User reviews

Like Jordan Peele's recent try in a newer Twilight Zone, Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities has good production, cinematography, lighting and on occasion great atmosphere. However, for me, after watching four episodes, each have been bogged down by story and payoff. What the 1950s Twilight Zone did in only 25 minutes was astounding, not that every one was top tier amazing, but still gave a relatively coherent and well done story with interesting characters. In this day and age however, with Netflix and Paramount+ and Amazon Prime, an hour and change is the norm and it just doesn't work and I guess I hoped Toro would avoid this problem.

Every episode has setup upon setup and when it finally does get to the actually meat, there's been so many appetizers I feel full. Or the climax is so short I sit thinking, "Wait, it's over?" Even my favorite so far "The Autopsy" has Toro introduce it, giving away a vital plot point that could have been revealed later on. There's then almost half an hour until we get to said autopsy, wherein when the big twist is revealed has a James Bond villain explanation for the ages (Thanks David S. Goyer, as always).

Not that I'm opposed to world building, character introduction, atmosphere creating tension, but where minutes-watched-algorithms have replaced ratings, 1 hour+ episodes that could be edited down significantly for our enjoyment would be and should be crucial. I'm still rooting for the show, because I love anthologies, but I also know LESS is MORE.

Edit: I've watched the next four and feel they too could have been edited down to avoid redundancy, but Pickman's Model might be the exception. It was a brilliant slow decent into madness that makes Lovecraft so special. After watching all 8 I noticed scenes that could have been combined or characters cut completely. Either way, I still hope there's a season 2.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix is off to a good start. Lot 36, you find some interesting things when you buy the contents of abandoned lock-up s, what looks liike a good find may have drawbacks though, Shades of The Strain fuse with Lovecraftian tropes as arcane occult books come into play.. Directed by Guillermo Navarro based on a short story by del Toro. "Graveyard Rats", not just rats, grave robbers. Grifters, giant rats, the living dead, with a streak of black humour but still quite shocking. Directed by Vincenzo Natali from a short story by Henry Kuttner. Both 8/10.

"The Autopsy": What an autopsy! A tale of shape-shifters, mind control and an explosion in a mine. Gruesome in parts, but it's the aura of uncertainty and fear which will also hold your attention. Really good SF/Horror. Directed by David Prior, Teleplay by : David S. Goyer. Based on the short story by : Michael Shea. 9/10.

Two good HP Lovecraft adaptations: "Pickman's Model" directed by Keith Thomas and "Dreams in the Witch House"Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Both 6/10.

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.

As a latecomer, I first became aware of Guillermo del Toro after screening Pan's Labyrinth (2006), his masterful Hellboy (2004), and his equally extraordinary sequel, Hellboy II The Golden Army (2008). With only having seen these three films I was forever hooked. Here was my kind of director/writer! An artist that can deftly combine incredibly memorable visions with both dark and light touches of humor. I enjoyed the 2 Hellboy films so much that I went back and watched some of his other directorial works. In no particular order, they were: Cronos (1993), Mimic (1997), The Devil's Backbone (2001), Blade II (2002), Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015), The Shape of Water (2017), and Nightmare Alley (2021).

Which brings me to his recent NETFLIX endeavor, "Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022)."

Surprisingly, though his name appears in the credits, Guillermo del Toro doesn't appear to have directed any of the 8 one-hour long episodes. Instead, he has apparently hand selected others to tackle the work. Nevertheless, with Del Toro's name and involvement attached to this project, you have nothing to lose. Like Jordan Peele, Guillermo del Toro has become one of the most anticipated and respected horror/thriller filmmakers today, and I'm confident he recruited some very creative people to support this unique project.

So far, I've watched the first 4 episodes of the anthology, "Lot 36," "Graveyard Rats," "Autopsy" and "The Outside." To be completely honest, episodes 3 and 4 were OVERLY GRAPHIC for my tastes, some scenes actually way beyond disgusting. Usually I can watch a lot without cringing, but I averted my eyes several times during these two fairly intense episodes (Man, I hope it doesn't get more graphically gnarly going forward). I recall some brilliant person once elucidated, "It's what you don't see that makes it scary." Uh huh. But not here.

