Vampire thriller and airplane hostage film Blood Red Sky is out today on Netflix. Directed by Peter Thorwarth, the film stars Peri Baumeister in the lead role and Dominic Purcell as the leader of the hijackers.
“A woman with a mysterious illness is forced into action when a group of terrorists attempt to hijack a transatlantic overnight flight,” reads the official synopsis. “In order to protect her son she will have to reveal a dark secret, and unleash the vampire within that she fought to hide.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Blood Red Sky stars Peri Baumeister and Dominic Purcell about the Netflix release.
Tyler Treese: Dominic, you get to play a very charismatic villain in the film. How fun was it not really being a meathead, you’re a natural leader. You’re quite smart. How fun is it to get into this role with a lot of depth to it?
Dominic Purcell: Thanks, mate. Appreciate that. It’s what I try to do with a lot of the roles that are thrown my way. I’ve always been thrown the enforcer, the tough guy, the antihero. I’m always trying to make him not so one-dimensional. I brought that to this guy. I wanted him to be in control, but yet compassionate. I wanted all of these things to come through. I didn’t want him to be that one-dimensional meathead, as you said. Hopefully, I achieved that.
Peri, despite all the twists and turns that the film takes, it’s ultimately a story about a mother trying to protect her son and provide for him. Can you talk about that human element that really drives the film?
Peri Baumeister: As you said, it is actually what I tried to play to the end. Of course, there’s this moment where she realized she has to release the vampire and her biggest fear to protect him. But I was always trying to [make sure] you still can feel for her and that you’re not losing her as this brutal monster.
Dominic, the movie is quite unique. I’ve certainly never seen a hijacking film quite like it. What element really drew you to this film and this project?
Purcell: The vampire aspect. That’s what separates this film from your typical genre or generic hostage, film, plane, train, boat, whatever. This marries sci-fi with a typical standard hostage drama. It has that interesting hook, that’s what was really compelling and interesting for me.
Peri, your character, as you said, she goes through such a transformation in the film. What was the process like for all the makeup and all the prosthetics to really show that transformation off?
Baumeister: When we started very early, I got four kinds of different very disgusting blue glue on my face, and then two kilos of prosthetics. Then Robin, the makeup artist, started his work. It was one or two hours where he was just painting and every wrinkle and every vein. It’s really like an art form. Then the teeth and the blood and the lenses and the fingernails and the dirt and all the other stuff came on top. But I really liked it. It helped a lot to play and to get into the physical body.
Dominic, a plane is such a limited location, but the film really takes full advantage of it. We still get a lot of action and this script seems more creative because of the constraint of being in a plane. How did you feel about that challenge of filming inside the plane and still telling such a wide-ranging story?
Purcell: Well, the environment dictated what the story was about. So, being confined in close quarters brought realism. We didn’t have to act that claustrophobic. That added obviously to the tension and the drama of the film.
Peri, speaking of the action, how much fun was it getting to film all the super-intense fight scenes in the film?
Baumeister: I was looking so much forward to it because in Germany, it’s not pretty common to have to do action movies film-wise. So, it was very fun working for such a long time with very especially great Czech stunt team and we had a lot of fun.
