Action-thrillers set on airplanes have been their own sub-genre for generations: Zero Hour, Turbulence, Passenger 57, Air Force One, Snakes on a Plane, the list goes on and on. The latest entry in the pantheon of exciting movies set on planes, Blood Red Sky, features a distinctly high-concept premise. Peri Baumeister stars as Nadja, a single mother on an international flight that gets taken over by terrorists led by Dominic Purcell. Their fearsome hijacking sets the stage for a straightforward thriller, but this is no ordinary action flick. Nadja has a secret: she's a blood-sucking vampire, an immortal infected who will do anything, and kill anyone, in order to protect her son.
Blood Red Sky takes its time before it starts revving up, but once the excitement begins, it never lets up. The melding of horror with action and thriller elements could have been played for tongue-in-cheek comedy, but director Peter Thorwarth plays it straight. When her vampirism reveals itself, Nadja is more Nosferatu than Lugosi, striking fear with her ghoulish makeup and wiry frame. The result is a genre film that takes itself seriously enough to fully engross the audience in its audacious premise.
While promoting the release of Blood Red Sky on Netflix, Peri Baumeister and Dominic Purcell spoke to Screen Rant about their work on the film. Dominic praises Peri for her performance, while she explains how developments in her own life helped her to play this complex, feral, righteous heroine. She also laments the strenuous makeup she was forced to endure for the sake of the art while Purcell reminisced about his own tenure as a vampire in 2004's Blade: Trinity.
Screen Rant: Hey! I just saw your movie! I just finished it, like, ten minutes before I went on the Zoom call, so... The hairs on my arm are standing up, I'm very excited.
Dominic Purcell: Right!
This is a concept that, if they wanted to, could be done very tongue in cheek or comedic. But once the throttle gets hit, or whatever, I'm proving I don't know anything about motorcycles, it just never lets up. It's in full survival mode the whole time. How did you keep that momentum on set?
Dominic Purcell: I think that's one for Peri. Peri's performance in this is the lightning rod of the film. Her performance was extraordinary. She is, as I said, the driving force of the film. She made it not comedic, not lending itself to cliched performance. She's a really unique, wonderful talent. But that question has to be directed to her, she's the boss of this film!
How did you keep the blood pumping, so to speak, Peri?
Peri Baumeister: I don't know... Actually, when I came home, I think I came home a total bruise. I needed some weeks to recover and feel what happened, because it was a lot. I think it was my mother heart. I am a mom, too. It helped a lot, you know? I've never experienced such a fear as the moment when I became a mother, this fear that my child might get hurt, that drives me. It's driving the character, as well. There's this one part, and then there are a lot of things I never did before, and this creates a lot of energy. I had to jump on burning cars and had to shoot and do so many things that I've never done, and I was scared about it! And I used my being scared for the character. Yeah, I think a lot of things like that happened to me, and then to the character as well.
Sure! Your vampire makeup is terrifying. It's very scary, and it's got teeth.
Peri Baumeister: Yes.
And for me, just in my head, the idea of having prosthetic teeth inside my mouth just makes me very queasy! Was that a challenge?
Peri Baumeister: This is so fun that you asked that question. I would have never thought that this is one of the worst of all these things I had to do. I had lenses around my eye, I had blood that tasted like pure sugar. But the teeth, with this glue on it... I'd rather be a grandmother without any teeth than putting these teeth again in my mouth, I swear to God! This was so horrible! So, yes. There are some distracting things on my body, but actually, it helped a lot with acting.
Did you get used to it as it went on?
Peri Baumeister: No, never. It was summer, you know? I was sweating. At some point, Robin, my makeup artist... The makeup was done by Mark Coulier, Oscar-winning wonderful makeup designer. And Robin was taking care of my makeup. At some point, there was a big sweat bubble on my head, and I was not knowing it. And he came and said, "I have to cut your head." And then he had to cut my head and all the sweat was running in my eyes and everything. There was a lot of things going on with the masks, but it's... I think, for me, it's a pure art form. Without them, the movie would not be the movie as it is now.
Dominic, I know you had to do teeth and eyes back in Blade. Do you wake up in the middle of the night, screaming about the glue, or was it not as bad for you?
Dominic Purcell: It wasn't as bad for me. I do remember the eye contacts just scratching, they just sort of rip your eyes out. And performing with the contacts, I didn't have much peripheral, so it's just all... But no, I don't ever want to go back to being a vampire again, forget it!
Even the idea of wearing regular contacts for me just freaks me out! I have friends who wear contacts, and when I see them put them in, I have to look away! Maybe I'm just a wuss.
Dominic Purcell: It's a trip, for sure.
Okay, last question. Tell me about playing inside this airplane set. Tell me about this constrained tube. What do you have to change, what do you have to work on when you're acting in that kind of space where it's more visually two-dimensional, especially in the long hallways. Is there a different sense of space?
Dominic Purcell: No, it is the space we're playing in. It's a plane. This thing was built. The scale of the plane is the scale of the real-sized plane. Excuse my roundabout way of saying that. But the dimensions and the close quarters just add to the drama of what we're doing. So there is no acting. We're really squeezed and squashed. The camera guy's right here, and it's right in your face and... That adds to the drama of the film.
Blood Red Sky premieres on Netflix on July 23.
Key Release Dates
-
Blood Red Sky
Release Date:2021-07-23