The "guest" directors (notable for their work in thematic horror) unveil a good amount of scares and thrills with the requisite attendance of dreadful corpses and nightmarish haunted houses. "Cabinet of Curiosities" rises from the shadows of the macabre, which makes this series a genuine treat for fans of this particular genre.

There is no reason to discuss the plot of each episode this early in the series, but with only 4 episodes broadcast as of this writing, I'll absolutely give this a "green light." Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities may not be the big budget presentation other networks have recently released, but you get the sense that the cast, writers, producers, directors and those behind the scenes, are all philosophically and creatively "on board for the big Ride." This isn't just another flash in the darkness, and it will be an enjoyable Halloween feast for all good ghosts and goblins, young and old.

No spoilers here as usual (why spoil the fun?) but I will reveal what Del Toro's legions of fans already know - He is very open about his love and fascination with the unusual, the macabre, and the horrific. In a recent interview the convivial filmmaker stated: "Well, the first thing is that I love monsters. I identify with monsters."

Gotta love seeing those inside bits eh.

A bit of an uneasy watching hodge podge. Each episode starts with del Toro visiting his cabinet and grabbing something that seemingly relates to the oncoming story.

Hitchcock he's not.

Every episode has something going for it. Originality, production and mostly fine acting...but most of the characters are just so unpleasant, one doesn't care what happens to them.

My 3 picks are "Graveyard Rats" (Good Fun), "The Inside" (beware those late night infomercials) and "The Murmuring" (classic spooky ghost story).

I watched this first series in the cold hard daylight which probably lessened the enjoyment effect somewhat.

Probably more a late night thing (Duh!!!).

I give the series and the directors props for great visuals, interesting designs, and interesting backdrops. But nothing else. Many of the stories even though an hour felt long and drawn out. It was as if a 15 or 20 minutes short film was being stretched to an hour.

I am a horror fan, yet I was bored most of the time, with only 1.5 episodes that I either liked or felt complete. The rest seemed like half-baked ideas that the directors could not flesh out. Of the 8 shows, there was 4 that are hard to understand even as the credits roll.

Overall, if you are on the fence about watching this then skis and save yourself 8 hours of your life.

In first approaching Netflix's new Cabinet of Curiosities, it's natural to wonder how much of a Guillermo del Toro project this really is. The horror anthology series is volunteered by the streaming service as "a collection of the Oscar-winning filmmaker's personally curated stories, described as both equally sophisticated and horrific," and del Toro steps into the host role himself, pulling forth trinkets from the titular cabinet to introduce each tale. But can the actual segments stand up to their association with a beloved director? Are the two episodes that GDT had a hand in writing enough to put his stamp on the series? And can the artistry of those other episodes reflect a similar level of virtuosity?

It's a very banal thing to say of an anthology, but this is rather uneven. The production is consistently high-end, with most episode mixing horror with a specific period background, with lush costumes and sets. The acting varies but is on the whole rather good, but the writing is less convincing: as often in this format the pacing is uneven, some characters are interesting while others are lacking depth. In part this is due to the tone of each episode varying greatly, from the comedic to the psychological, but in part it has also to do with varying abilities.

Lot 36 is a classic, pulpy occult horror, competently assembled but without outstanding ambition. Graveyard Rats oscillates between the grotesque and the fantastic, with some interesting characters too room for them to shine. The Autopsy stands out as an interesting huis clos, a tight plot and some excellent acting, despite a slightly self-involved plot. The outside is a biting Goop satire, which lacks a little in rhythm but pulls all the stops and offers a one-of-a-kind (im)morality tale... full disclosure: I am also a little in love with the lead actress.

