Guillermo del Toro is an absolute treasure and you cannot convince us otherwise. Are all his movies perfect? Of course not, but you cannot say they are not made with love and attention and, even more important now than ever, they are largely original stories – at the very least, original spins on familiar stories. He has, through sheer force of will, created a brand you can associate with his style of macabre, scintillating, peculiar supernatural horror. Whether it is The Pale Man in what might be his masterpiece, Pan’s Labyrinth or his bizarro take on Pinocchio, del Toro is a visionary.
Which brings us to his newest television series, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, a collection of episodes for which he serves as a kind curatorial mastermind. Think Rod Serling’s role for The Twilight Zone if Serling was fifty percent more goofy looking. It is a role del Toro seems excited to play, as this series gives him a chance to highlight directors and writers he has worked with in the past but whose names do not carry the same weight as his own. The list of collaborators here includes both established names, like Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) and Panos Cosmatos (Mandy), and some complete newcomers, but each bring their unique spin to the proceedings. Cabinet of Curiosities is also the perfect way to experience horror storytelling. There are a few good anthology horror series going and it works so well in part due to the brevity of the stories. While some set-ups could probably be stretched into feature-length movies, the majority of these are the perfect length, ranging somewhere between 40 and 60 minutes in runtime. In an attempt to highlight some of the best, we ranked each episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities from worst to best.
8. “Dreams in the Witchhouse”
There are a lot of examples of horror movies that concern themselves with grief, especially over the last few years. You can see why this works so well. Grief — more than monsters and ghouls and things that go bump in the night — is perhaps the scariest and most realistic horror that all of us will experience at some point in our lives. It is, sadly, an inevitability, which is why it can be so terrifying. “Dreams in the Witch House”, the sixth installment in Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, is a story that centers grief alongside all kinds of other supernatural events. The episode stars Rupert Grint as Walter Gilman, a man attempting to revive his dead twin sister. As you might have guessed, this desire to play God does not quite go as planned.
7. “Lot 36”
Lot 36 was the first of the series’ eight episodes and while there were plenty of jump scares and one very interesting creature creation, it is uneven at best. Directed by Guillermo Navarro, a co-collaborator of del Toro’s for nearly his whole career, this story is actually based on an original idea of del Toro’s and follows a Vietnam veteran (played by Tim Blake Nelson) who bids on the storage lockers of the deceased of the destitute. It’s a decent set-up, as we are introduced to a mysterious locker with plenty of secrets, including the fact that its owner was a Nazi. Things escalate from there but ultimately things become a little too crazy for their own good, with little in the way of character development or explanation to keep things grounded.
6. “The Outside”
Del Toro and company turn toward traditionally comic actors for this installment starring Kate Micucci and Martin Starr (Silicon Valley, Knocked Up) as a socially awkward married couple for whom the desire to fit in becomes a horror story all its own. Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night), this episode is notable for its elements of body horror which, by its end, reaches Cronenbergian levels of disgust.
5. “Pickman’s Model”
H.P. Lovecraft is one of those names synonymous with the supernatural, so much so that his name has become a signifier all its own – Lovecraftian is a descriptor you will see a lot during this time of year. As recently as 2020 HBO made an entire series based on his many twisted stories, appropriately titled Lovecraft Country. “Pickman’s Model” is based on a 1926 short story by the author and tells the story of an introverted artist named Richard and a disturbing piece of art he has created. This installment is directed by Keith Thomas (The Vigil and Firestarter) and stars Ben Barnes (The Chronicles Of Narnia) and the always unsettling Crispin Glover.
4. “The Viewing”
Seeing Eric Andre perform in a horror anthology series might just be worth the price of admission in this installment, titled “The Viewing”. Directed by bizarro horror filmmaker Panos Cosmatos — the mind behind such wild viewing experiences as Beyond The Black Rainbow and Mandy — this 1970s-set episode centers around a wealthy recluse who brings four honored guests into his ornate mansion, offering them an opportunity he knows they cannot refuse. Of course, they should refuse, but this being a horror series we know they will not. This episode is most notable for its abundance of style, as Cosmatos creates a world within his mansion that is as entrancing as it is disquieting.
3. “The Murmuring”
“The Murmuring” comes from the mind of Jennifer Kent, the Australian director behind The Babadook, one of the better original horror movies of the century. For Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities she has created another entry that tracks grief and the effect it has on those suffering. Here we get the story of Nancy and Edgar Bradley — played by Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln — a couple mourning the loss of their daughter. The two are scientists — more specifically ornithologists (the study of birds) — tracking the titular phenomenon in which flocks of birds seem to move as one entity. The story also touches a bit on gender politics in the 1950s, and how that affects the couple as they continue their studies. But, again, trauma is at the center of the story here, more specifically how we try to escape its tendrils while being simultaneously suffocated by them.
2. “Graveyard Rats”
In this episode directed by Vincenzo Natali — director of Splice and Cube — we get an adaptation of a short story by author Henry Kuttner. Kuttner was an early 20th century writer who died before his time but while alive ran in similar circles to the aforementioned Lovecract. “Graveyard Rats” was a story he wrote in 1936 which takes place in Salem, Massachusetts — surely one of the scariest locales in American history. The story is a fairly simple one, telling the tale of a grave robber who delves into coffins to retrieve the valuables of the deceased, only to be caught in a maze of tunnels and abnormally large and terrifying rats. Simple as it may be, Natali and company do a fantastic job of bringing this short story to the screen.
1. “The Autopsy”
If you have not gotten a chance to check out David Prior’s 2020 horror film Empty Man, may I suggest you fire up that criminally underrated movie this halloween season. Here we get another depiction of uncertain and creeping horror from Prior in the form of “The Autopsy,” an unsettling and supernatural story of a coroner who must delve deep into a mystery for which he cannot be prepared. Starring the always excellent F. Murray Abraham, “The Autopsy” is undoubtedly the cream of the crop of the series, a truly terrifying episode that somehow blends macabre body horror, extraterrestrial beings, and a solid detective story – all while maintaining a sense of focus throughout.
