THE STRAIN #1 (OF 11)

Review by: ghostmann

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Writer: David Lapham, Guillero del Toro & Chuck Hogan
Artist: Mike Huddleston
Colorist: Dan Jackson
Cover Artist: Mike Huddleston

Size: 32 pages
Price: 1.00

Vampires! Vampires! Vampires!

Those bloodsucking freaks seem to be everywhere these days. Along with zombies, vampires have seen a resurgence of popularity the last couple of years, thanks in no small part to the Twilight franchise. But I’m not here to talk about sparkling vampires, I’m here to talk about fucking undead creatures of the night that exist for only one purpose, to feed on you.

Guillermo del Toro has always gotten vampires right: Cronos, Blade II, and now The Strain. Del Toro understands that vampires are not here to have babies with humans, get into wars with werewolves, or look sexy when drinking blood from a neck. Nope, his vampires are leeches, lurking in the dark water, waiting for someone to bite.

Which brings me to this…. How about a little trip down the history of vampires in film? Here are some films that I love and think perfectly capture what these undead creatures of the night are all about.

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1922 – Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror

If you only ever watch one silent film in your life, make it this one. Made in Germany in 1922, this very first adaptation of Bram Stokers novel still ranks up high on the creepiness scale, thanks in part to the terrific acting and make up job of the vampire, Count Orlock. There are no sparkling vampires here, only a vile demon that wants nothing more then to feed on humans. Due to legal matters, names and locations had to be changed from the novel, but you can tell where the source came from. This movie is steeped in myths and lore – was Max Shreck, Count Orlock, a real vampire? Watch the movie and decide for yourself. One thing will definitely be clear, something is wrong with that dude. Watch this silent film at night with all the lights off, by yourself. Every creak of your house will have you jumping. And there is one scene with the Count where he appears unexpectedly. When he does, it is unnerving. It totally got me the first time I watched it.

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1932- Dracula

Oh how I hate and love Bela Lugosi. On one hand he is singlehandly responsible for the lasting power of Dracula and the Vampire. On the other, he is also responsible for the “lame look” of Dracula. You know what I mean, the formal dinner look –the cape, white dress shirt, amulet, slicked back hair. And the sound of Dracula as well – that thick Hungarian accent. Of course reading Stokers novel Dracula looked and sounded nothing like Lugosi’s take on the character (Count Orlock from Nosferatu is the closest to any on-screen version of Dracula to this day). But people loved it! The movie was a blockbuster and paved the way for decades of filmmaking. We all owe Bela a debt of gratitude. But with that said, this version of Dracula is a bit hard to sit all the way through. It starts off great, with an awesome gothic feel to it. Jonathan Harkers arrival at Castle Dracula is an amazing piece of cinema. Epic! But it all goes downhill soon as Dracula leaves the castle. For the rest of the picture most of the action, if you want to call it that, takes place in stuffy sound stage rooms. Still, it’s worth watching for the simple fact that you are witnessing the birth of an icon.

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We move quickly past the remaining 1930’s and don’t even bother stopping in the ’40’s or for much of the 50’s – not much in the way of anything original or lasting was made during this 20 plus year low point in Vampire cinema. Just a lot of sequels and copycats. Lugosi’s influence ran deep.
But up ahead is the end of the decade, and in England….

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1958 – The Horror of Dracula

The British were the first to bring the blood to Vampire movies. The first Dracula movie in color takes full advantage of it. In fact, its clear with the opening scene – as the camera pans in towards a coffin we can see the writing on the top of it – “Dracula” – then suddenly blood is splattered on it. Bright red blood (it would take years before Hollywood got the color and texture of blood right). Enter Christopher Lee. Thank god for him, he smashed the Lugosi take on the character in one fail swoop. No longer the slow moving and mysterious Prince from Hungary, Dracula was now a feral beast with bloodshot eyes and fangs that dripped blood. He threw his brides to the ground and asserted his dominance over them and others with force. This Dracula was pissed. The Horror of Dracula gives us just that – horror. The horror of the vampire curse. The horror of the undead and being a slave to it. The horror of loved ones returning from the dead and luring an innocent child into their crypt (one of the best scenes in the movie). The shackles of the black and white world were released in 1958 and nothing would ever be the same.

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1963 – Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath was one of the first “anthology” films. Four different horror stories in one movie. Awesome. The segment I want to talk about is, The Wurdalak. Boris Karloff stars in this truly nightmare inducing vignette. One evening, the father (Karloff) of a family living in a remote area in the mountains, ventures out to kill a Wurdalak – a vampire that has been hunting the country side. He tells his sons that if he returns five days later that they must kill him, because he himself has become a Wurdalak. Cut to 4 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes later – the father shows back up on the doorstep – one minute to midnight. The family decides to let him in. Mistake. At first the father just seems “odd”, and the family goes about their normal routine of having dinner and turning in for the night. Then things go to hell. No fangs or “good evenings” here, just a terrible little tale of a father that returns from the dead to kill his family. Throughout the whole segment a haunting wind is heard blowing outside, it….does.…not.…stop.…and it rattles you completely. The colors of this film that director Mario Brava used, set the stage for other Italian filmmakers to come (see Dario Argnto). And Karloff’s performance is so unsettling that after you’ve watched this film you can’t shake it.