Pickman's Model and Dreams in the Witch House were both disappointing. Lovecraft was a brilliant mythologist but a mediocre writer, and I don't think his tales make the best movies: they are either too much, and veer on the kitsch, or not enough, and bore their audience. Despite heroic attempts at fleshing them out, we end up with a series of trite and utterly predictable high-society scenes (Pickman's), or some world-hopping fantasy largely devoid of angst (Dreams). The Viewing was for me the weakest episode, with poor writing a very weak plot, passing itself as a 'homage'. The director evidently had discovered a great set (Panton/Brutalism) and all the rest came as an afterthought.

It is nonetheless worth wading through the second half series, because of the final episode, 'The Murmuring', which is a sensitive, well-acted, well-scripted 'classic' ghost story with an interesting ornithological background, which could have also made a fine feature-length movie. Not the most original, but probably the most competently filmed episode of the season.

On the whole it is worth your time. Not all is good, but all is interesting. Even in the poorer episodes, some good ideas can be found, though they seem to have suffered from immaturity. Perhaps a choice between the comedic and the gothic ends of the horror spectrum would have given the unity of tone, which the anthology lacks in comparison to, say, Black Mirror.

I think everyone who is drawn to this show because they love the horror genre, is gonna find at least one episode they'll love. Maybe even more. The show promised a cabinet of curiosities and it delivered, you get 8 episodes, different directors, different stories. I think it is a mistake to treat this show like a normal series with one story arch, you can't. So you're bound to get a mixed bag because it's just like you were to watch 8 short movies at a festival for example. And like with festivals you're probably not gonna like every movie displayed there.

For me, I hated "The Murmuring" with a fiery passion but for others, "The Murmuring" was their highlight.

I loved "The Autopsy" and others hated it.

So, just watch the season, find the episodes you'll love and disregard the rest.

Del Toro is know for visually stunning masterpieces with solod story lines. Cabinet of Mysteries is no different. From the first 2 episodes, I can feel the effect of Del Toro in this show. As a horror fan, I'm really excited. The storues are building up quite well and you can tell this are going to be well written and nicely executed. The actors are also very good and consistently deliver! Can't wait to wade through the remainder of the episodes. Otherwise, a very good show with nice stories for horror lovers across all genres, paranormal, grisly, aliend and all other stuff! Good jkb Guillermo!

We didn't know what to expect going in, so were fairly open minded about it.

The first episode was pretty entertaining, though a little rushed in places. Unfortunately the creature design took us entirely out of the moment.

After that though they got progressively more dull. The cinematography was nice at times, but the stories just weren't that interesting. One exception from me for was Pickman's Model, which I found a lot more entertaining.

Overall though, just very average stories with no real hook to fully draw you in. Each episode individually was forgettable, and there's no overarching narrative or connective tissue to make up for it (except for the rats)

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!

Critiquing to me is not about hobbyism in writing, analysing or dismissing a series for you to watch. You should watch as many things of art or entertainment as you like without someone rambling on the evaluation!

However, if you love film, there are so so many productions. Time is too precious to find to sort through all of them to find the cinema that enriches your mind.

I love del Toro, don't get me wrong, especially giving other filmmakers a platform to show their directional work. Also his visual effects style is something to enjoy. However, with so many of his work, the stories his films are telling or the scares there are trying to evoke, are just not that effective.

The same goes for these series; they visuals, artwork and effects are gorgeous (and nasty of course) to see. Also these episodes and have this original reel quality about them that make it feel films instead of tv cam quality.

But the stories hardly get frightening, the characters are interesting but never evoke sympathy. The stories seem to have this weird, repetitive structure in them where the twist is being foreboded, the story is stretched out and when the potentially interesting climax of the story occurs, it is just done away with very quickly.

If you look for something with more substance, I would recommend;

• Masters of Horror
• Black Mirror
• Love, Death and Robots (season 1)
• Channel Zero
• The Twilight Zone
• The Outer Limits.

