Since the days of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, there have been many attempts at sci-fi and horror anthology shows, from a reboot of that franchise in the 1980s to Tales from the Darkside (created with involvement from George A. Romero), and Tales from the Crypt (based on the EC Comics), and The Outer Limits into the 90s. Aside from the original Twilight Zone, the various shows eventually fell into a pattern of repetition over the course of their many episodes but all are staples of 20th Century TV.
Jumping into the 21st Century, Netflix has become a hotbed of anthology series with Love Death + Robots providing 10 minute sci-fi shorts of so-so quality and Black Mirror consistently tapping into the current cultural zeitgeist to skewer contemporary society. Which leads me to the most recent anthology show I have watched and wrote a long rambling post about…
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
This is an anthology series consisting of eight episodes that run the gamut of scary tales. Haunted houses, demonic possession, alien invasions, and a creature feature all sit neatly alongside each other as hour-long tales. The quality ranges but there are a breadth of ideas and top-quality technical aspects that make most episodes impressive enough to watch all the way through.
Each episode begins with an introduction featuring the Guillermo del Toro himself acting as host with the titular cabinet from which he draws a totem that represents each tale to set things up. His control over the episodes seems limited to being a producer for the most part as he has handed writing and directing duties to different creatives. Some stories are original tales while there are adaptations of short stories.
The series does not get off to a good start. Episode 1, “Lot 36”, directed by Guillermo Navarro (veteran cinematographer – Pacific Rim, Hell Boy, Pan’s Labyrinth). The story centres on a storage hunter who gets more than he bargained for when he wins the titular Lot 36 at an auction.
The script features writing from del Toro but it is not what can be called subtle or deep in any way as its foul-mouthed racist (with a capital “R”) protagonist gets wound up in a satanic plot that is fairly simplistic. While his comeuppance is nasty the lead character is too unsympathetic and two-dimensional to feel for and the plot is a simple one-way ticket to terror (a course with no deviation because said protag acts in a “TV dumb” manner) so it’s an episode that is hard to get involved in and also one that is easy to forget. The visuals are all stellar, however, with the storage lot and the séance materials looking spooky and the atmosphere being rich. At the very least, this is just to whet the appetites of audiences for more.
Episode 2, “Graveyard Rats”, is written and directed by Vicenzo Natali (Cube, Splice) and is a step up in spectacle. It is based on an old Weird Tales story from the 30s. It is set in early 20th Century New England and we follow a graveyard keeper named Masson who robs the corpses under his care. In order to pilfer the corpses he must do battle with a nest of sharp-toothed rodents who roam the cemetery. Featuring a performance by David Hewlett of Stargate fame, its a creature-feature extravaganza that features a great recreation of its setting through props and costumes. When it comes to the maze the rats run through, it’s filmed in such a way that those with fears of tight spaces might want to look away. The cherry on top are the fantastic practical effects with monstrous rat puppets, skin-crawling CG for swarms and a particularly malign one-eyed rat whose malevolent presence proves to be enough to be visually disconcerting for the audience and also make a potent foe for the main character to chase. There is also a rubber suit involved for a twist ending but I won’t say anymore…
We are guided a double-whammy of claustrophobia and musophobia (fear of rodents) by Hewlett’s charisma as a squealing pompous man who flits from depravity (when stealing) to piety (when he’s stuck in the warren of the rats). Yes, he actually goes crawling around in the tunnels and they are full of awful, “oh no” sights that will have you shouting at him to back away. The ending is so cruel as to leave one breathless and there is a final revolting image that people who hate rodents would best avoid.
Episodes 1 and 2 have the feel of the old Tales from the Crypt with comic-book style extremes and physical effects and comeuppances for the protags.
Episode 3, “ The Autopsy” from David Prior (The Empty Man) is reminiscent of The X-Files for many reasons, not least that it takes the form of a police procedural and features a lot of running around in forests as a sheriff tracks down a miner who causes explosions with a strange bomb. The second half is dedicated to the titular autopsy and it is here that it goes extremely weird and disgusting as cutting up cadavers is carried out by a pathologist (played by veteran character actor F. Murray Abraham – Amadeus) who records his slicing and dicing only to confront and capture on tape more than just the cadaver of the mad bomber but his own mortality and the potential end of human civilisation.
