In addition to being a beloved and Oscar-winning director, Guillermo del Toro is also a tireless champion of other filmmakers. passionate twitter defense Martin Scorsese against a dismissive essay for his years earlier commentary track for his monster film “Mimic”, where he offers an unsolicited and enthusiastic recommendation of the film’s two direct-to-video sequels. (They were created without her involvement; he really likes them, possibly more than his own original!) So while many other figures take on the Alfred Hitchcock-style role as an impresario of terrifying tales may be adept at filling in, it seems especially fitting to see del Toro embody both his name and personality in “Cabinet of Curiosity,” a Netflix anthology series where eight different filmmakers are cast in a creepy and/or About an hour is given for chilling and/or puzzling horror storytelling—mainly set in the past, though that probably wasn’t a requirement.
This eclectic group of horror and horror-adjacent directors includes material that should be hotly anticipated by fans of the genre. The third episode, “The Autopsy”, is David Pryor’s first fiction work since his long-running, now cult-producing horror film “The Empty Man”, while the eighth, “The Miracle”, is the directorial debut of “The Babadook”. Jennifer represents Kent. A return to horror, as well as a reunion with Essie Davis, the star of that film.
“The Miracle” is an outlier in this series—a stately bit of haunting gothic that’s as creepy as it is domestic drama. There are several other mini-movies geared towards Lovecraftian here; Two are, in fact, based directly on H.P. Lovecraft stories, while a third is based on the story of one of his contemporaries. Oddly, the two identical tent-heavy figures that appear in two early episodes—”Lot 36,” from Guillermo Navarro, and “The Autopsy,” from Prior—are not Lovecraft creations here, nor is the mysterious object in the center. . The Viewing, from “Mandy” director Panos Cosmatos, where a different group of people gather with the promise of seeing something amazing.
Coming in as the seventh episode of eight, “The Viewing” plays almost like a parody of the pacing of some of the other stories, completing the clock with period detail and stylistic atmosphere before finally unleashing a spectacular climax. . This structure is repeated throughout the series without any mischievous winks Cosmatos brings to it. In other episodes, “Lot 36” becomes repetitive and caricatures such as a racist scavenger (Tim Blake Nelson) raiding abandoned storage lockers and “The Outside” of Anna Lily Amirpour. Similarly (and less gruesomely entertaining), the plotting of Catherine Hardwicke’s “Dreams in the Witch House” and Keith Thomas’s “Pickman Model” (both, oddly enough, actual Lovecraft adaptations) welcome their respective stories from their hour. The first goes well. ,
However, those two weaker installments include elaborate production design, effective performances, and impressive creature functions; All eight episodes have their charms, and “Cabinet of Curiosity” defies conventional wisdom about the horrifying inconsistency of mythology in the context of filmmaking. With television, at least, the format could offer a welcome disparity-by-design return to a medium that was consumed by the idea of making 10-chapter novels or 13-hour movies for the small screen. Is. If anything, “Cabinet of Curiosity” could have had a little more dissonance related to its pacing, running time, or tone; Kent’s “Rave” is a memorable season-capper, not because it’s particularly creepy (compared to his features, it’s almost hopelessly gentle), but because it’s doing something different from its siblings. Is. “The Outside” also stands out, with its mish-mashing of late 20th-century signers in a cartoonishly unspecified period. The best might even be the tiniest: “graveyard rats,” in a wild and macabre lineage that, well, sounds like a lot.
The benefit of other audiences may vary based on one director’s personal interest in a particular style and/or their personal tolerance for explicitly presented gore; “The Autopsy” is a major undertaking in both cases, cementing David Pryor’s fusion of the natural and the supernatural as almost instantly recognizable, while engaging in some literal gut-wrenching.
If the caution-telling backbone of many of these stories eventually becomes predictable, and if the running time can inspire nostalgia for days of tight network-mandated 44 minutes, the desire for a “cabinet” like del Toro The willingness to support and spotlight the various genres of filmmakers does not subside till the end.
The first two episodes of “Cabinet of Curiosity” will premiere on October 25, with two additional episodes each day until October 28.
