Guillermo del Toro has made his own version of some classic monsters, and he had an unconventional take on vampires in this 11-year-old TV show. Although Guillermo del Toro is best known for his work in film, especially in horror, fantasy, and sci-fi, he has also left his mark on TV. Del Toro’s TV debut was in 1986 in the Mexican horror anthology series La Hora Marcada, where he served as writer and director until 1989. With his film career growing in the early 1990s, Del Toro took a long break from TV.
Del Toro returned to TV in 2013 to direct the opening sequence of The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror XXIV,” after which he returned to film. Luckily, he returned to TV the following year with another horror project: The Strain. Based on Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s novel trilogy of the same name, The Strain premiered on FX in 2014 and ran for four seasons, ending in 2017. The Strain was well received by critics, and it stands out for its different version of vampires.
Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain Introduced A Different Type Of Vampires
The Strain’s Vampires Are Nothing Like Traditional Ones
The Strain kicks off with the landing of a plane, wherein all passengers are dead. Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll), head of the CDC Canary Team in New York City, is assigned to investigate the plane, and with his team, he finds strange parasitic worms on the plane. Eph and his team fear a plague similar to Ebola could break out. To their surprise, four people are found alive, but the cause of the passengers’ deaths is a viral outbreak, very similar to an ancient strain of vampirism.
Despite their best efforts and the warnings from Professor Setrakian (David Bradley) about the bodies on the plane having to be destroyed and a coffin-like cabinet in the plane’s hold to be retained, the virus ends up spreading. It’s then up to Eph, his team, and some of the city’s residents who haven’t been infected yet to wage a war to save humanity. In the process, Eph and company make darker and more disturbing discoveries regarding the virus, political corruption, and a lot more.
Unlike traditional vampires, the ones in The Strain aren’t created through a bite or a curse, and instead, they are the result of a parasitic worm. Once the worm gets into the bloodstream of its human host, it injects a fast-acting virus that manipulates the host’s genes. As a result, the host undergoes radical physical changes until they are transformed into a mature vampire (“Strigoi”). The most distinct and disturbing physical transformation is the development of a long, retractable proboscis replacing the tongue.
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This “stinger” can extend up to six feet from the moth, and it not only feeds the vampire, but it’s also its reproductive mechanism, meaning that they use it to inject the worms into its victims. This also causes changes to the host’s jaw, leaving them unable to speak except for grunts and monosyllabic speech. Despite having the stinger, the hosts also grow vampire-like fangs, and they eventually lose organs, hair, fingernails, and their nose and ears atrophy, leaving them as deformed and unbelievably pale creatures.
The Strain Turned Vampires Into Complex Creatures
The Strain Has A Whole Vampire Lore
Traditional vampires are extremely pale but also attractive beings who feed on blood and are forced to live at night, as the sun will kill them. That’s the basis for these creatures, and it’s a simple one, but The Strain turned them into complex creatures both physically and socially. In addition to the above-mentioned physical changes, other body parts are lost while the digestive and circulatory systems of the host merge. Vampires are also very agile, fast, and strong, despite their fragile appearance, and they are also immortal.
There are also power levels among the Strigoi, with the Master and the Ancients possessing abilities like telepathic control over their blood.
On top of that, the vampires in The Strain have formed their own, layered society, similar to that of bees, as they have different “levels” and, depending on which one they are, is the role they have to fulfill. There are also power levels among the Strigoi, with the Master and the Ancients possessing abilities like telepathic control over their blood and transferring their consciousness. Luckily, The Strain was given enough time to develop its unique take on vampires.
Why The Strain Ended After 4 Seasons (Was It Canceled?)
The Strain Was Planned To Finish Earlier
Before The Strain’s premiere, showrunner Carlton Cuse shared at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour that their plan was for the first season to cover the first book, and if the series was successful after season 2, they would examine if the final two books would be covered in one or more seasons (via THR). In 2016, Cuse shared that The Strain was sold with a three-season plan, with the potential for a five-season run.
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How The Strain’s Finale Differed From the Books
The Strain is over and it certainly went out with a bang. But while the TV show was wild, the ending in the books was even weirder.
However, when announcing the end of the show with its fourth season, Cuse said their original plan was only for three seasons, and after writing season 3, he, del Toro, and Hogan felt the rest of the story could be told in one more season. Thanks to this, The Strain had a proper ending and avoided stretching its story, and it’s worth watching thanks to its different type of vampires.
Source: THR.
the strain
6/10
- Release Date
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2014 – 2017-00-00
- Showrunner
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Carlton Cuse
- Directors
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Chuck Hogan
