Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities is a much needed supernatural horror anthology series of eight short films on Netflix with frequent Lovecraftian elements, even (loosely) adapting two of his stories and another two being based on short stories written by del Toro. Suffice it to say, anticipation was high, and I knew he would deliver something with uniqueness and a commitment to the weird and otherworldly with the involvement of quality directors and writers, a much more successful endeavor than Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone for example. Cabinet… actually resembles The Twilight Zone, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents as well, with Guillermo appearing onscreen and giving a little intro to each episode. I love the whole idea of this project, and the chosen directors seemed generally qualified; for the most part, Cabinet delivers, though it’s a bit uneven and none of the stories really connect to each other aside from some themes and a few easter eggs. Broadly, I feel like the better episodes could’ve been fleshed out and expanded on by 30 minutes into great feature films, my favorite of them all being The Autopsy by far. There are plenty of flaws to be found too, like unsatisfying endings for a few, with easily the worst episode being The Outside. Cabinet of Curiosities is an enjoyable descent into the fantastical, presenting an inconsistent but overall solid collection of artistically made supernatural/sci-fi horror short films.
The first of the eight episodes, Lot 36, is a curious tale about a bigoted veteran indebted to criminals named Nick (Tim Blake Nelson from O Brother Where Are Thou, Holes, and The Incredible Hulk) working at a derelict storage facility who runs a scheme with a co-worker to cash out on valuables within abandoned units. spoilers A number of discoveries find him and another character discovering within lot 36 a secret passageway leading to a chamber with a desiccated corpse of the owner’s sister hosting a Cthulhu-like tentacled demon on the floor in a ritualistic circle. Nick idiotically walks through the magic circle, breaking the spell and unleashing the entity which soon dispatches of him and his companion. Then it just ends. Lot 36 was intriguing enough, but too much time was spent on Nick and his hostility toward the world. The occult mystery leading to the wonderfully creepy room was far more interesting to me. Despite an element of karma, with a character he earlier wronged locking the exit door right before he’s eaten, the climax is still so brief. There needed to be more to this story including the background of the storage unit beyond just that the recently deceased European occultist owner regularly visited for years with a bag of feed, as Nick discovers on CCTV footage. I loved the spirit of it though and totally eat up that type of mystery onscreen or in literature.
Another story, The Viewing, was a bit stronger with some nice hallucinatory visuals courtesy of the very stylish director Panos Cosmatos, who did the recent Mandy starring Nicolas Cage, and a strong cast which included Robocop’s Peter Weller, but ended basically the same way as Lot 36 did with a strange entity presenting itself, wreaking havoc, and being unleashed onto the world. The second story is another highlight, Graveyard Rats, though also follows a doomed lowlife character in debt to criminals and desperate to make it rich, just like Nick. The strengths of Graveyard Rats however lies in the details, being deliciously macabre and with a number of supernatural flourishes that result in a wickedly fun, nasty watch that doesn’t overstay its welcome. The final episode based on a story by del Toro, The Murmuring, is a soulful, nearly feature film length ghost story meets domestic drama centered on an ornithologist couple reckoning with grief over their recently deceased daughter at a secluded, haunted country house. It's perhaps a bit sleepy and not exactly super original, but another highlight of the series. The best however is The Autopsy, a gruesome and very clever body horror-alien invasion story starring F. Murray Abraham from Amadeus that might be the best short horror movie I’ve ever seen.
Despite all the enjoyment I had with the aforementioned episodes, the others are pretty flawed. The two H. P. Lovecraft adaptations, which I was excited for as a big Lovecraft fan, are decent and watchable but pretty middle-of-the-road. They’re hardly what you’d call faithful to the original stories either. Dreams in the Witch-House is more of a dark fantasy type of plot that largely foregoes the cosmic elements of the original story and makes it too basic. There’s also an eyebrow raising blackly comedic ending where a mischievous rat-man ends up possessing the protagonist, played by Rupert Grint, which I can’t imagine was meant to be taken seriously at all given Ron Weasley and his pet rat, Scabbers, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And then Pickman’s Model is pretty dull but worth watching for a wonderfully hammy Crispin Glover performance and a nice demon creature cameo. The creatures and monsters featured in the series were partially or fully designed by del Toro, who nailed it of course. The ending goes too far though; it’s repetitive to have yet another nihilistic and not exactly satisfying ending just like Lot 36, Graveyard Rats, The Outside, and The Viewing sort of. Neither of the two stories feel much like Lovecraft, going into more over-the-top territory and not interested in being too depthful, subtle, or truly scary. If you’re a horror fan with a strong stomach and don’t mind some camp, I’d happily recommend Cabinet of Curiosities for an entertaining, spooky diversion with its heart in the right place that engages with the imagination.
