Goodweather also has problems at home – while he is having a relationship with a colleague, he has the baggage of a son by an ex, and neither enough custody nor free time to put things right. The USP of this horror story is two-fold – one, that the Bram Stokerish opening leads to four morgues full of willing spreaders of a viral vampire problem that can easily swamp New York within days, and two, that the vampire does not have to look like a count with a dimwit human assistant, for he has an aristocratic human brains trust backing him, and putting problems in the way of Goodweather and all those who would side with him. Since the likes of 30 Days of Night you need a host of them to threaten a community. I suppose you can't really expect a vampire story any more to only have one vampire (although A Love Like Blood by Marcus Sedgwick is a pretty damn fine exception to prove the rule). But he won't like what he finds – and nor should anyone. The CDC and one man – Dr Ephraim Goodweather – are tasked with looking into it. This is also not a sailing boat, but an airliner – a Boeing 777, stuck at JFK airport with no signs of life. But this is not the coasts of England, and this is not Bram Stoker. It is found to contain a heavy box, almost coffin-like, containing mud – and something else. Summary: Showing that even del Toro can struggle to find something completely new to say regarding vampires, this still has some chutzpah and class, and is worth a look.Ī liner ends its journey from Europe in a port city, and waits, silently, holding whatever secrets it had with little signs of life.

Guillermo del toro the strain book