Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

I stumbled upon this by mistake while browsing around in Netflix so I had zero expectations going into it. Knowing Guillermo del Toro's largely striking, magical, and gorgeous previous works, I figured this would be a delicious visual treat if nothing else. That it was.

All in all this first series was highly entertaining with a diverse set of stories, themes, and visuals. I won't spoil anything but a number of the shorts feature marvelously revolting blood & gore, with little or no CGI to spoil the realism (or perhaps the lack thereof, with some extra-gory over-the-top nastiness sprinkled in).

A few of the shorts trodded along slowly but all were thoroughly enjoyable. I hope this series continues!

My rank: The Murmuring (somber drama) The Autopsy/Graveyard Rats (gruesome and uncomfortable tension) Pickman's Model/Dreams in Witch house (Creepy and haunting) The Outside (slightly disturbing) Lot 36 (unsatisfactory cliche) The Viewing (dull yellow filter)

Lot 36 Ep1 - Story premise is cliche, I was fine with it but it needed more time because it felt lacking. It's like ending a 2 hour movie in the middle as it was getting interesting.

Graveyard Rats Ep2 - Best in terms of the tense horror. I couldn't even eat my noodles as I was short of gagging with some of the scenes. I hate rats and tight spaces so this episode was just hitting my senses right. Silently screaming it to be over. David Hewlett was brilliant in this.

The Autopsy Ep3 - Body gore horror. Made me gag same as ep 2. I quite like the initial mystery and how it ended up. Slow start but the payoff after the build up is good. F. Murray Abraham delivered his character well.

The Outside Ep4 - Societal commentary horror. Not at all scary or disturbing. It just reminds me of Black Mirror vibe and would honestly not be surprised if I ever saw this in Black Mirror.

Pickman's Model Ep5 - Ben Barnes and Crispin Glover. Chef's kiss. Anyway it's like when your mind envisions everything that come to mind into something horrific.. this episode is that, you begin to question yourself what even is real.

Dreams in Witch House Ep6 - I thought Rupert was great here. I love the set. Had good creepy vibes. It somehow felt like a dark magic fantasy idk why lol.

The Viewing Ep7 - I have no words for this except HUH???. Weakest episode. Like a very bad trip.

The Murmuring Ep8 - A somber end to this anthology and my favorite. It's not thrilling or scary even with the horror elements it just felt like a heartwarming drama. It's a journey of a couple trying to get over a wall that's tearing them quietly apart. The short story is told and closed perfectly. Paired with brilliant acting of Essie and Andrew.

All episodes had good coloring and lighting as they fit the vibe (except for ep7... idk what's happening with that yellow filter) and I can see the details fine which is always a plus for me. The cinematography, cgi, practical effects were good overall as well. Music is minimal and not overbearing which is great as some horror rely too much on those basic horror sound effects to jump scare you which can get quite stale.

I really, really wanted to love this series.

Guillermo del Toro has produced some amazing horror, but this is probably not in his top 40%. Things started well, and the first three episodes are great in a non schmaltzy, Creepshow kind of way.

Episode four changed things for me. It was an undeniably female body shaming story, how far will you go to be accepted by the elite. Horror? Probably. And there were a few gratuitous moments with the taxidermy, but, not the main thrust of the story.

Loved Episode 5, based on a H. P. Lovecraft story.

Episode 6 was Okay, Ron Weasley chasing his dead sister into the after life.

Episode 7 was just plain weird, and didn't enjoy. Had a strange '70's vibe. The last episode was a poignant, but ultimately boring. This sneaked in at 6 stars as the good episodes were very good, but really a 50/50 effort.

Like Jordan Peele's recent try in a newer Twilight Zone, Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities has good production, cinematography, lighting and on occasion great atmosphere. However, for me, after watching four episodes, each have been bogged down by story and payoff. What the 1950s Twilight Zone did in only 25 minutes was astounding, not that every one was top tier amazing, but still gave a relatively coherent and well done story with interesting characters. In this day and age however, with Netflix and Paramount+ and Amazon Prime, an hour and change is the norm and it just doesn't work and I guess I hoped Toro would avoid this problem.

Every episode has setup upon setup and when it finally does get to the actually meat, there's been so many appetizers I feel full. Or the climax is so short I sit thinking, "Wait, it's over?" Even my favorite so far "The Autopsy" has Toro introduce it, giving away a vital plot point that could have been revealed later on. There's then almost half an hour until we get to said autopsy, wherein when the big twist is revealed has a James Bond villain explanation for the ages (Thanks David S. Goyer, as always).

Not that I'm opposed to world building, character introduction, atmosphere creating tension, but where minutes-watched-algorithms have replaced ratings, 1 hour+ episodes that could be edited down significantly for our enjoyment would be and should be crucial. I'm still rooting for the show, because I love anthologies, but I also know LESS is MORE.

Edit: I've watched the next four and feel they too could have been edited down to avoid redundancy, but Pickman's Model might be the exception. It was a brilliant slow decent into madness that makes Lovecraft so special. After watching all 8 I noticed scenes that could have been combined or characters cut completely. Either way, I still hope there's a season 2.

Episode 1

The story is good, the sound and settings are great, it builds up to something special, and ends everything it took 90% of the episode to destroy and make it like all the other crappy horror stories that doesn't really have a proper ending.

The ending is like a weak Twilight Zone ending, it's dumb, its cheap, where you, rather than being scared, or, entertained even ... just feel like you've wasted 45 min minutes of your life that was a cliche like all the worst and most boring horror stories.

I don't know if I should call it horror even, not a single minute that is scary. But it could have been, but the last 5 minutes are so bad that it's amazing that it got made.

Lets hope episode 2 is better.