del Toro and Vampires Invade New York. Yay!

A jumbo jet lands at JFK, but instead of rolling up to the jetway it stops dead in the middle of the tarmac.  Its windows are shut.  Its radio is silent.  And everyone inside, lying there in the dark, is dead.

It is the first evidence that something has gone terribly wrong in the world -- of the arrival of vampirism in the modern world. And it is only the beginning. As the promo copy says:

In one week, Manhattan will be gone.

In one month, the country.

In two months -- the world.

Vampire-invasion novels are making a major return this year and next, beginning today with the hardcoverpublication of The Strain, the first in a trilogy by renowned horror/ adventure director Guillermo del Toro and Hammet Award-winning novelist Chuck Hogan (Prince of Thieves).

This is serious horror-adventure, much more in the vein -- sorry -- of Stephen King’s classic Salem’s Lot or Richard Matheson’s original I am Legend than the quasi-romantic Twilight series or urban-fantasy romps of Laurel K. Hamilton and her own dark breed.  And del Toro comes to the field with some great prior experience; he director Blade II, created and directed The Devil’s Backbone, Mimic, both Hellboys, and the amazing Pan’s Labyrinth, while Hogan has already proven himself as a consummate stylist and storyteller.

Modern-day vampires is a substantial horror subgenre in its own right.  You could go all year and read nothing but -- some of it actually very good, like Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series or Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s wonderful wrought historical novels feature Le Comte de Saint Germaine and his spawn.  At any given moment, those friggin' bloodsuckers are inhabiting at least one of the top ten spots on the best-seller list and/or the box office over-achievers, but this is the first time that the movie-guys and the writer-guys have gotten together ... and given del Toro’s already well-established oddness in imagery and conception, this could turn out to be one wonderful hell-ride.

It should be about a day and a half before the film options are announced, though if del Toro himself takes is on we’ll have to wait in line – he’s already committed to directing the two-movie series of The Hobbit for Peter Jackson -- but in the meantime: the bad boys are back.  Enjoy.