The Strain: Three Things We Liked About Del Toro’s Vampire Tale, And Two We Didn’t
Del Toro's latest was a mixed bag.
This article is more than 2 years old
Good: The Dead Plane
By far the strongest element of the Strain pilot is the whole notion and execution of the “dead plane.” We’re introduced to a passenger liner touching down in New York after a trip from Germany, but there’s a problem. There’s something big and scary tearing around in the cargo hold, and before long it he busts loose into the passenger compartment. The next thing we know, the plane is sitting dead on the runway at JFK — no power, no movement, no signs of life, and all the window shades drawn but one. Oh, and the body of the plane is unnaturally cold. That can’t be good.
Soon enough CDC docs Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) board the plane to find everyone seemingly dead — but it’s not that simple. The bodies aren’t entering rigor mortis, and there’s some sort of biological substance all over the cabin that only shows up in blacklight. Before you can say “jump scare,” four of the passengers pop back to life. The whole plane sequence is well orchestrated, and the notion of a “dead plane” felt especially unsettling in the aftermath of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a mystery that still hasn’t been solved. There were several other scenes that were aiming to be scary, but none of them topped the simplicity of that still, dark plane.
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