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1964 – Last Man on Earth

Based on Richard Matheson’s suburb novel “I am Legend”, this forgotten little movie hits all the right notes. Extremely claustrophobic and desolate. Vincent Price gives a great performance as the last man on Earth. Or is he? Come dark, Price barricades himself inside his house while outside the armies of the undead scream his name. He tries everything to block the sounds but he is slowly losing his mind. Part of him wants to fight, and part want to give in to the horror right outside his door. Better then Omega Man, and the recent Will Smith I am Legend, Last Man is a hidden gem in the world of horror. Worth seeking out. (I found it in the Target dollar bin. Score!)

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1972 – The Night Stalker

A made for T.V movie, the Night Stalker is the first to treat the vampire story with a realistic and modern, self-aware tone. Carl Kolcek is a newspaper report in Las Vegas. When mysterious murders start to take place he digs deep and uncovers a vampire. Does he believe he is chasing a vampire? Of course not. Not at first. In the beginning he thinks it’s a madman that believes he is a vampire. But then strange, disturbing events happen and his mind is changed. Unfortunately no one else will believe him. This movie is an absolute joy to watch (thanks to Darrin Mcgavins performance) and the climax of the film, in the vampires creepy house, will make your hairs stand on end. (Night Stalker was later turned into a series but none of the episodes lived up this one).

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1979 – Dracula

I just want to talk aout one scene in this overwrought adaptation of the novel. It takes place when Lucy, Van Helsing’s daughter in the movie, has become the victim of Dracula and died. They bury her in the cemetery. After it is discovered that Dracula is a vampire, Van Helsing exhumes her grave to find it empty and a hole that has been dug to the catacombs below. He travels down the hole and finds his daughter – waiting for him. Great scene with scary make-up. I’m going to hazard a guess and say that this one of the first movies to employ contact lenses for the actors playing vampires. It becomes commonplace after this film. Skip ahead to that part, unless you really are into Frank Langla’s hairy chest and a sex scene with laser lights.

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1979 – Salem’s Lot

There are people out there that will have you believe that this made for T.V movie of Stephen Kings finest, and scariest, novel, is nothing more then a bore to watch. Well, I’m here to tell you they don’t know what they are talking about. Sure things may start of a little slow during this originally aired 2 part mini-series on CBS, but that’s the point – you get to know the characters before the horror starts – and to me that is the key to the success of Salem’s Lot, in both book and movie form.

Imagine for a second you are living in 1975 and you pick up the book Salem’s Lot. You know nothing of what this story is about. The name doesn’t really give anything away. On the cover of the book is just a picture of the small, quaint little hamlet. The only clue comes from the authors previous novel, Carrie – so this could be a thrilling read. It starts off with rich detail of the townsfolk and the history of the town. Excellent narrative gives us an insight to the people and their seemingly ordinary lives. Then a child goes missing. Then people start to hear screams at night and they lock their normally opened doors. Then there is a scratch at the window. The movie perfectly captures this dreadful feeling of a town that is slowly dying. The vampires don’t appear pretty much until part 2 of the series, and by that time you care about what happens to these people and their town. Plus it doesn’t hurt that these vampires (in the book and film) are they way they should be: They are undead. They are soulless feeders. Human shells, inhabited by something evil.

There are scenes in this film that echo in the horror genre to this very day. But there is one scene in particular that will always haunt my nights: The people in Salem’s Lot have started to die. The latest is Marjorie Glick, the mother of the first child to fall victim to the vampire plague. Ben and Dr. Norton travel to the morgue to monitor her body. It’s just the two of them there, late at night, with her body lying under a sheet. As Ben constructs a makeshift cross, the sheet starts to move. Marjorie Glick returns from the dead and brings the foulness of hell with her. She is an abomination. No other scene in any vampire movie I’ve watched matches this one for it’s brilliant, chilling portrayal of the unrighteousness that is the Vampire.

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1983 -The Hunger

You know those people that dress up like vampires, give themselves a name and a clan to belong to, and then run around your town at night role-playing and stuff? Yeah, those guys. Well, The Hunger is the reason behind that behavior. This movie was the first to romanticize and hype the subculture of the vampire underworld. After the film came out, local Goth kid vampires started popping up all over the place. The movie leaves me a little flat (except for the sex scene with Susan Surandon and Catherine Deneuve. Nothing flat going on there at all), but worth watching for the opening scene with the band Bauhaus. “Bela Lugosi’s dead….” You got that right.

