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Post by geneweigel on Oct 6, 2014 17:34:56 GMT -5
This show wrapped up last night and I guess it was a continuing series because it said next season.
Surprisingly, Guillermo Del Toro has found his niche: television.
I'm a Del Toro hater and this was probably my top five vampire adaptation! Its absolutely unbelievable that he rose above his usual geek schlock that he has been doling out for years. Characters are cartoony but in this case it works great.
I don't want to spoil anything if you haven't seen it but this is exactly what I was looking for in the form of disgusting vampires.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 6, 2014 19:37:07 GMT -5
I'll put it in my Netflix queue. I love Del Toro. I really liked Pacific Rim, Pan's Labyrinth and both Hellboy movies. Even Blade 2 wasn't bad. I've been meaning to track down one of his earliest movies, The Devil's Backbone, but I haven't got around to it yet.
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Post by geneweigel on Oct 6, 2014 20:46:01 GMT -5
You might want to give up after the first few episodes as it seems like a lot of CGI and TV science but give it a chance because its worth the pay off.
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Post by Scott on Oct 7, 2014 8:42:36 GMT -5
I don’t really have an opinion on Del Toro, since he’s too inconsistent. I liked Pan’s Labyrinth. Blade 2 was good for what it was. But he ruined Hellboy for me, and I was very disappointed in Pacific Rim.
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Post by geneweigel on Oct 7, 2014 14:03:11 GMT -5
PACIFIC RIM seemed disconnected from reality. Also in a way it seemed like a giant monster version of the RIFTS rpg (jaegers, rifts, etc) but more mundane.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 8, 2014 13:36:33 GMT -5
I know what you mean about disgusting vampires. There was a movie I saw a few years ago, named "Thirty Days of Night." The movie was just okay, but what I really liked about it was that it returned vampires to their old world monster status.
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Post by geneweigel on Oct 8, 2014 14:08:57 GMT -5
I know what you mean but THE STRAIN's vampires make the THIRTY DAYS OF NIGHT (2007) vampires look like Barbie dolls in comparison. This started I thought it was going to see another FRINGE (2008-2013 TV series which was okay but I tuned out) because of the same opening a plane with dead people on the tarmac. The TV scientists slowly learn that this isn't something known to be natural. The monster shows up in the first episode but the glimpse is disappointing. All I'm saying is just wait, this goes down a new angle but soon takes a sharp turn into pre-Stoker legendary vampire feel. You have to be insane to want to sympathize with these vampires and yet they explore that angle as well.
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Post by Scott on Oct 11, 2014 7:38:41 GMT -5
I looked for the Strain On Demand. It doesn't go back to the beginning of the season, but I checked it out. The episode I watched had a Re-animator minus the camp feel. Not the love struck, emo vampires that have been plaguing the world for years.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 12, 2014 14:57:03 GMT -5
The Blu-Ray comes on Dec. 2nd. So, I'll either watch it then, or if/when it becomes available on Netflix.
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Post by geneweigel on Oct 12, 2014 15:17:47 GMT -5
The source of THE STRAIN creatures what theyre calling the strigori is directly the d&d stirge with a mix of the source material the mythical striges or at least the post-classical version of a vampire-like creature of the medieval era.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 12, 2014 15:59:59 GMT -5
From the etymology section of the Wikipedia article on STRIGOI: The name strigoi is related to the Romanian verb a striga, which in Romanian means scream. The writer Romulus Vulcanescu has found a Latin origin of the name strigoi. He argues that the name is related to the Latin term strigosus meaning "skinny",[9] a term found in Strigeidida. Another theory relates Strigoi to the Italian word Strega which means "witch" and the Greek word Strigx. In French, stryge means a bird-woman who sucks the blood of children. Jules Verne used the term "stryges" in Chapter II of his novel The Castle of the Carpathians, published in 1892.
And a Van Helsing quote from Bram Stoker's novel, DRACULA:
"I have asked my friend Arminus, of Buda-Pesth University, to make his record; and he must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his fame against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey. If it be so, then he was no common man; for in that time and for centuries after he was spoken of as the cleverest and most cunning as well as the bravest of the sons of the “land beyond the forest.” That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to the grave. The Draculas were, says Arminus, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due. In the records are such words as “stregoica” – witch; “ordog” and “pokol” – Satan and hell; and in one manuscript this very Dracula is spoken of as “wampyr”, which we all understand too well. There have been from the loins of this one great men and good women, and their graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell. For it is not the least of its terrors that this evil thing is rooted deep in all good; in soil barren of holy memories it cannot rest."
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Post by GRWelsh on Jan 8, 2015 15:02:47 GMT -5
Finally, I'm getting the first disc in this series shipped to me -- I should get it today or tomorrow. Looking forward to watching it.
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Post by Scott on Jan 8, 2015 15:47:43 GMT -5
Let us know what you think.
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Post by GRWelsh on Jan 10, 2015 14:54:54 GMT -5
I watched the first four episodes and I like it so far. I'm glad Gene recommended this because otherwise I would have passed. Even though I consider myself a del Toro fan, vampires have been overdone. But this premise is different enough to be worth exploring. Think "CSI: Vampire." I like the idea of there being some kind of a 'biological explanation' and linking vampires to things modern people find scary, like viruses, biological warfare, government conspiracy, etc. Incidentally, I think Bram Stoker would have approved, since he was all about cutting-edge science interacting with ancient threats.
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Post by geneweigel on Jan 10, 2015 15:08:37 GMT -5
Yeah, just keep watching it gets more and more unsettling and the face of "the master" is unsettling as well (whoever did this should get monster artist of the decade)
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Post by GRWelsh on Jan 11, 2015 17:11:17 GMT -5
It was a nice touch in the 2nd episode when the human servant was afraid to look directly at the Master.
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Post by GRWelsh on Jan 25, 2015 10:04:53 GMT -5
I finished season one and enjoyed it. In some ways it seemed like a modern retelling or re-imagining of Bram Stoker's DRACULA, but ended up diverging and going beyond that. There were some scenes where the vampires reminded me of the ones in I AM LEGEND (i.e., those with the nesting). The action scenes sometimes leave something to be desired, and there is a heavy reliance on CGI for some unrealistic looking special effects, but overall this is worth watching just to see vampires returned to an appropriately monstrous status.
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