Are Your Ready for Even More Vampires?

Only one month remains before the July 13th premiere of FX's new 13-episode vampire series The Strain.  This is not the London-based inventor version of vampires, as was the case in the NBC's recently canceled Dracula, but instead a much scarier version.  In fact, the original Dracula attack on London would probably be seen as child's play compared to this attack on New York City.  One look at this trailer will give you some idea what is coming our way.  

The television series is the product of filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and author Chuck Hogan and based on thier best-selling vampire novel trilogy of the same title.  FX explains:

The Strain is a high concept thriller that tells the story of Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll), the head of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team in New York City. He and his team are called upon to investigate a mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. As the strain spreads, Eph, his team, and an assembly of everyday New Yorkers, wage war for the fate of humanity itself.

It sounds like a variation of World War Z, with the trailer looking like a episode of Fringe.  In his review of the book some years ago, Xan Brooks in London's The Guardian writes: 

The Strain makes a break from Stoker's model. These vampires are not the silky Transylvanian aristocrats of yore. Nor, for that matter, are they the troubled, emo-style heart-throbs featured in the novels of Stephenie Meyer or the film of Let the Right One In. Instead, they are mindless, undead leeches, more akin to the zombies from a George Romero movie. 

We shall see if the series lives up to the book and all the hype.  If so, two more books await transformation to the television set. And if you still need more vampires, you can always watch gory versions of the monster in Victorian England via Showtime's newly broadcast  Penny Dreadful, which has already been renewed for a second season.  Penny Dreadful is much better than I anticipated given some of the earlier reviews (see my earlier entry).