Editorials
[Review] ‘”The Strain” Season 2 “BK, NY” Lackluster, But Hope Remains
There is so much horror on TV now that I just can’t keep up, which is why I just watched the season premiere of The Strain yesterday! I thought it very odd that I missed the sophomore season starter and still remained entirely unspoiled…and then I watched it. Now I know why.
This review contains minor spoilers; TLDR/SpoilerFree: it wasn’t good but I’m still watching.
I have not read the books so any discussion I write has only to do with the show so maybe I’m in for something really fucking great at the end, but the first episode doesn’t give me a lot of hope. The first season introduced us to all of our main characters, bringing in new ones and killing off some (sorry, Sean Astin) while also providing the audience with a deluge of kick ass vampire action. Season two episode one titled “BK, NY”, starts off well enough with a fairy tale origin story of the vampire Master. We listen through the ears of a very young Abraham as his mother spins a yarn about a man who suffered from gigantism and was driven to find a “cure” by all of the terrible townsfolk and even his brother.
Despite his ailments, the giant loved children and for all intents and purposes was a very upstanding young man. One night he and his brother set off to find “the great gray wolf” that they believe can cure him of his gigantism. As you’ve probably guessed already, there is no wolf just a creepy Resident Evil-esque vampire Master who is desperate to find a larger and healthier body. Of course inhabiting the body of a giant would be appealing so the Master spews thousands of creepy vampire worms into his mouth and boom! we have the Master as we know him today. And that, that I enjoyed. The fairy tale theme is always expected when Guillermo Del Toro’s name is attached and it’s a trope I enjoy. I like that we have a reason as to why the Master is so hulking and lumpy, but it would seem that body is going away soon or that it will be the focus for this season.
Unfortunately when the fairy tale ends, “reality” begins and we find our characters pretty much where we left off. The Master is alive but severely injured from his encounter with the sun, Abraham is still a curmudgeon, Fet and Dutch are still carbon copy anti-hero personalities, Eph and Nora are still scientists and potential love interests, and all the evil people are still evil to the core. I mean, they were Nazis so obviously. One thing did change as far as character line ups go and that is the actor who plays Eph’s son, whose name I can never remember so I’m going to call him Carl Grimes Jr., was recast and man is he awful. I’m not going to assume it’s the actor’s fault because the character himself is grating, but I don’t know how much I can take of his “outbursts”.
My main issue with the first episode of The Strain is that no one but these people seem the least bit concerned with the vampire slow-pocalypse that has come creeping up on them. Sure, they can only come out at night but during the 10+ hours of daylight (given the day and season) shouldn’t everyone else be freaking out? It’s the heart of NYC and there doesn’t seem to be a lot in the way of panic. Of course, the vampires do have their own “human” voice and damage control man in Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde) but it seems evident the vamps aren’t going to keep him in any position of power for long.
Which brings me to vampire politics and Nazis. Last season we were introduced to a group of well-organized, ninja vampires that seem to be fighting on the side of good. Or at least on the side of remaining in the shadows and not actively hunted. Abraham is “captured” by this group and introduced to the Ancient Order of Vampires, of which he thought were a myth. Turns out they exist and that The Master was once one of them. In hopes of preventing a full-scale vampire war, the Ancients and their ninja advisors want to enlist Abraham and his group to help return The Master to them. Abraham agrees and we get to see the Ancients wake up and feast upon some poor no named naked man.
I don’t have a problem with the notion of vampire politics, but I worry that it could get excruciatingly boring rapidly (looking at you True Blood). But what about Nazi-Vampire politics? In one particularly gripping string of scenes we see a school for the blind is transported on buses to what they think is a safe location. It’s the only glimpse we get of how people other than Abraham’s group are affected by the attack and it’s a doozy. Essentially, this sequence felt like an allusion to Nazi Germany’s systematic euthanization of people with disabilities (along with countless others). The buses pull up and are greeted by head Nazi vampire who obviously plans to use them as breakfast, lunch, and dinner for The Master as he heals. To say the least, it was uncomfortable but it could make for good television.
The Strain is suffering from too many story lines involving uninteresting characters. I noted the kid as “Carl Grimes Jr” because that’s basically what he is without the ability to make me like him or feel for him. Eph is certainly no Rick Grimes and everyone else is just a photocopy of their said character traits. I should also mention that the best part of this episode, being the origin of The Master, was directed by del Toro himself so that explains why I liked it more than the rest of the episode. I’ll stick with it though, what did you guys think?
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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