Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (or simply Cabinet of Curiosities) is a horror anthology television miniseries created by Guillermo del Toro for Netflix. It features eight modern horror stories in the traditions of the Gothic and Grand Guignol genres. Two are co-written by del Toro himself, while the others are written and directed by various filmmakers.
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities premiered on October 25, 2022. The series received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its directing, performances of the cast, production values, and special effects, but some criticism for its pacing and some writing aspects.
Contents
Premise
The series is "a collection of the Oscar-winning filmmaker's personally curated stories, described as [equally] sophisticated and horrific". Del Toro introduces each episode. Del Toro credits Rod Serling's Night Gallery as one of the inspirations for his Cabinet of Curiosities, specifically in the manner with which Serling opens and closes each episode. He told an interviewer, "I have incredibly vivid memories of the series, of the fear that enveloped me when I watched each episode: the fantastic opening featuring those wide-angle faces, distorted and grimacing; Gil Mellé's incredible music that created feelings of both fear and excitement; and Rod Serling's carefully phrased introductions of Tom Wright's horrific and dread-filled paintings that haunt my imagination to this day."
The central conceit of the series is the opening of a cabinet of curiosities one section at a time, each episode corresponding to a different curiosity from the cabinet.
Production
Development
On May 14, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a series order. Executive producers included Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, and Gary Ungar. Del Toro also served as writer for one episode and handpicked other writers and directors to helm other episodes.
In September 2021, The Hollywood Reporter announced that The Babadook filmmaker Jennifer Kent would write and direct an episode starring the film's lead Essie Davis. The season would consist of seven other episodes, to be directed individually by Ana Lily Amirpour, Panos Cosmatos, Catherine Hardwicke, Guillermo Navarro, David Prior, Vincenzo Natali, and Keith Thomas, with writers such as Regina Corrado, Lee Patterson, Haley Z. Boston, Mika Watkins, and Aaron Stewart-Ahn. The series was described as "in production", according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Filming
Principal photography of the series began under the working title Guillermo del Toro Presents: After Midnight on June 28, 2021, in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and concluded on February 16, 2022.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 93% of 56 surveyed critics gave the series a positive review; the average rating is 7.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Horror maestro Guillermo del Toro lends his household name to a collection of spooky tales directed by genre veterans and promising newcomers – with each curious trinket adding up to a treasure trove of gothic storytelling". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 72 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
