Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

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.

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!

Guillermo del Toro introduces a series of one off takes of horror.

Each episode offers something a little different, they are all beautifully presented, well made and superbly acted, there are some great special effects, with some impressive visuals.

It's hard to score this as an overall series, as the quality varies so much, I found the order of episodes a little curious, I'm not sure I'd have gone with the first two at the start.

If you're looking for an out and out horror series, you may be a little disappointed, some episodes have it, some are just strange, with implied horror, but no real scares.

The standout episode is Autopsy, it has everything, true horror, a strong atmosphere, and was everything I hoped this series was going to be. I also really rated The Murmuring.

The Witch's house was the biggest disappointment, it was the one I looked forward to most of all, for me it just didn't work.

It's watchable, and some of them I'd watch again, some I wouldn't. 7/10.

I thought I would not review this series until I watched all 8 of the episodes.

Episodes 1 to 4 were very good but I would not call them horror per se.

Episode 5 was also very good and more humour in it than the previous ones.

Episode 6 with Rupert Grint was okay and I was disappointed with it, Rupert is a good actor and I thought he would have gone onto bigger and better things, maybe this will kick his career in to overdrive.

Episode 7 was awful, the worst out of the bunch. I was so looking forward to this one as it had Peter Weller in it, in fact if you look quickly at him he looked like David Carradine in his latter years. This one is worth a miss.

Episode 8, the final episode was the only real horror in the whole series, this one was also very good. If you like a good gothic feel horror then this one is for you.

Overall a good series of course with hit and miss episodes.