Although Guillermo del Toro has long been synonymous with the horror genre, the Oscar-winning director’s movies often flirt with Gothic romance and supernatural fantasy more than ultra-gory violence. Whether it’s Pan’s Labyrinth, Blade II, Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water, or even his recent take on Frankenstein, del Toro is often more interested in sympathizing with his monsters instead of making you deathly afraid of them.
As such, del Toro’s scariest, most unsettling movie remains the 2001 Spanish ghost story The Devil’s Backbone, a terrifying yet tender coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. The only real project del Toro has been associated with that holds a candle to The Devil’s Backbone is The Strain, an absurdly overlooked 2014 TV series about a viral outbreak that turns people into slavering vampiric ghouls. When viewed through the retrospective prism of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Strain becomes even more irresistibly virulent.
‘The Strain’ Fuses Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic Horror with Ancient Vampire Mythology
In a TV rarity, Guillermo del Toro wrote all 13 episodes of FX’s supernatural horror series The Strain Season 1 before shooting the pilot (which he also directed). Premiering on FX in June 2014, the 4-season, 46-episode horror show is set in New York, where the leader of the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Canary Project, Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Cory Stoll), is recruited to investigate the mysterious death of an airplane full of passengers. Eph’s investigation traces the mass fatalities to an atavistic strain of vampirism that begins to spread and morph citizens into zombified, bloodthirsty ghouls known as the Strigoi.
Similar to the subgenre of viral zombie movies (28 Days Later), where a virus is responsible for bodily transformations and violent behavior (as opposed to corpses rising from the grave), The Strain presents its own macabre mythology. Instead of neck-biting, virgin blood-drinking, immortal undead creatures of the night we’re all used to, the vampirism in The Strain is more of a parasitic infection spread through the tongue and stinger. By subverting traditional vampiric lore, del Toro is allowed to revel in his unique monster designs and lean into the excessive gore that’s often absent in his movies.
The result is undoubtedly the most terrifying story that del Toro has delivered since The Devil’s Backbone in 2001. Yet, despite holding a 79% Rotten Tomatoes score and winning a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Most Exciting New Series in 2014, hardly anyone talks about The Strain anymore.
‘The Strain’ Does for Vampires What ‘The Devil’s Backbone’ Does for Ghosts
For someone like Guillermo del Toro, who has a soft spot for hideous monsters and grotesque creatures of the night, he often flips horror tropes and tenets through sympathetic main characters. Beyond the dank, dark, atmospheric orphanage that serves as its claustrophobic setting, one of the reasons The Devil’s Backbone remains his most effective horror movie is how del Toro utterly changes how we perceive supernatural apparitions.
Instead of malevolent spirits haunting living humans out of some kind of vendetta, the movie is at its best when the protagonist Carlos (Fernando Tielve), a young bullied orphan, is befriended by a benevolent ghost his own age, Santi (Junio Valverde), and learns how to survive and navigate the oppressive orphanage. Under the guise of a traditional ghost story, the movie reveals itself as a tender, touching coming-of-age tale for Carlos. The more sympathy is felt for the boy, the harder the terrifying moments register, as Carlos does all he can to endure the brutal treatment by the ruthless orphanage’s caretaker, Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega).
Similarly, The Strain also upends preconceived notions of vampire lore while propping up a vulnerable young protagonist in Zach Goodweather (Max Charles), Eph’s son, who goes berserk after his mother is turned into a Strigoi. Between del Toro’s dark, brooding aesthetic, rich mythology, and the altered conventions of how we look at ghosts and vampires, The Strain very much belongs in the same conversation as The Devil’s Backbone when considering Guillermo del Toro’s most memorable horror outings.
