In 2014, FX bared a new set of fangs with the vampiric action horror series, “The Strain.” Adapted from a trilogy of books co-written by “Frankenstein” director Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, the show follows a vampire outbreak that occurs in New York City after a plane lands at JFK Airport with some deadly cargo. Starring Corey Stoll, Kevin Durand, and David Bradley, the show came with some extreme scares, which is hardly surprising given del Toro’s heavy involvement. There was a time, however, when network input nearly took the series in a very different direction. While the award-winning director had plans for a nightmarish landscape, outside opinions suggested the bloody vampire outbreak needed a few more laughs, instead.
In an interview with Wired, del Toro discussed the first time he tried to make a show out of his cinematic vampire story that stretched from WWII to the present day. The advice he got was swiftly ignored. “I originally wrote a very long outline for a TV series I wanted to do called ‘The Strain.’ And then the network president at Fox said to me, ‘We do want something with vampires — but could you make it a comedy?’ Obviously, I responded, ‘No thank you’ and ‘Can I have my outline back?'” The reaction was understandable considering not only the tone that del Toro was trying to achieve with “The Strain,” but the story he looked to for inspiration.
Why Guillermo del Toro treated The Strain like a vampire procedural
“The Strain” may have turned heads when it premiered, but there was a time when the master storyteller behind films like “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Hellboy” (2004) was still struggling to bring the idea of his viper-like vampires to life. It was through his collaboration with Hogan on the original book trilogy that del Toro got over the hurdle. “I’ve written short stories in Spanish and English. I’ve written screenplays,” del Toro explained. “But I’m not good at forensic novels. I’m not good at hazmat language and that ‘CSI’-style precision. When Stoker wrote ‘Dracula,’ it was very modern, a ‘CSI’ sort of novel. I wanted to give ‘The Strain’ a procedural feel, where everything seems real.”
The result worked brilliantly, adding an extra layer of fear by grounding its monsters in a biological framework for what was turning people into bloodthirsty creatures. This approach led to a great (if often overlooked) TV series that lost out in the battle for horror show supremacy. Even so, after lasting for four seasons and leading to an explosive finale, “The Strain” is still absolutely worth a watch if you’re in the mood for something to sink your teeth into.