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1985 – Fright Night

Ahh the ‘80’s. You gotta love top-siders and izod shirts. Fright Night is full of them. It’s also full of a lot of cool vampire stuff. Charlie Brewster thinks his new neighbor is a vampire. He’s pretty sure he saw a recently murdered call-girl at his house the other night. Plus, he watched his new neighbor move a coffin in the basement (note to self: if you ever see your neighbor moving a coffin into their basement…vampire bro, vampire). Charlie enlists the aid of an old horror movie actor to dispatch of the villain and the fun starts. The 1980’s experienced a rush of horror films thanks to the success of Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, which resulted in a ton of crap being made (the onslaught of dreak caused in the “death” of the horror movie genre around 1989. It would take the movie Scream in 1997 to bring the genre back from the grave). Really cool special effects and decent acting take Fright Night to the top of all the endless 1980’s horror films. Good Stuff.

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1992 – Bram Stokers Dracula

Francis Ford Coppla’s dreamy adaptation of the novel rates about a 1.5 on the scary meter. All atmosphere, costumes, and set designs. Scares are last on the call list. But it’s still a great film and I love how it blends the real Vlad Tepes with the fictional Dracula. Gary Oldman delivers a touching portrait of a man who lost his true love and damned himself to get her back. It sticks pretty close to the novel – one of the few adaptations to do so. (If anyone can explain the blue flame that Harker rides thru on his way to Castle Dracula I’ll give’em 5 bucks.) A gorgeous film

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2006 – The Descent

One of the first 21st century horror films to incorporate our cultures overuse of video and technology – ipods, camera phones, etc. Sure there was Blair Witch Project in 1999 but that was a fluke. That movie should have never received distribution (this could be a good column for an upcoming “In Your Face”). The Descent is an actual horror film. But is it a vampire film? Maybe. I’d like to think those underground creatures are vampires. They certainly look and act the part, so I’m making an executive decision and saying that they are. With that out of way I can talk about the scene I wanted to mention – the characters are exploring a deep cave in the Appalachian Mountains – a cave with a dark history. As they descend and start to crawl thru tight spaces the movie takes a very claustrophobic turn. During the whole exploration one of the characters is videotaping in nightvison. We, the viewer, see the film thru this format from time to time. At one point, the video camera pans to record the others, laughing and stuff, then we are cleverly introduced to the vampires. (Cloverfield ripped this trick off big time!). The rest of the movie is a brutal fight to make it to the surface.

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2007 – 30 days of Night

This maligned adaptation of the comic book gets mentioned here only for two reasons: the idea and the style of vampire. First the idea; very cool – A band of roaming vampires descends on an Alaskan town that gets 30 days night every year to feed without the fear of sunlight. 24 hour buffet – nice. And the look and actions of the vampires are right up my ally – grotesque, demonic creatures. These guys are dead, and look it. They are not dressed up in ruffled shirts with flowing capes. The comic reads in about 5 minutes but is great and truly horrific. The movie unfortunately fails to build the tension that is needed for this type of setting. It should have been closer to the original Assault on Precinct 13 or The Alamo. But sadly all we get is 90 minutes of hide and go seek.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 3 - Good

Comments

  1. No Lost Boys? Madness, madness I say!

    Oh, wait. You mentioned the original Assault on Precinct 13, we’re good.

    • The vamps in Lost Boys were a little too cool for school – they made being the undead seem like a great time (who knows, maybe it is). And then there is that greased up saxophone player on the boardwalk. I hate the saxophone! 😉

      But, the movie overall is fun and when it came out back in 87 I was so stoked that the main character (played by the late Cory Haim) was a comic book collector!

  2. Dude you went off on the review. It’s good to know that the vampires are actually creatures of the night. Does this issue focus on a main character or an idea?

    What did you think of Near Dark?

    • sorry I didn’t go into much detail about The Strain – this review was really just an excuse to talk about my fave vampire films.

      This first issue doesn’t have any vampires in it, but the set up is pretty cool: a jet landed at JFK airport with all crew and passengers dead. The CDC is called in and discovers a coffin is aboard. This jet no doubt is ground zero of the vampirific outbreak that will soon be unleashed.

      I was reminded a lot of that first episode of Fringe where the dude gets sick on the plane and kills everyone aboard just by coughing. The Fringe team is called in and lets loose a virus that fucks people up.

      I havent read the novel but Dave Lapham does a good job in breaking it down for comic book pacing. He does keep some intimate moments between father and son that are nice to see, as well as a bitchy ex-wife.

      I’m in for the full run I think. Gotta see where this one goes.

    • oh, and I like Near Dark. I mean you really can’t go wrong with Bill Paxon as a vampire.

    • cant go wrong with bill paxton as anything….” Im not going out there with those things”….

  3. speaking of lost boys.. i dont think the second one was that bad.. every scene without feldman was pretty good.

  4. I try to use Winona Ryder’s line from Bram Stoker’s Dracula as often as I can… “take me away from all….this….death!” It’s fun to mix it up.

    I have to say I am a sucka for the dollar comic although I am really torn as to whether I should continue in this venue or just read the trilogy….

  5. ghostmann, your review of select vampire movies was spectacular. I think I will add The Horror of Dracula, Last Man on Earth, and The Hunger to my Netflix queue. Thanks.

    I also thought The Strain #1 was excellent. My wife read the first 2 novels and said they were her favorite reads of 2011, and she reads a lot.

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