Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition and it seems to have arrived early on Star World Premiere HD. The channel that takes pride in bringing the biggest and most critically acclaimed shows to India is set to premiere the two spookiest shows of television – Ryan Murphy’s Horror Anthology series American Horror Story Season 6 and Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s horror drama The Strain Season 3.
The vampire drama The Strain is set to return for its third season on 3 September at 11 pm in India and stars Corey Stoll (House of Cards), David Bradley (Argus Filch in the Harry Potter film series and Walder Frey in Game of Thrones) and Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) in the lead roles. The Strain comes from a trilogy of novels written by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Hellboy) and Chuck Hogan, who wrote the novel, Prince of Thieves that Ben Affleck used as the basis for The Town.
Regarding the concept, del Toro sought to de-romanticize vampires, which have been humanized and turned into love interests in recent years. During the launch of the series, del Toro had said: “Vampires have been romanticised. We’ve kind of de-fanged them. I wanted to do this not as a movement, but as an alternative. It is gory, but not gory for the sake of being gory. I would say it’s biologically curious. But the way the vampires breed is truly brutal.”
The thriller started with an investigation into a mysterious viral outbreak in New York City with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. As the strain spreads, the head of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team and his team wage war for the fate of humanity itself. The season three begins with New York City being written off by the federal government, leaving the remaining residents fighting for survival on their own in this battleground.
Next in the line-up is the much-awaited Season 6 of American Horror Story that will mark its debut on 18 September at 11:30 pm in India. Each year, Ryan Murphy gives television it’s most bafflingly and sinister hour of television with American Horror Story and this year seems even more intriguing as the show creators have kept the theme of forthcoming Season 6 a closely guarded secret. However, the cast-members Evan Peters, Matt Bomer, Leslie Jordan, Cheyenne Jackson, Lady Gaga, Sarah Paulson and Angela Bassett have confirmed their involvement for season6.
Ryan Murphy had hinted on the Season 6 during an interview last fall, “We’re doing something we’ve never done before on a show where we’re doing two different groups of writer’s rooms. Some of our writers will be bouncing around, but a whole different group is coming in late August. The next thing we’re crafting up is very, very different than [Season 5]. Not smaller. Not just not opulent. More rogue and more dark.”
This year also marks many firsts for the series as it is the first time that the series is making a debut outside of October in its history and it is the first season to not release a subtitle, before the premiere, since its launch!