"Blood Red Sky" an intense high-concept thriller that's never schlocky
Blood Red Sky (2021) Netflix’s latest foreign horror entry, “Blood Red Sky,” has a killer logline: terrorists on a plane have their plans foiled by a vampire. Just imagine if John McClane was that vampire. Director Peter Thorwarth (who co-wrote the script with Stefan Holtz) surprises by hiding his hand for a while and then bringing unexpected doses of humanity when an alternate version of this script might have been SyFy-ready schlock called “Bloodsucker on a Plane.” As it stands, this mid-budget action-horror film out of Germany uses its high-concept premise to the fullest and plays it out as seriously as a punctured artery in the neck. It’s fun without being cheesy. Nadja (Peri Baumeister) and her 10-year-old son Elias (Carl Anton Koch) board a transatlantic flight from Germany to New York. She’s battling some kind of illness, having to wear sunglasses in the well-lit airport, and hoping to find treatment in the states by American doctors. Once the plane is over the Atla...