I dont get netflix sometimes. Just when I start getting fed up with their woke-written ham-fisted trash offerings, something as good as this comes out and hits it out of the park. Del Toro is back, in streaming form. This is the high quality, visually and audibly compelling craft that I have come to expect from Del Toro.. and writing style to match. So far, these are interesting and tightly wound short thrills with great set pieces, script, and visuals. Acting is good to great so far, and definitely adequate for shorts. Pretty excited to get some quality horror, and looking forward to seeing the next entry!

This is certainly a good show, where gray boring office spaces or cozy Victorian interiors meet good old splatter horror spiced with fantasy and supernatural events. The cinematography is stunning the performances of the actors are surprising even though several are completely unknown to me. Guillermo del Toro is really is a master at creating nasty exciting and creepy environments and I enjoyed the first episodes a lot.

But eventually things changed. The storylines were not that good and felt poorly executed, huge plot holes, unexplained events like the episode where random people are doing drugs together with Peter Weller, which had no apparent bearing on the rest of the story.

Other than that, I recommend the show to horror fans but lower your expectations for the final episodes.

I've gotten through all the episodes and I have to say that I am majorly underwhelmed. The episodes are too drawn out and could have benefitted from some severe editing. Despite what I just wrote, the first one had me invested and then ended... too soon? The others, though, back into the editing room please.

I love lots of Del Toro's work but these stories do not add anything of any quality to his resumé.

IMDb staff: you really need to allow reviews shorter than 600 characters. No one wants to see people waffling on and trying to pad out their reviews like I'm doing with this one because it's coming up short. Succinct reviews can be the best.

6.3/10

The production value is really well done. The set pieces, acting and cinematography are the only reason I watched all 8 episodes. Each episode started with a lot of potential but was really bogged down by a super slow moving plot and very little payoff at the end of each.

When I compare this show to other shows of the same episodic nature like Black Mirror or Love Death and Robots I cant help but be disappointed. In those shows there are some episodes that are very bad but they also have some absolute electric edge of your seat episodes that this doesn't have. None of the 8 episodes are bad but none are a must watch that I would recommend to a friend either.

The only time in the entire series I felt any bit of tension or excitement was during Graveyard Rats when Masson when crawling through the tunnels.

This is my personal order of the episodes: 1) Graveyard Rats 2) The Autopsy 3) Pickman's Model 4) Lot 36 5) The Murmuring 6) Dreams in the Witch House 7) The Viewing 8) The Outside.

I knew about this TV series, but never actually gotten around to watching it before now, late in 2022. And since I am such a huge horror fan and have been since my early years, then why not sit down and watch "Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities" immediately? Well, I sort of have a slight aversion to TV series, especially the ones where you have to wait a week before another episode comes out, it just wastes too much of my time having to go a week while waiting.

But I had the opportunity to sit down and binge the entire first season of "Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities", so of course I did. Now, had I known that director Guillermo del Toro would venture into filming some of H. P. Lovecraft's works in this series, then I wouldn't have waited this long to getting around to watch it. But hey, better late than never.

The cast ensemble throughout the episodes is great. They had gotten together a great bunch of various talents, each one bringing their own unique touch to the episodes. I think that one of the primary reasons of the enjoyment found in each episode is given the performances of the cast ensemble.

Visually then the episodes of the series are phenomenal. There is so much atmosphere in each episode, and the special effects team realy worked their magic quite well to bring each episode alive on the screen. Visually astounding and also very realistic.

I definitely had been missing out on something here by putting off watching "Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities". If you have the opportunity to sit down and watch this, you should do so. This is a very varied presentation of different aspects of the horror genre, so you will probably find something very suitable for your preference and taste. This is definitely a TV series that I can and will warmly recommend. I was genuinely entertained by the majority of the episodes of season one.

If I take the average rating of my ratings of each episode individually and divide it by eight (as there are eight episodes to season one), my rating would be a six out of ten stars. However, my overall rating of "Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities" lands on a seven out of ten stars, given the fact that this was a surprisingly good horror series, despite a dud or two in the episodes.