straight away. I think Bram Stoker would have liked that angle.

Blood Red Sky is streaming on Netflix now. Unnecessary framing devices aside it's not a bad genre piece at all with effective turns from Peri Baumeister and Carl Anton Koch saving the day. 

BTW, if you do watch this watch the original audio version. The dubbing over the German language parts is dreadful.