Guillermo del Toro, the man who mesmerised us with Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and Pacific Rim, has changed the face of the vampire-horror genre with The Strain, writes Debashine Thangevelo
GUILLERMO del Toro’s The Strain has pleasantly ambushed TV fanatics with an ingeniously crafted approach to the vampire-horror genre.
The genre has long evolved from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That long-running TV series has certainly nailed the ball park marks of success, ranking second on Empire’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, voted third in 2004 and 2007 on TV Guide’s Top Cult Shows Ever and got Time magazine’s nod for 100 Best TV Shows of All Time.
Now, I can’t take away from such reverence. Back in the late ’90s, Joss Whedon had a Godfather-esque hold on viewers.
Then again, that was an era predating HD viewing, HDDs and online streaming networks like Netflix. Much has changed since. These days The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Being Human, The Originals, Supernatural and other shows of the same ilk have been satiating appetites.
Aside from the layered storytelling, these series have also proved to be a buffet of eye-candy with their lead actors hero-worshipped as the new age demi gods of TV.
In fact, the blood-sucking wars have never been sexier – with a little help from the Twilight movie franchise, too.
The Strain, however, adopts an agnostic approach to the traditional guilty pleasure trappings of its predecessors, where romance and bloodline were cornerstones.
Based on the novel co-written by Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, the series is brilliantly eerie in an unfussy way, so to speak.
Now Del Toro has never concealed his fascination with horror; an absorption that has effortlessly lured fans through the corridors of his dark and genius imagination.
The Strain starts with a plane landing at JFK. The passengers are looking forward to go home… before a menacing noise ends with 206 corpses and four survivors on board.
Suspecting an outbreak of some kind, Dr Ephraim (Eph) Goodweather (Corey Stoll of House of Cards fame), the head of the CDC Canary Team, and his partner Dr Nora Martinez (Mía Maestro) investigate.
But nothing prepares them for what they witness: The Master, his coffin, his killing rampage or those insidious parasitic worms seeking out a human host.
Del Toro is obsessed with creating the right ambiance for the disturbing atmosphere to thrive. He achieves his objective by masterfully playing around with pale hues.
With a stellar cast at his disposal, he skilfully pieces together the story – still keeping viewers pretty much in the dark – by giving his characters ample time to shine.
On the one hand, we have a Holocaust survivor elevated to maverick status as he sets about slaying the infected humans who are threatening humanity. Meanwhile, the city’s elite – helmed by dying billionaire Eldritch Palmer, and his undead associate Thomas Eichhorst, have a master plan at play. That’s not forgetting the Ukranian rat exterminator Vasiliy Fet who senses something ominous is coming by noticing an unusual behaviour pattern in the rodents.
Meanwhile, the bureaucrats are covering their behinds and, at the same time, unwittingly generating more red tape and worsening the situation.
As much as the main story arc is the fight to save humanity from being wiped out, it is also grounded by relatable drama.
With The Strain, the devil is really in the details. Watching the transformation of the infected, with penises falling off, eyes reddening, fangs growing, and bodies shape- shifting into an unnatural-looking creature that emerged from a tomb, is deviously balanced with the storytelling.
That every episode ends on a cliffhanger not only sweetens the appeal of the series, it propels it into a different league altogether.
l The Strain is five episodes into season one, with season two already confirmed. It airs on Fox (DStv channel 125) on Mondays at 8.30pm.