How everything ties together is a surprise but the tension shoots up with the autopsy and the big reveals, especially with Abraham’s sonorous tones as he enters into an unexpectedly high-stakes battle. The whole episode feels like a perfectly poised steel trap ready to shut on the pathologist as twists mount up and to reveal more would be to spoil things.
Episode 4, “Outside”, comes from Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) and she has a phenomenal performer in musician/comedian/actor Kate Micucci playing lead character Stacey, a mousey woman seeking to fit in with her sexier and more confident female co-workers and doing so with a beauty cream “Alo Glo” little realising that the cream she is using is akin to The Stuff. Micucci is sympathetic as Stacey and seeing Rachel undergo Cronenbergian body horror is gross but… ultimately uplifting?
At its heart is a skewering of impossible beauty standards for women and the cosmetic industry. This aspect is whip smart and blackly comic. The episode also features great supporting performances, especially from Dan Stevens (The Guest) as the hilariously camp Alo Glo spokesman.
Episodes 5 and 6 are adaptations of two of Lovecraft’s most famous stories, “Pickman’s Model” and “Dreams in the Witch House” (click on the links to get to them).
Pickman is a mostly faithful take on the story of a painter in early 20th century Boston story capturing the horrors that lurk in the shadows and caverns of the city. Aside from great costumes, the episode most notably features Crispin Glover (Back to the Future, Alice in Wonderland 3D) as the titular Pickman with a weird accent – Arkham, I guess.
Witch House mostly departs from Lovecraft’s story as it welds in a story of a paranormal investigator searching for the spirit of his deceased twin sister in a shadow realm. It strikes a fairy tale tone completely different from the weird horror of the original but it does get the witch’s familiar Brown Jenkin in for hideous body-gnawing effect.
While I am a fan of the idea that those making adaptations should take big risks in order to avoid repeating the same things over and over, I cannot help but wonder what if Witch House had been a straight adaptation since the writing features enough horror, purple prose, and goofiness for entertainment – the original story lets you imagine the lead character running around Arkham and different dimensions in pyjamas while being chased by a haggard witch and a rat with a human face…
Click to view slideshow.I’ll bring this already-length review to a close with the highlights of the series, episodes seven and eight!
The penultimate episode, “The Viewing” comes from Panos Cosmatos (Mandy) and is another brilliant execution of rising tension and horror at the end for release. Before that, we get a lot of comedy as the set-up is a group of celebrities – a musician, author, psychic, astronomer – invited to the home a reclusive billionaire (played by Peter Weller – Robocop) to imbibe illicit substances that enhance the senses and view a strange object.
For most of its runtime, we are limited to a couple of locations – a parking garage, the interiors of three vehicles, and a couple of rooms in a mansion. There’s a preponderance of close-ups on the performers who all get a mixture of monologues for each to explain their backgrounds and duelling dialogue (as they comedically needle each other over celeb lifestyles) – shot-reverse-shot. Peter Weller is another performer who has a sonorous voice that really sells the mystery event as he hypes the importance of the viewing and there’s great synth music that grows in intensity as the twist is revealed. This one is a mood piece that ends in an explosion of stomach-churning terror involving grotesque waxwork and an explosion of laughter as comedians Eric André and Charlyne Yi give subdued performance until the end and steal the show with their panic as events spiral out of control.
The final episode, “The Murmuring” comes from writer-director Jennifer Kent (The Babadook, The Nightingale) and has actors Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln play a married couple whose work as ornithologists sees them stay at a haunted house on a remote island to study birds only for them to confront the previous occupants and a tragedy that lies in their marriage. Of course, the ghosts slowly make their presence felt in the house and their backstory feeds into that of the couple.
This episode is a great way to cap the series as it offers some old-fashioned ghost-story scares with bumps in the night, disembodied voices, and spectres appearing in shadowy rooms and corridors. In chasing them, the couple confront creeping terror and growing anger but ultimately find catharsis and hope. The performances from the cast are absolutely brilliant as Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln play a tightly wound couple unravelling into grief and tenderness and understanding in understated performances. After so much terror and darkness and ghoulishness in the series, it is nice to end on an uplifting note.
With a second season confirmed and me having a Netflix subscription, I am looking forward to watching more!
Earlier this year I tackled two Korean shows on Netflix, Hellbound and All of Us Are Dead.