Titled “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” it promises more than absolutely necessary and delivers on it.
Del Toro, the strongest brand name in the horror business, did not direct any of the Netflix anthology’s eight short films, which premiere this Tuesday through Friday. However, he enlisted a writer and director, and the series shows signs of a curator’s hand.
For one, the latex monster. Most episodes—his 7 out of 8 by my count—include creatures that are at least partially actual elaborate structures of the type that Toro skillfully deployed in his own films. is built in. In Vincenzo Natali’s “Graveyard Rats,” the giant Rat Queen bares her fangs. In Keith Thomas’ “Pickman’s Model,” the bug-eyed Lovecraftian beast roars.of Anna Lily Amirpour In the self-improvement fable “The Outside,” goo is layered on an actress (Reese Johnston) who plays beauty products that go beyond bottles.
The regular appearance of these creatures unfortunately ties into another common thread that stands out even more: “Cabinet of Curiosities” isn’t all that terrifying.
Like Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock, Del Toro briefly introduces each installment, opening the title’s towering cabinet doors and drawers to bring out objects that reflect the episode’s theme. I’m picky about those segments that are Taken as a whole, the film has a drawing-room flavor that is almost all period and quasi-literary puzzle-his-box aesthetic that wears you out over nearly eight hours. “Cabinet” has a wealth of visual talent on display, but no corresponding storytelling imagination.
The characters and real surprises are, for the most part, less interesting or reluctant to solve puzzles in the original story. Authored by Del Toro and Regina Corrado) is a great example. Tim Blake Nelson gives a compelling and spiky performance as an angry Reagan-era Vietnam veteran (an early adopter of white substitution theory). If the contents of the locker he obtains contain Nazi-tainted occult powers, you will wait with interest to see what the punch line will be. But really, it’s not just latex messiness.
The Amirpour episode is this season’s most telling example of horror as cultural commentary. Stacey, played by Kate Micucci, is a gossipy, appearance-obsessed, reality TV crew member who resembles her cast, a nagging bank teller who is threatened by her co-workers. Her tropes of inner beauty and outer beauty are complicated by Stacey’s weirdness. Her hobby, which resonates with her subject matter, is taxidermy, enshrining the outer beauty of animals by replacing their internal parts with Styrofoam.
She’s an easy target for the face cream wedged into late-night infomercials, and Amirpour brings wit to the depth of Stacey’s obsession with remaking herself. The scene in which she confronts her first Lotion Monster is an amusing echo of Blue Man’s group skit. But there isn’t much done to the screenplay written by Haley Z. Boston beyond the usual grotesque. When the story ends, it’s a short one of her ideas.
Like “Pickman’s Model” and other HP Lovecraft adaptations “Dreams in the Witch House”, more like episodes given a slightly joking Hammer Films feel by “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke. Episodes without conceptual weight are more successful. A standalone story, but not as exhilarating as horror. Written by David S. Goyer and directed by David Prior, Autopsy by F. Murray plays Abraham as a coroner who discovers something unexpected while conducting a post-mortem on a mining accident victim. benefits from good performance.
However, like any good Halloween tote, the “cabinet” contains one real treat, underneath healthy snacks and candy corn. Written and directed by Jennifer Kent (“The Babadook”), the final episode, “The Murmuring,” happens to be the one to do without highly engineered creatures. It is a heartrending ghost story that combines the visual motif of “birds” and the atmosphere of “rotating screws”. There are also some genuinely terrifying moments that were accomplished through suggestions and editing rather than special effects.
Andrew Lincoln and Essie Davis are graceful and dependable as a married ornithologist trying to recover from a family tragedy. It is clear from the habit of greeting each other… Mizukami The wife, a major scientist, not only battles her own demons, but also the condescension of men who want to believe she imagines things. Kent thinks it all through, and when “The Murmuring” comes to an end, it’s moving and satisfying in a way the rest of the series hasn’t reached.