‘Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet Of Curiosities’ Review: This Horror Anthology Fails To Do The One Job It Had – Scare Us!
Watching a horror movie or series seems the perfect way to ring in the Halloween holiday, doesn’t it? Just close the blinds, switch off the lights, huddle up in a cosy blanket and turn on the TV. Aah, a true Halloween celebration indeed for those who do not prefer to party! And the thrill of it increases tenfold when the movie or series you are watching is super spooky. Like the kind that gives you chills and induces goosebumps. Well, in the spirit of this spooky season, I, too, binged on the brand new show, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, on Netflix. It is an anthology horror series with eight hour-long episodes that delve into different kinds of horrors.
The series is created by the Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro whose brilliant body of work includes Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape Of Water. The ensemble cast of the series includes some of the biggest names like Ben Barnes, Rupert Grint, Andrew Lincoln, Crispin Glover, and Tim Blake Nelson among others. del Toro introduces each episode standing alongside an actual mysterious cabinet that has many secret compartments and drawers. As he talks about each new episode, he reveals a new item from the cabinet. Having binged on it in one go, I went through a roller coaster of emotions. There were times when I felt genuinely scared and there were times when I was yawning 10-minutes into the episode as well.
Some of the episodes in this series are based on short stories penned by other authors which are adapted onto the big screen. The episodes in order are named – ‘Lot 36’, ‘Graveyard Rats’, ‘The Autopsy’, ‘The Outside’, ‘Pickman’s Model’, ‘Dreams in the Witch House’, ‘The Viewing’ and ‘The Murmuring’. Of which, I personally loved the first three! These were brilliant in every sense. The writing, the horror element, the story, the casting and the pace of the episodes were all perfect. Totally gave me the freaks, these three.
What I loved about ‘Lot 36’ was the underlying surprise element of it. It very well put forward the message of ‘what goes around, comes around’. And its spooky story also made sense. It was not just random things put together to make up a horror story. ‘Graveyard Rats’ also had a similar theme where it highlighted the downside of being greedy. Also, it was funny and horrifying in equal measures which balanced the story well. ‘The Autopsy’ was brilliant! I loved the alien horror theme it was based on. Perfect logical explanations for every act the villain did, made the story all the more believable and spooky. The consistency in these three episodes raised my expectations from the other five so much that I thought the entries series is going to be a spooky bangin’ hit!
‘The Outside’, ‘Pickman’s Model’, ‘Dreams in the Witch House’, ‘The Viewing’, and ‘The Murmuring’ went downhill for me. The storylines of all these episodes felt very random and had no connection within either. Of all, I was particularly disappointed with ‘The Outside’ despite it having a solid theme. It focused on unrealistic beauty standards and the lengths women go to achieve them. The episode was also directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, and I wished she established a better connection between horror and beauty.
‘Pickman’s Model’ featured Ben Barnes and Crispin Glover, and the casting itself got me excited! But at the end of the episode, I felt ‘what did I even watch and why?’ The story felt incomplete and not pieced together properly. ‘Dreams in the Witch House’ had Rupert Grint in the prominent role, and I could not contain my excitement to see how he would bring the horror to the screen. The episode was severely underwhelming. It felt like the makers had taken the plot from an episode of Ssshhh… Phir Koi Hai, and remade it in Hindi.
Coming to the next one, ‘The Viewing’, I believe that there was no need for this episode in this series. It was neither horrifying nor spooky but rather was a waste of the time and effort put into making it. Three-fourths of the episode was just a bunch of people having drugs and getting to know each other. And the remaining one-fourth fell flat at the climax. I literally went ‘hain?’ after the episode ended. The last one of the series, ‘The Murmuring’, was more of a Discovery episode on bird watching than a part of a horror anthology. There were certain elements that felt remotely scary but other than that, it was fairly predictable.
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The last five episodes more felt like creepy stories rather than horror ones. The inconsistency in the plots of the last five episodes broke the horror streak for me. I was yawning through most of the episodes after the third one. Plus, given how Guillermo del Toro gave a bit of backstory about the episode, it built up the excitement for them. I wish more thought was put into curating the latter five stories. They were laced with laziness more than horror as if they were made just for the sake of making.
I am a huge fan of the horror genre, and movies and series like The Haunting Of The Hill House, The Haunting Of Bly Manor, Insidious, The Grudge, Evil Dead, The Amityville Horror and others will remain my forever favourites. The storylines of these movies/series are what I consider to be truly horrifying, the kind that gives you sleepless nights.
Also, having read horror books by Stephen King and Shirly Jackson, I have high hopes when anything related to the genre. It is heavily disappointing when the content does not live up to the expectation. So, if you are asking whether to watch Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, I would suggest you watch the first three episodes full izzat se, the other five. you can watch it at 1.25x speed, and be done with them!
First Published: October 31, 2022 12:17 PM
