For those of us who abhor the dainty angst-ridden vampires who sparkle while penning love songs for their crushes that have infested pop culture, The Strain shatters that depiction with a violent fury. The vamps of del Toro and Hogan's world are hideous, disgusting creatures devoid of anything resembling a personality. They're essentially a virus, parasitic creatures existing for one sole purpose, to feed and infect. Once one becomes infected with vampirism, the virus manipulates the genes causing the person to undergo a drastic physical metamorphosis. These creatures aren't going to be seducing any libidinous young women, because they don't even possess genitalia. Their biology is severely altered from those of normal humans in extremely disgusting ways. They are hairless, smooth-skinned monsters with a six-foot retractable proboscis that extends from beneath the tongue and it isn't used for making out. And to cap off the revulsion, these vampires excrete bodily waste the entire time they're feeding. In the deep mythology of vampires, if the Cullens and Lestats represent one end of the spectrum and Nosferatu and the fiends from 30 Days of Night are the opposite, the monsters from The Strain are off the terror scale.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
