The Strain - Season 1, Episode 2 "The Box" Review

            Some people claim that jump scares in horror movies should be gotten rid of and never used. They say that jump scares add nothing to the movie, and just take away from it. Though, there are people who think that jump scares can be used for a good reason and can boost the quality of the movie. Others don’t consider these jump scares. In this episode of The Strain, there may be a couple of jump scares, but they do surely add to the movie. There is no added “boom” sound to make the audience jump, and thanks to David Semel’s talent in directing, it makes the episode much scarier than it was before.

            In this episode of The Strain, we learn more about Efraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll), we see symptoms of the survivors, and Mia Maestro (Nora Martinez) and Efraim try to keep the survivors quarantined while they grow stranger symptoms.

            While this episode may not be as good as the first, and David Semel’s direction may not match up to Guillermo del Toro’s, it is still a very good continuation. As far as the script goes, there’re some very smart additions to it. I enjoyed learning more about Efraim. The audience is able to learn about this situation he’s in, and sympathize with him, like I did. The dialogue is very smartly thought-out here. It does feel very real, while also being compelling and entertaining. The way the plot is taken in this episode makes it all the more interesting, too. However, there is one aspect of the episode that do make it seem like something written up just to progress the plot, or possibly have something entertaining happen. The conversation at the jail between Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) and Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel) seems shoehorned into the episode just so we can see a hero/villain conversation. What did Thomas seek to gain by visiting Abraham at the prison? Why did he go?

            David Semel’s style of direction for this episode was nothing special for portions of the episode, but it did stand out at some times. The color scheme in this episode was very well fleshed out and looked good, although not as good as it did in episode one. However, the scares in this episode are as good as they were under del Toro’s direction. Although they technically were “jump scares”, what was meant to scare the audience was the fact that there was a sudden, loud noise and something happened very abruptly, it was what was happening then and horrors of it. Semel directed these scenes very well. The camerawork for the episode has its moments from time to time, as well. The framing of the shots comes to play during some of the scenes. Although the direction did not always stand out as great throughout the entire episode, David Semel did do a very good job in accomplishing what he was trying to obtain.

            With the story of the series thought-out well enough that a conventional premise was taken and made into a slightly original plot and a direction that paces the episode well and really delivers in the horror scenes, this episode was very good. I enjoyed watching it quite a bit, and I am very interested in what will happen next.