Flight Transatlantic 473 approaches a military base on the Scottish coast in thick fog.

In the tower, an air traffic controller in camouflage uniform gives the man in the cockpit radio instructions for landing.

Switch off the autopilot, put both feet on the brakes.

The machine slips over the runway and comes to a stop with glowing tires.

A boy rappels out of the cargo hatch and looks at the approaching military vehicles.

He is holding a teddy bear in his hand.

Anna Schiller

Volunteer.

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What have film characters not already endured in airplanes? In the classic of the genre, "Snakes on a Plane", Samuel L. Jackson fights against poisonous snakes that afflict passengers and crew. In “Flightplan”, Jodie Foster scours a machine in search of her daughter. And as President of the United States, Harrison Ford frees Air Force One from the violence of Russian terrorists. Netflix is ​​now adding a curious mix of these stories to the genre: The German-English film "Blood Red Sky" combines bloodthirsty vampires, mother-child drama and a plane hijacking into a slightly overloaded horror chamber play above the clouds.

In flashbacks, the viewer learns why a abstinent vampire is boarding a fully occupied plane, of all places. Nadja (Peri Baumeister), a single mother, travels with her son Elias (Carl Koch) from Germany to America so that a specialist there can take care of her addiction. After a vampire attack that cost her husband his life and from which she emerged with a bite wound, Nadja craves the blood of her fellow human beings.

However, she renounces cannibalism and relies, as humane vampires do (Wesley Snipes from "Blade" sends his regards), on blood. Nadja's way of life presents the relationship between mother and son, surprisingly good for a childhood in dark isolation, but with challenges. The trip to the United States is her last chance for a better life. But the plane is hijacked by terrorists. After all, in order to save her son, she has to unleash what she is actually trying to suppress for his sake.

Peter Thorwarth, who also directed, said in an interview with the FAZ that the idea for the script came to him while flying: “I looked out the window, it was dark, and then I thought to myself: 'If you can now If you are a vampire, you actually have to organize a night flight. What could happen there? '“Much that the viewer of airplane films already knows: There is a pressure drop, the oxygen masks fall from the ceiling. Serving trolleys roll through the aisles. Someone calls for a doctor. Pilot and stewardess are flirting with each other.

But some of Thorwarth's ideas have not yet been seen. For example, the viewer does not find out the exact reason for the kidnapping. The protagonists also speculate. This narrative thread alone would provide enough material for a search for perpetrators like the “Orient Express”. The story, however, is largely concerned with violent conflicts. Blood splatters on the walls and seat cushions. The camera zooms in close to the figures as they squeeze through a maze of freight boxes and cable ducts. It pays to film in a retired aircraft.