Le Cabinet de curiosités de Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo's long-awaited horror anthology series is a bit of a mixed bag, sadly. However I'm a huge anthology TV fan so I found I didn't lose patience with it entirely. Tonally everything is at least interesting, and while the strongest episodes for me (Prior's unbearably tense The Autopsy and Cosmatos's mesmerically specific The Viewing) didn't outstay their welcome, it's clear the main issue here was length. In stories like The Outside and The Murmuring, the drag becomes very real and plots that need only half an hour or less become almost tortuously over extended. Still, the casts are strong (although some of the accents, less so) and there are some decent scares. I hope it gets another series and we get as much variety in the runtimes as we do with the stories.

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!

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.

Guillermo del Toro is it master of visuals. I think of him as the Mexican Tim Burton of horror. He quite often get top a-listers to work for him and his films. But the acting talent and the visuals cannot overcome the terrible screenplays that were put into the show. Unfortunately, his production screenplays haven't been very good for some time. This anthology also doesn't have the best directing talent behind the camera. Many of the dialogue lines are just terribly written. It's not really the actors' fault. It's just the lines provided are bad because we have seen these actors do better work with other film directors. Guillermo del Toro should hire better screenwriters and directors and less on a-listers. The visuals alone don't make great entertainment. You really need a good screenplay to accompany it.

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.