On October 25, the first two episodes of the horror anthology Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Rarities became available for viewing on Netflix, and two more episodes each were released over the next three days. Thus, the project has eight unrelated stories, directed by different directors. In the review below, we tell why this work turned out to be, maybe not outstanding, but a good gift for Halloween.

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities

Genre horror anthology

Directed by Guillermo Navarro, Vincenzo Natali, Ana Lily Amirpour, Katherine Hardwick, David Pryor, Panos Cosmatos, Jennifer Kent, Keith Thomas

Cast : Rupert Grint, Andrew Lincoln, Ben Barnes, Tim Blake Nelson, Peter Weller, Sofia Boutella, Dan Stevens

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Development in Python

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Netflix Premiere

Release year 2022

IMDb site

Each of the episodes personally represents Guillermo del Toro, as Alfred Hitchcock or Rod Sterling once did. He wrote the script for two in collaboration with other screenwriters, and some of the stories are adaptations of works by famous writers such as Henry Kuttner or Howard Lovecraft. Since this is an anthology, we will consider each episode separately.

The first one is called “Lot No. 36” and directed by Guillermo Navarro, who was the cameraman in many films of his famous namesake. It’s about a Vietnam War veteran who has chauvinistic views and profits from things stored in a warehouse. One day, he discovers occult relics that once belonged to the Nazis, and this leads to unpredictable consequences.

The script for the series was written by del Toro himself, along with Regina Corrado. In general, the plot is devoid of surprises and loosens closer to the ending. But the story about the karma that befell the protagonist is aimed at arousing moral satisfaction in the viewer, with which the creators do an excellent job. And here you can also see Elpidia Carrillo – the same girl who once tried to escape from the Schwarzenegger squad in the “Predator”.

The second episode, “Cemetery Rats” by Vincenzo Natali, is based on the short story of the same name by Henry Kuttner. He takes the viewer to the beginning of the 20th century and introduces him to the unfortunate overseer of the cemetery, Masson, who owes a large amount of money. To pay, he undertakes to dig up graves and remove jewelry from the dead, and in some cases pull out gold teeth. One day, the hero tries to get to the valuables of a recently buried rich man, but ends up in the underground labyrinths of cemetery rats.

Natalie, who once made her feature film debut with her successful Cube, offers a horror aesthetic, sometimes reminiscent of Deltor’s own style. There is also a character like Rasputin from Hellboy, and obvious parallels with Mutants, and visual metaphors … Perhaps this small plot is not capable of scaring, but it definitely does not allow you to tear yourself away from the screen.

The next episode, “Autopsy”, is an adaptation of a Michael Shea short story written by David S. Goyer and directed by David Pryor. The action takes place, apparently, in the 70s. An experienced pathologist comes to his friend and part-time local sheriff in Millbrook to help with the investigation of the tragedy at the mine, which killed ten people. But in the midst of the process, he encounters a mysterious, sinister and very vile entity.

This story lacks intelligible suspense, but you really want to know how it all ends. It starts as something detective, then resembles the movie “The Demon Within”, after which it turns into a story about another voracious “Venom”.

The fourth episode is titled “The Outside” and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, based on the webcomic by Emily Carroll. At the center of the story is a young woman, Stacey, who is not satisfied with her own appearance and tries to fix it with the help of a miracle lotion advertised on TV. Advertises the drug, by the way, Dan Stevens in an amazing cameo.

The plot here is the furthest away from the horror genre, which can be a bit perplexing and disappointing. This is emphatically hypertrophied (look at least in the eyes of the main character) surrealistic satire. She tries to ridicule the desire to “improve” herself at any cost, to be like everyone else, to be “in trend”, as well as dependence on the propaganda TV screen. It is not for nothing that the characters stand rooted to the spot and cannot take their eyes off even the microwave when frozen sausages in dough for lunch are heated in it.

The fifth and sixth series are adaptations of the stories “Pickman’s Model” and “Dreams in the Witch’s House” by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The first story follows art university student Will Thurber who one day encounters the whimsical work of Richard Pickman. These terrible pictures open to the hero the other side of not only the fine arts, but also life itself. The second one introduces the viewer to the young man Walter Gilman, who is trying to get to the Kingdom of the Dead and return his dead sister from there. But on his way appears the evil witch Kezia Mason, who was executed in Salem in 1692.

Both works are stories perfectly stylized as 20-30s of the last century. Despite the fact that the plot moves and details have been changed compared to the original sources, visually and atmospherically, directors Keith Thomas and Catherine Hardwicke were able to successfully transfer the famous Lovecraftian horrors to the screen. And if the “Pickman Model”, although it fascinates with its gothic atmosphere, but slowly narrates, which sometimes makes you bored, then “Dreams in the Witch’s House” is a much more dynamic, fascinating and, finally, creepy story.

The next series of Panos Kosmatos “View” gathers a company of figures in various fields of science and culture visiting an obscenely wealthy man. The last one was played by Peter Weller, the same one from RoboCop. In addition to the consumption of expensive whiskey and surprisingly pure cocaine, the heroes should see something fantastic prepared by a hospitable rich man. But they are unlikely to like what they see.

Cosmatos, who staged the insane Mandy with the equally insane Nicolas Cage five years ago, regales the viewer with the aesthetics of flowers of the most famous giallo Dario Argento and a soundtrack from the 80s. This is a strange psychedelic journey into the unknown. It consists mainly of interesting dialogue, but stylistically it is clearly out of line with a number of dark Lovecraftian plots or gloomy stories of the King type.

Finally, the final episode, “Murmuration,” directed by new-wave horror film The Babadook director Jennifer Kent, introduces ornithologist couple Nancy and Edgar. They recently lost a child, so in order not to go crazy, they decided to put all their efforts into work, namely the study of birds.

A very leisurely narration can seem boring. But what seems like a banal story about an old scary haunted house, in reality, turns out to be a story about an attempt to come to terms with a big loss, to accept it, to realize it. In general, this is how this horror anthology turned out: diverse, stylish, uneven and expectedly metaphorical.