Review by Ben K.BlockedParentSpoilers2023-12-31T15:10:28Z
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities is a much needed supernatural horror anthology series of eight short films on Netflix with frequent Lovecraftian elements, even (loosely) adapting two of his stories and another two being based on short stories written by del Toro. Suffice it to say, anticipation was high, and I knew he would deliver something with uniqueness and a commitment to the weird and otherworldly with the involvement of quality directors and writers, a much more successful endeavor than Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone for example. Cabinet… actually resembles The Twilight Zone, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents as well, with Guillermo appearing onscreen and giving a little intro to each episode. I love the whole idea of this project, and the chosen directors seemed generally qualified; for the most part, Cabinet delivers, though it’s a bit uneven and none of the stories really connect to each other aside from some themes and a few easter eggs. Broadly, I feel like the better episodes could’ve been fleshed out and expanded on by 30 minutes into great feature films, my favorite of them all being The Autopsy by far. There are plenty of flaws to be found too, like unsatisfying endings for a few, with easily the worst episode being The Outside. Cabinet of Curiosities is an enjoyable descent into the fantastical, presenting an inconsistent but overall solid collection of artistically made supernatural/sci-fi horror short films.
The first of the eight episodes, Lot 36, is a curious tale about a bigoted veteran indebted to criminals named Nick (Tim Blake Nelson from O Brother Where Are Thou, Holes, and The Incredible Hulk) working at a derelict storage facility who runs a scheme with a co-worker to cash out on valuables within abandoned units. spoilers A number of discoveries find him and another character discovering within lot 36 a secret passageway leading to a chamber with a desiccated corpse of the owner’s sister hosting a Cthulhu-like tentacled demon on the floor in a ritualistic circle. Nick idiotically walks through the magic circle, breaking the spell and unleashing the entity which soon dispatches of him and his companion. Then it just ends. Lot 36 was intriguing enough, but too much time was spent on Nick and his hostility toward the world. The occult mystery leading to the wonderfully creepy room was far more interesting to me. Despite an element of karma, with a character he earlier wronged locking the exit door right before he’s eaten, the climax is still so brief. There needed to be more to this story including the background of the storage unit beyond just that the recently deceased European occultist owner regularly visited for years with a bag of feed, as Nick discovers on CCTV footage. I loved the spirit of it though and totally eat up that type of mystery onscreen or in literature.
Another story, The Viewing, was a bit stronger with some nice hallucinatory visuals courtesy of the very stylish director Panos Cosmatos, who did the recent Mandy starring Nicolas Cage, and a strong cast which included Robocop’s Peter Weller, but ended basically the same way as Lot 36 did with a strange entity presenting itself, wreaking havoc, and being unleashed onto the world. The second story is another highlight, Graveyard Rats, though also follows a doomed lowlife character in debt to criminals and desperate to make it rich, just like Nick. The strengths of Graveyard Rats however lies in the details, being deliciously macabre and with a number of supernatural flourishes that result in a wickedly fun, nasty watch that doesn’t overstay its welcome. The final episode based on a story by del Toro, The Murmuring, is a soulful, nearly feature film length ghost story meets domestic drama centered on an ornithologist couple reckoning with grief over their recently deceased daughter at a secluded, haunted country house. It's perhaps a bit sleepy and not exactly super original, but another highlight of the series. The best however is The Autopsy, a gruesome and very clever body horror-alien invasion story starring F. Murray Abraham from Amadeus that might be the best short horror movie I’ve ever seen.
Despite all the enjoyment I had with the aforementioned episodes, the others are pretty flawed. The two H. P. Lovecraft adaptations, which I was excited for as a big Lovecraft fan, are decent and watchable but pretty middle-of-the-road. They’re hardly what you’d call faithful to the original stories either. Dreams in the Witch-House is more of a dark fantasy type of plot that largely foregoes the cosmic elements of the original story and makes it too basic. There’s also an eyebrow raising blackly comedic ending where a mischievous rat-man ends up possessing the protagonist, played by Rupert Grint, which I can’t imagine was meant to be taken seriously at all given Ron Weasley and his pet rat, Scabbers, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And then Pickman’s Model is pretty dull but worth watching for a wonderfully hammy Crispin Glover performance and a nice demon creature cameo. The creatures and monsters featured in the series were partially or fully designed by del Toro, who nailed it of course. The ending goes too far though; it’s repetitive to have yet another nihilistic and not exactly satisfying ending just like Lot 36, Graveyard Rats, The Outside, and The Viewing sort of. Neither of the two stories feel much like Lovecraft, going into more over-the-top territory and not interested in being too depthful, subtle, or truly scary. If you’re a horror fan with a strong stomach and don’t mind some camp, I’d happily recommend Cabinet of Curiosities for an entertaining, spooky diversion with its heart in the right place that engages with the imagination.