In an alternate version of the present, 115-year-old Dr. Klaus Richter (Thomas Morris, Genius) is the founder of Richter Technology, a massive bio-tech, defense and consumer products company. Dr. Richter has managed to live so long thanks to a serum he invented called K7B, which gives him the health of a 75-year-old. Richter Technology has its hands in many areas, even a department of the Army known as Investigation of Ancient War Engine. One of Dr. Richter’s daughters, Angelique (Barbara Nedeljakova, Hostel) has been helping him run the company from its tower in New York City, while his other daughter, Diabla (Eva Habermann, Lexx), has been out in the field, checking on an arctic research team. The scientists have been investigating the resurfacing of an ancient Nazi warship, the Himmelsfaust.

In 1944, Dr. Richter was a Nazi scientist doing biological mutation research, trying to create super-soldiers for the Third Reich. His K7B serum not only prolonged the lives of the living, but could also be used to turn the dead into powerful zombie killing machines. The serum worked even better on zombified women, who turned even angrier and more aggressive than their undead male counterparts. This serum would have given the Nazis an endless army of undead soldiers, almost guaranteeing theit success. And that’s not the only weapon the Nazi’s had in their arsenal. They had also been experimenting with adding jet engines and missiles to living sharks, allowing their undead soldiers to take flight on a deadly new form of transit. Fortunately for the rest of the world, the base used for this research, the Himmelsfaust, was thought to have been destroyed, lost in the arctic and gone forever. However, thanks to global warming, the ice has melted, releasing the warship from its frozen grave, bringing with it this deadly secret from Dr. Richter’s past that now threatens all mankind. Not only is a new army of undead Nazis rising, but their scientists have resumed their research, trying to breed even more deadly Sky Sharks.

So that’s what’s in those water tanks at the Himmelsfaust? Genetically mutated flying Nazi sharks?

The Sky Sharks have already starting wreaking havoc, destroying passenger planes midflight, eating and massacring those on board, and attacking major cities across Europe. After the war, Dr. Richter had defected to the U.S., where his research was used for the side of good, but his actions in the past have always haunted him. He had tried to keep this part of his past hidden, but now he must face it head on. Dr. Richter, his daughters, and an international military task force must figure out how to stop these deadly Sky Sharks and their undead riders before they multiply and bring about a new era for the Third Reich.

If you are looking for a well-written, well-acted film, with award-winning potential, Sky Sharks is certainly not the movie for you. This film is unapologetically a B-movie that doesn’t try to pretend to be something else. It embraces the campiness and ridiculousness of the subject matter, and is so over-the-top with its gratuitous blood, guts and nudity. This is evident right from the film’s cold-open, which finds an odd assortment of airline passengers on their way from Vancouver to Frankfurt when they encounter the viscous and brutal Sky Sharks and their undead riders. The main stars of the film are the actors playing the Richters, played by European actors who will be lesser known to most American audiences. All three of these family members have very different European accents, despite all being related—also, shouldn’t the daughters have grown up in the U.S. after he defected, so why do they even have accents?!

However, there are some recognizable character actors who pop up in the various planes that get attacked. Some of these include Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa playing a drunk cowboy, Robert LaSardo as a reformed L.A. gangbanger turned priest, and Lynn Lowry as his fellow nun Mother Mary. The military task force also includes some recognizable faces, though these actors only interact with one another via video monitors. These characters include Major General Frost (Tony Todd, Candyman), Senator Marjorie Phelps (Amanda Bearse, Married… With Children), and Special Agent Martin Keele (J. LaRose, The Righteous Gemstones) of the FBI.

The film is very bizarrely put together, mixing elements of futuristic sci-fi, slasher/horror, throwback exploitative, and more. And the score is similarly all over the place, from techno to country (but more on that later). My favorite parts of the film were definitely when it took on more of a horror vibe, particularly in the plane attacks. These scenes invoked a lot of your standard, fun horror movie tropes. You meet the rude, unruly passengers, or over-zealous air marshal just before they get gruesomely killed. And it is so over-the-top how some of these deaths are carried out—one sequence would even give the iconic Ghost Ship scene a run for its money. I actually wish more of the film could have been focused on the plight of the passengers, especially those recognizable and underused charactor actors in the cold open—a Zombies on a Plane type film would have been fantastic! It was disappointing to see some of the more recognizable cast so underutilized, like they were just added to help sell the film internationally, even though main focus in on the lesser-known actors.

The film also has a lot of gratuitous sex and nudity. When we first see the arctic station, two of the scientists are severely under-dressed for the weather, having sex in their research lab, when they “interrupted” by an undead Nazi general. However, there is nothing that screams scientist when you first see the female of this pair—porn star or stripper, yes, but not scientist…oh, wait, she is wearing glasses! In another scene, we also get some passengers who decide to join the Mile High Club just before the plane encounters some Sky Sharks.

I found the middle section of the film to be a bit too slow. It flashes back, first to 1945 Prague to find a younger Dr. Richter at work on his research for the Nazis. There is this odd montage set to a “Dogs of War” country song, despite the fact that this part of the film was all in German with English subtitles. And later we get another, though more interesting flashback to 1968 as another military experiment with the zombies, known as “Dead Flesh Four”, is being carried out in Vietnam. Here there is a second country song montage, this time set to “Digging My Own Grave”, apparently from the same series of “Dark Country” albums.

The Blu-ray release provides somewhat solid video and audio presentation. At times, the picture looks a bit pale and washed out, but it seemed like this was a deliberate aesthetic the filmmakers were going for, and not necessarily a deficiency in the presentation. There are lots of bloody special effects as the zombies and Sky Sharks tear their way through the plane fuselages to eat and dismember their victims. These are so over-the-top that I can’t really comment on how realistic they look. The audio track is a little heavy when it comes to the score, sometimes slightly drowning out the dialogue. Though the booming score does help add some excitement and tension to the film. The audio track also makes decent use of the stereo and surround channel to make the chaos on the planes and the Sky Shark attacks feel a bit more immersive. The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard HD keepcase without a slipcover. No digital copy is included, and the bonus material only consists of some trailers. However, following the credits of the film, are the full trailer for Sky Frogs and an ad for Sky Frogs: The Video Game, which could be seen playing on the video screens on the airplane during the cold open.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:42:26)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Subtitles: English, English SDH

Extras:
While there is no real bonus material, following the credits of the film, are the full trailer for Sky Frogs and an ad for Sky Frogs: The Video Game, which could be seen playing on the screens on the airplane during the cold open.

• Trailer (1:02)
• Also Available (6:30)
  Play All, or select from trailers for:
  • Coma (2:16)
  • Attraction 2: Invasion (1:42)
  • Ashfall (1:34)
  • The Closet (:58)

Final Thoughts:

Sky Sharks is a bizarrely entertaining film that has its ups and downs (no pun intented). There is a lot of fun B-movie fodder to be had, with over-the-top gruesome horror elements and gratuitous nudity, plus cameos from some recognizable character actors. At the same time, the acting and writing aren’t the greatest, and there’s a bit of a lull in the middle of the film for some subtitled expository flashbacks. The disc provides a pretty solid presentation but unfortunately doesn’t include any bonus material besides trailers. The movie may make a fun watch for B-movie fans, who want a more R-rated Syfy movie, and are not turned off by ridiculous amounts of fake blood and guts.