A Surprising Vampire Movie Is #1 On Netflix
A new vampire movie has taken over Netflix.
This article is more than 2 years old
Most of the time, horror movies are a good watch and a very popular genre. So, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that one particular horror film sits atop Netflix’s most-watched list. What should be a surprise though, is that it’s this particular film. Blood Red Sky arrives on Netflix with no fanfare. It is an action horror film that has a biting premise to go along with a cast with but one recognizable name.
German actress Peri Baumeister (Wetlands) stars as Nadja, a widow traveling to New York via Germany with her young son Elias. Nadja is sick and must travel to New York to visit a doctor who hopefully can treat her illness.
While they are at the airport ready to board, Elias makes friends with another passenger, Farid, while Nadja takes medicine that causes noticeable discomfort.
As the flight gets into the air, a group of men quietly kill the three air marshals on board, while the co-pilot, who’s in on the dirty deeds, sabotages the black box so the flight can’t be tracked.
Their leader Berg (the only recognizable actor in Dominic Purcell from Prison Break fame) announces to the passengers that he and his men are now in control of the plane. He then warns them all to stay put until a ransom is paid.
Elias, scared, tries to hide causing Nadja to go after him. The psychopathic hijacker Eightball sees this and shoots several times. Believing her dead, the hijackers then force Farid to record a statement to make it seems as though terrorists have taken over the plane.
Nadja, though, isn’t dead. She’s actually far from it. As she begins to slowly regain consciousness, she remembers back to how she got her “sickness.” It all started when her husband went for help when their car broke down. When he didn’t return, Nadja went looking for him.
Nadja found her husband. Dead. She was then attacked by his killer, who turned out to be a vampire and not a Twilight-type vampire either. As Nadja was fighting him off, she was able to get him into the sunrise light, burning him to death, but not before he bit her.
As Nadja is making her getaway, she is confronted by an elderly vampire who now wishes her dead for killing his son. Nadja is able to best him too, also taking vials of vampire suppressant.
Back to the present, Nadja has made her way to the cargo hold where she removes her dentures and contacts she’d been wearing to conceal her mutated eyes and vampire fangs. Fully transformed, Nadja attempts to find her son and gain control of the plane.
Nadja and Farid work together to take back the plane. They succeed only to have Nadja face off against Berg. Nadja overpowers him, biting him, then using a knife to kill him before he can transform into a vampire.
The hijackers now know what they are dealing with and task Eightball with killing her for good. He uses UV light to corner Nadja while extracting her blood. Right as he is about to stake her, Elias appears with Berg’s gun to shoot out a window, depressurizing the plane.
The remaining hijackers take back the cockpit and restore cabin pressure while the crazy Eightball injects himself with Nadja’s blood, turning himself into a vampire. Eightball, now fully fanged, begins to turn the rest of the passengers into vampires. It also doesn’t help to know that the hijackers rigged the plane with explosives.
The battle between good vampires and bad begins with Elias and Farid stuck in the middle. When the plane finally lands, authorities don’t believe the two and board the plane looking for survivors. Elias, knowing what his mother is and what else is on the plane, does the only thing he can. He picks up the detonator for the explosives.
Netflix’s Blood Red Sky was directed by Peter Thorwarth, who also co-wrote the film with Stefan Holtz. The film is part of Netflix’s earlier pledge to release at least one new film a week for the entire year, which they are well on their way to doing.
While Blood Red Sky may not completely set itself up for a follow-up feature, the surprising critical success, along with the fact the movie has shot to number one on the streaming service, it’s a story about vampires. There are always ways to bring them back.
The overall critical consensus says Blood Red Sky is a lot more fun than it should be with Randy Myers from the San Jose Mercury News stating, “Director/co-writer Peter Thorwarth splatters the screen with gore while tossing in surprises, delirious preposterousness and even a few touching moments. It’s grand fun.”
So, if you’re in the mood for a vampire story with some interesting twists, Blood Red Sky should do it for you. Head on over to Netflix and sink your teeth into it. Then, let us know how it tastes.
