The Outside

Episode four of Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities is the strangest one yet, but is a lot of fun thanks to bold direction by Ana Lily Amirpour and a terrific central performance from Kate Micucci as social misfit Stacey, whose unusual looks lead her to try Alo Glo, an expensive skin cream that the TV adverts guarantee can transform a person inside and out. That it does, eventually turning the once gawky gal into a babe as promised but driving her to murder in the process. Miccuci is wonderfully weird as Stacey, her mannerisms suitably bizarre, her unorthodox appearance accentuated by some false teeth and a nasty hair-do.

Amirpour's stylish, surreal visuals perfectly compliment the craziness of the plot: Stacey's co-workers slathering each other with Alo Glo at a Secret Santa party is hilariously OTT (reminding me of the shunting scene from Society) and Stacey making out with a 'lotion being' in her basement is off-the-charts absurd. The ending might be lacking in genuine surprises, but the ride there is so enjoyably offbeat that it matters not.

Kate Micucci is as wonderful as she ever is but I have to parrot the other reviews in that as a whole, this episode felt off. The editing was a little clunky, the narrative structure felt held together with pva glue and the overall message was...contradictory, I guess?

I do, however want to talk about this from a personal level because of all the episode in this series, this was the only one I had to turn off; NOT because it is average, but because it genuinely scared me. Perhaps this review will be a little tangential and bias in an unusual way but I'm sat here after finally watching the second half and feel compelled to talk about it.

I am a sufferer of what's known as TSW. If you haven't heard of TSW, that's perfectly fine. TSW stands for Topical Steroid Withdrawal and is what happens when one overapplies topical cortical steroids to their skin. It is a jarring, horrific process to undergo and I say this as a man who loathes talking about my struggles. Topical steroids are precribed for dermatitis and eczema and very frequently, they are the go to solution for short term skin problems. For good reason too, they work very effectively. However when overprescribed, or prescribed in too large a dosage, they can lead to a dependency and full frontal physical addiction.

This is what happened to me.

Much like the AloGlo man, I was told this miracle cream would heal me and that it was the answer to my itchy, imperfect skin. I was advised to use it for over a year, starting with weak steroidal creams and slowly ramping up the dosage as my skikn developped a tolerance to the therapy. See, one issue is that when people come off of short term steroid use, the skin can have a mild adverse reaction. With symptoms presenting very similarly to the eczema that caused the prescription in the first place. I saw 4 different doctors and two different private dermatologists and every single conversation left me with the advice that steroids were my cure.

The only way to get off the steroids is cold turkey quitting.

Let me tell you, however bad my eczema felt or however itchy I was DOES NOT COMPARE to the hell that has been the last two years of my life. Just Like Micucci's character in this episode my life was spend with dry, cracked, bloody skin from head to toe. I became unable to work, I feared leaving the house as my appearance became so ghastly i couldn't stand to look at myself.

Micucci's line "If i'm perfect then why do I want to cut my skin off and throw it in the garbage?" was one of the hardest hitting lines of dialogue i've heard in a while. I physically couldn't watch her claw at her skin because this was my life for so long. Scratching myself raw, praying that the burning would stop.

I am fully self aware that this review has become something of a wet sob story but It highlights something about film ideology. Horror is subjective and can absolutely spring from an individual's personal experience. While I dislike the episode as a consumer of Netflix. The impact this episode had on me has shaken me.

If you know anyone suffering from TSW please make sure they are okay. I urge anyne reading this to do a brief google search and learn a small amount about TSW. I don;t advocate for many things, but my current mission is to prevent as much suffering at the hands of steroidal creams as possible.

Except for the performance of Kate Micucci, nothing is memorable about this episode. The only I gave it an 6 is because the strong performance from her. Interesting premiere at the start but then nothing ground-breaking happens until the very end of the episode. And it wasn't giving any explaination or any backstory, it just happens and you have to accept it. Overall, the worst episode so far and unnecessary long. If only Lot 36 was this song it would have been a better episode.

Plot : Longing to fit in at work, awkward Stacey begins to use a popular lotion that causes an alarming reaction, while an unnerving transformation takes shape.

The horrors of fitting in, looking the part & making friends, "The Outside" forces viewers to examine the horrifying things people do to fit in and the lengths they will go to be liked. Society often judges people by their "outside" appearance, rather than what's inside, and the people being misjudged wrongly accept the critiques made toward them, when they shouldn't be listening to what they think in the first place, but we're only human, right?

The horrors that unfold are all courtesy of a social commentary that sends the protagonist on a descent into the madness of vanity, but, it's all just a little too messy. There's a lot of other subtext being thrown around, and none of it is subtle at all. It's very in your face. It's predictable. And while it's disturbing, I can't help but feel that it was rather empty.

Kate Micucci is weird and wonderful! Dan Stevens is pure gold. The kill is gnarly as hell! The score is chilling. And some of the camera work is top notch. But this just wasn't my cup of tea!

I shouldn't be surprised to see all the low ratings... But this episode was incredible!

Like many anthology shows, this has been hit and miss for me but I was generally underwhelmed with the series so far...and then this little gem came on. Wow!

If you like slow burn atmosphere, under your skin body horror, dark comedy, social satire, great acting, retro feels and great direction, then this is the episode for you!

If you're looking for generic tropes, CG monster and a ton of gore, well, there lots of that on Netflix for you.

Ana Lily Amirpour is exactly what this show needed to shake it out of genericland.