The thought of having a parasite in your body is scary enough because it can cause serious side effects. But what if a parasite can take control of your body and transform it at will? That's the case of "Parasyte: The Grey", a sci-fi series from South Korea about a race of parasitic creatures from outer space which seek to dominate all of Earth.

The first episode is all about a girl whose body hosts a parasitic creature from outer space. The creature wasn't able to fully control the body because the parasite coincidentally entered the girl's body while it was about to die. The parasite needs to heal the girl's body to survive which in turn incapacitates its ability to fully control the girl's body.

"Parasyte: The Grey " was able to take my attention by way of nice opening scenes, and a great music background followed by a creepy scene of a male being taken as a host by a parasite which fully took control.

Check out the image below that I took as a screenshot, creepy and scary, isn't it?

I thought the parasite would only fully take control of the consciousness of the host but it turns out it is only able to transform its host's head into anything that they like which can also be transformed into some form of weapon to kill humans who are not infected by their kind.

Check out the screenshot below that I took from an episode when a parasite transformed the head of its host

By the way, I like the style of introduction to the characters of this series. I think I haven't seen it before. Also, the sound effects of the opening scene are very catchy and very relevant to the genre. The technique is like some form of black-and-white collage with overlapping black-and-white versions of the face of the character

Check out the screenshot below on the style of character introduction of this episode.

"Parasyte: The Grey" brilliantly portrays the suspense and mystery in one of the scenes of the female protagonist. The suspense began when the protagonist was followed by a man she had heated exchange hours ago. She was stabbed but then a mystery ensues when her attacker was killed instantly. As it turns out she already has in her a parasite that can only take control of its hosts for about fifteen minutes.

Using other situations to lessen the fatigue of the main narrative adds some elements to the episode to ease up fatigue on the subject. This technique is common in the film industry and I think directors use it to add some suspense and thrill to the series or movies.

The police raid of the hideout of the parasite's organization shows how capable the raiders are by showing their skills and technique in handling a raid. It is a job well done regarding the gunfight. Although it is not actually a gunfight because the other side does not have guns, instead, they use their head to transform into some kind of weapon.

The style of acting of the lone female officer on raiding them surprises me because her energy seems to be "not very serious" in the face of human extinction. Her dialogue should have a lot of weight while emphasizing the threat to human existence. Though it brings something new to the series I think they should have made it a little bit different to fit the narrative of human existence.

I must say that this episode has all it takes to convince me to watch all the episodes. Although I am not fully sold to some of the scenes they did not affect the narrative in a very negative way.

The effects actually were very impressive especially when a parasite transforms the head of its host into something depending on the situation.

Although I was able to guess the situation of the female protagonists I did not expect that the parasite was not able to completely take control of her body (it can only take control of the body in about fifteen minutes).

The use of paper and pen to make the communication between the host and the parasite is brilliant. I thought that the parasite could telepathically able to talk to its host but I was wrong. Instead, they use paper and pencil to allow the communication of the host and the parasite.

If I am going to rate this episode I am giving it 7/10 although I gave it 8/10 at the beginning together with the raid scene because I was really impressed. But something at the end made me rate it 7/10 because of the lack or urgency in the ending scene to show the weight of the danger of human extinction.

@chenee is a bartender by profession, a plain housewife caring for my family. I love pancit, I love to play online games, and I also love to sing and dance