“Creatures of the Night” condensed The Strain into short horror film this week, and for the most part it works. However like most short narratives characters were forced into over expository info dumps that constantly reestablished the rules of the world. Mind you, it was a whole hell of a lot of fun, it just gets constantly sidetracked when we’re eight weeks in and still reminding the audience how the vampires work.

This is the closest version to the show that everyone’s wanted for weeks now. The parallel storylines finally converge and give us the clearest sense of foreword progression since the season started. It’s taken a while to get here, but Vasily Fet is finally with the group, as we know it.

Things pick up exactly where we left off last week. The group is in disarray on the subway platform as Eichorst has just escaped. Here the first exposition transgression takes place as Setrakian restates that silver can hurt them, but bullets don’t kill them. Jim is left in disbelief so what else is new.

From here our group heads to a facility that houses UV lights. They intend to use them to battle the vampires, but when they arrive they come face to face with a looter, Vasily Fet. It’s clear from the beginning that Vasily isn’t interested in having a team. He fights vermin alone, but as the episode moves along he and Abraham move closer together and we see the beginning of one of the series best friendships.

Things are rather tense as the group heads to a nearby gas station to get supplies before hiding out. The cinematography of the episode implies certain claustrophobia whenever we’re inside and before the vampires even show up you can feel them closing in on you.

With one fell swoop everything falls into chaos and we find every one of our characters holed up inside a gas station in a situation very close to The Mist. Although there is no religious zealots to be found here, there is inside tension as Jim get’s scratched. More on that later.

For the most part the exposition transgressions come from Abrham and Vasily’s budding friendship. Vasily is tenacious and good at killing vermin, so naturally Setrakian must explain how it’s done. Except he has to tell him outright, it would have been easier on Chuck Hogan’s script if the implication was there rather than the outright explanation. I think Vasily is smart enough to observe how it’s done, but I digress. It straddled the line between okay and groan worthy, but it can’t happen again. We’ve been in this world for eight weeks now, we don’t need a rehash of the rules.

Jim’s scratch leads to Jim’s demise and I wish I could be sadder about the whole ordeal but I’m not. I’m actually quite happy with the way things went. I loved the scene of false hope in removing the one worm from his face, but of course there were going to be a shit load more. We’ve seen this before. And while I think the strongest choice for Jim’s character would have been an act of sacrifice, I enjoyed how Vasily didn’t give a fuck and wasted him on the spot. He did what needed to be done.

The horror of the shambling vampires surrounding the building won’t soon be removed from my mind. This week there were more formidable then they have ever been and the threat of the fallen city has been established. The credit card systems are down, and the phonelines are seemingly dead. This week was chaos, and frankly exactly the type of thing I was looking for since the show began. This was like The Walking Dead at the beginning of the outbreak, and capturing that insanity is so compelling. Let’s hope next week continues the trend.

Stray Thoughts:

–       Okay, with the credit card systems down, what the fuck was the deal with magically being able to pay for the gas outside. PLOTHOLES, Jesus Christ that’s the easiest one to spot.

–       Showing that hacker girl weeks ago, only to never touch on her until this very moment was weak. I had to really try and remember who she was.

–       The world is so big that this week was so excellent and refreshing to only dwell on one constant setting. Although I’m craving more Quinlan.

What did you think of “Creatures of the Night” ?