Guillermo Del Toro’s The Strain Zips Up The Body Bags
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FX’s upcoming horror thriller The Strain is certainly going after the trophy for creepiest promotional build up of the year. Whether showing an eclipse and accompanying total blackout of New York City or a creepy individual with a cane scattering candy on the ground in an attempt to attract who knows what, everything we’ve seen is designed to unsettle and create an ominous mood. The latest short teaser and first poster continue this trend, and while neither one tells you much about the nuts and bolts of the show, they certainly set the tone.
And nothing says creepy as hell quite like an expansive room full of body bags. That image alone is unnerving enough, and most of us have seen enough horror movies that we’re wary of any movement. We don’t expect it, after all, the dead don’t move, at least they’re not supposed be able to. Then the bags start to twitch. Maybe it isn’t quite as disconcerting as that teaser where the worm crawls into a person’s eye, but it isn’t far off.
Based on the novels by Guillermo del Toro and writing partner Chuck Hogan, The Strain follows an outbreak of ancient, old-timey vampirism in Manhattan, or at least something that certainly looks like it. Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) is the head of a Centers for Disease Control Canary Team, so-called because they go into the worst places to test out how safe or hazardous a situation may be, dispatched to investigate the situation. Along with a random team of every day New Yorkers, Goodweather and company may very well be the last line of defense between this plague and the survival of the human race.
And going back to that whole worm/eye thing, the first poster for The Strain returns to that imagery, and the result is no less stomach-churning. In this instance, instead of going into the eye, the squiggly, squirmy little bugger appears to be emerging, and from the looks of things, it has been in there for a while. That’s good, I guess, you don’t want those bastards crawling around in there if you can help it, that sounds uncomfortable.
The hand with the rubber glove gives you the definite impression that someone is examining one of the victims of the plague. Perhaps it’s a member of Goodweather’s team looking at one of the corpses in this sea of body bags. Maybe the worms have done their business and it’s time to move on and find a new home. Better hope they can’t burrow through rubber gloves, those things don’t look all that sturdy.
Though there hasn’t been no specific date set, The Strain will debut sometime this July, and stars Stoll, Mia Maestro, Sean Astin, Kevin Durand, Natalie Brown, Jonathan Hyde, Richard Sammel, Robert Maillet, Jack Kesy, Ben Hyland, and Miguel Gomez.
