The Director of Pan’s Labyrinth is fast becoming a popular novelist. As of 
last Sunday, Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain (co-written with Prince of Thieves novelist Chuck Hogan) was already number 9 on the New York Times Bestseller List after being in print less than three weeks. Del Toro first pitched The Strain as an idea for a Fox TV series, but when Fox wanted to make it into a comedy, he decided to use the idea for a novel instead.
The book does have a couple of comedic scenes (depending on your sense of humor), such as when a woman puts holy water into a squirt gun and shoots a vampire through the mail slot in her front door, but the overall tone of the book is macabre, not merriment.
It is easy to picture the book as a TV series, although it would have to be toned down considerably to pass the muster of the censors. Think CSI on steroids with no fear about using the language of the streets.
I come away after reading the book with mixed emotions. I do not normally consume this type of fare, but I was pleased (if that is the proper word) to see evil treated as evil. Call me old-fashioned, but I cringe a little when I see dragons treated as pets and vampires portrayed as heroic, romanticized leads. These creatures have been used since time immemorial to signify the evil in this world, and softening their images can distort reality. We come to believe that evil is not so evil after all.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe that no person is unredeemable. But the evil which each of us has inherited–what theologians would call our sinful nature–is not redeemable. All of us have a predisposition for evil that only awaits an opportunity to raise its ugly head. And it must be dealt with severely.
In The Strain, the protagonists come to realize that the only way to deal with the plague that has come upon them is to destroy everyone who has “turned.” All who have become infected by the virus have no chance to become human again. They have become an evil that needs to be destroyed. The only appropriate choice is death.
When Jesus Christ walked this earth, He was not afraid to confront the evil in each one of us. That is why He said, “Take up your cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) The cross was a common form of execution by the Romans in that day. Jesus was telling them that they needed to die to self in order to follow Him.
In The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien, as the narrator of the tale, made this observation after Bilbo makes off with a cup from the dragon’s hoard: “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” Each of us has a dragon–a vampire–a monster–living inside of us that we would be wise not to leave out of our calculations.
The Strain spends much time revealing the anatomy of a vampire. The virus is spread by “blood worms” which live inside each monster. The virus so takes over the DNA of the host that the entire structure of the body is changed, making it over into a killing and blood-drinking machine. The person is no longer in control, but at the mercy of the virus.
In the sixth chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to believers in Rome, he talks about the evil within controlling him so that he does what he doesn’t want to do. That is the insidious nature of the evil within. But Christ came to change all that. He can transform us on the inside to enable us to be what we were meant to be. (See the first few verses of Romans chapter 12.)
The Strain is a book of despair. As well it should be. Just look around you and see the atrocities that have been committed throughout the world. Evil is real. One of the protagonists in the book lived through the holocaust. It is no wonder he lost his faith in God. I mentioned the woman with the holy water squirt gun above. After it is revealed that the holy water has no effect, the narrator reflects: “When the power of Jesus fails you, then you know you truly are s[***] out of luck.” (p. 263)
For me, though, the undeniable evil in this world is a proof that God is real and that what He has told us about ourselves is true. If what the Bible tells us about the evil inside us is true, then we should expect to see horrors in this world. And if what He has told us is true about the remedy, the power of Jesus will not fail. We can trust Him to transform us into the people we were meant to be.
The Strain is the first book in a trilogy from William Morrow (HarperCollins) which is scheduled to be released in three parts. The Fall is to come out in 2010, The Night Eternal in 2011.
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