by John Zenoni
One of the first vampires to appear in films was in 1922, when ‘Nosferatu’ was released. This was an unauthorized adaptation of Dracula but it's still considered a classic. Well, how many more hundreds of vampire films have been released since then? Too many for me to count and I won’t try to go over any of those in this review. The films featuring vampires have run the gamut from really, really good to really, really bad.
However, one of the latest in the vampire genre is actually pretty good and one of the most original that I've seen in a long time. The film is ‘Blood Red Sky’ on Netflix, which has been in the top 10 since its release and I can understand why. The premise is this - a mother and her son are on a plane headed to New York so she can be treated for her ‘illness’, which we find out later on is actually something else, but unbeknownst to them, the plane is going to be hijacked. When that happens the action begins and it's good!
What I like so much about this film is the fact that the mother is devoted to her son and is doing all she can to rid herself of the curse she was ‘given’ so she's desperate to get to New York for a cure. This is a movie wherein the the main character doesn't embrace or want the curse. The bond between the mother and son seems very genuine in this film and their performances are pretty good, particularly that of the mom, played by German actress Peri Baumeister. The son is played by Carl Anton Koch and he has his good as well as bad moments, which I'll get into later. Another positive for this story is that there isn't a long build up of explaining what the hijackers want to do. You just know they're taking over the plane and are violent and willing to cross the line. One of the terrorists in particular, played by Alexander Scheer, who's outstanding in his role, is a psycho. The other thing I liked was the makeup and special effects. Definitely a different look, in my opinion, of traditional vampires and I especially liked the small details, such as the fact that we're able to see the ears of the vampires twitch ever so slightly when they hear softer noises.
Although there are many positives, there are a also few things that I didn't like about the film. First of all, the son does a very good job in the beginning but then he becomes almost ‘whiny’ just over halfway in the film and it really becomes annoying - at least it grated on my nerves. The other thing is some of the passengers on the plane are annoying as well. One man is so much so that I was actually hoping he would get ‘changed’ and then done away with. Finally, because I'm still not one hundred percent certain that the use of flashbacks telling how the mom became cursed was done effectively, I'm putting that in the negative category. I may change my mind as I reflect on it more.
Overall though, while it's not getting much love from critics, I think this is a very good, unique vampire flick with plenty of blood, gore and action!
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