Night Zero (2014) User Reviews (6)

Nosferatu by Plane

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 12 January 2019]

The creepy and long first episode (or pilot) of "the Strain", "Night Zero", indicates a promising series by Guillermo del Toro with great production values. The lead story of a plane from Berlin that arrives in New York with 206 passengers and crew dead and only four survivors is engaging and intriguing. The responsible, a Nosferatu-like being, is a complete mystery. The lead character, the workaholic CDC agent Ephraim Goodweather investigates the case while faces problems with his wife of whom he is divorcing. The pawnshop owner Abraham Setrakian is another promising character. Looking forward to see the sequel. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Noite Absoluta" ("Absolute Night")

An interesting and somewhat realistic start

[anselmdaniel · 7/10 · 7 September 2020]

This review contains spoilers for the first episode of The Strain.

The Strain's first episode follows a plane that lands in JFK airport with a few survivors. The passengers on board have died of suspicious circumstances. This causes CDC doctors, Ephraim Goodweather and Nora Martinez to be dispatched to find more about the possible outbreak.

This first episode is a great introduction to the series. The episode takes on a horror aspect as the scenes with The Master can be frightening. His incredible speed and otherworldly form is on display here. The main cast is introduced with Eph Nora, Setrakian, Gus, and Eichorst having great introductory scenes.

The scenes in this pilot are of a high quality. This pilot episode is well directed by Guillermo del Toro. His trademarks of having monsters is here and the audience can tell he enjoys telling stories about these inhuman beasts.

The Strain's first episode is highly recommended. It is a great episode for any fan of the horror genre.

Grade: A

A pretty enjoyable start

[gedikreverdi · 7/10 · 15 May 2021]

The pawnshop owner was really interesting with a heart feeding off his blood in a liquid filled bottle and he's also a Holocaust survivor. Jim is up to something with the stoneheart firm whose owner is an old vampire. The Latino brought the coffin to the city for that old vampire thanks to Jim who works for Eph the guy whose marriage is at the stake. The master crushed the skull of his victim after he fed off him thru his aort and it was brutal. They found the strains on the floor of the cargo area of the plane too. The dead girl came back to his father's home which means they still have their pre-vampire memories. The coroner was eaten by reviving dead bodies while he was trying to extract a strain from his arm. It was a very nice start. Hope it'll be even more gory and bloody.

Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain trilogy bares its fangs into FX.

[Brettyboy007 · 10/10 · 17 July 2014]

This is my first TV show review ever so this is how I will do them. Each episode I will do a review, then on the season finale, I will do a expansive detailed review of all the episodes of the season. Now on to the pilot review:

On July 13, the television channel FX premiered the pilot episode of The Strain. I thought the pilot was very good. It has very detailed characters and very creepy, scary moments. These are not Twilight or True Blood vampires. These are true vampires created from hell and bound to give people nightmares.

I've personally read about close to 400 pages of the first book in the trilogy and I can tell you that the pilot was pretty well close to the book. I liked how they spent a lot of time on the plane seeing what the virus did to everyone on the plane.

Ephraim and Nora are the main leads in this series. They are members of the CDC sent to investigate the plane. What they find is just the beginning of the end. I had never seen these actors before and they did a good job in my opinion playing their counterparts in the book. Sean Astin (not a little hobbit is he) plays Jim Kent who helps out Ephraim and Nora and is hiding things from them....

I was surprised Andrew Divoff was in this. I haven't seen him since Mikhail from Lost.

I'm excited to see where they take David Bradley's character or Abraham Setrakian in the show. He is a total badass in the book. I loved the people who played the survivors of the plane, and very anxious to see how they show what happens to them.

There are so many characters in the pilot and I'd honestly go on forever comparing them from their performance on the show to how they are in the book, but I will say I really like Gus's character in the book and the actor playing him.

For the special effects, I thought they were superb. Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan bring in the pilot what everyone was so afraid of in the book: The Master. And yes, he is everything I pictured him to be. His first scene is so iconic. I really wanna see his next scene. Guillermo, bring The Master in again at least 2-4 more times!

And as with every book made into a series adaptation, there are changes. But I love the changes. It's only been the pilot, so there haven't been many changes.

Scenes I absolutely loved in the pilot: 1. The plane scene 2. The Master scene 3. The morgue scene 4. Any scene with Gus 5. Eldritch Palmer's last scene (he's going to be a very evil person).

From what I can tell you, this first season still has a lot of ground to cover. Ignore the negative reviews about the acting and how they don't have room to put everything from the first book into 12 more episodes. They will.

Enjoy it. The Strain will suck you in.

Great Episode to Start the Season [8.5/10]

[panagiotis1993 · 8/10 · 23 August 2023]

Reaction / Review for The Strain Season 1 Episode 1: I've watched the series before but this time im going to review each episode. 1 hour and 11 minutes long? Sweet love it. We meet Eph or Ephraim, I guess he is one of the main characters. We also have the introduction of Setrakian, which is my favorite character from the show. So we have survivors in the plane or are they vampires now? Eichorst is such a cool character too. Wow the big vampire boss is really powerful. Its sad that Setrakian tried to warn them but they don't listen. Jim works for the vampires? Interesting. Oh boy the dead came back to life. Overall a great episode, excited for more. My rating is 8.5/10.

Disappointing Opener

[solemnphilosopher · 6/10 · 4 April 2019]

The Strain has been on my watchlist for some time and I was looking forward to finally watching the show. Perhaps my expectations were too high, because I was disappointed overall.

The show opens with a large passenger plane landing at a major airport, but there is no communication from the cockpit. Two CDC officers are tasked with entering the plane and finding out with happened.

Unfortunately for the audience, there isn't much mystery to unravel. We already know what primarily happened due to the opening scene. Subsequent side scenes also showed what the officers were about to discover or encounter. Essentially, the episode revealed too much and contained it own spoilers.

For a serious vampire show, I also thought the cinematography was a bit too bright and colorful at times. It would have liked a darker and more brooding atmosphere. It has some of those moments, but it is uneven.

Whatever the case, the pilot of a TV show often has some rough edges. I like the ideas, but perhaps not the initial execution. I am going to watch a few more episodes and give The Strain a chance to hopefully find its groove.