If you’re a Del Toro fan like myself, I know you have been patiently awaiting the release of the Netflix series’ highly anticipated ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities’. This anthology style horror features short stories from an array of different directors, but unlike most anthology series, this show is all about the horror aspects as opposed to the morals, because sometimes, we just want to be scared or grossed out. 

This is just my personal ranking of the segments (from worst to best), you very well may not agree with my decisions – and that’s okay! We all seek out horror with varying intentions which means certain sub-genres are never going to appeal to everyone. 

8.) The Viewing (Panos Cosmatos)

This started off very compelling as the characters, each extremely unique and with a particular set of skills and abilities, are brought together at the beginning under mysterious circumstances. They are driven to an undisclosed location where they are encouraged by an eccentric rich old man to snort and smoke a variety of illegal substances to place them all on the same “wavelength”.

It had a lot of potential, but after more than thirty minutes of talking back and forth about entirely uninteresting and uninspiring subjects, and a total lack of emotion from everybody involved, this segment lost me entirely. A shame, as the ending of this segment had some really decent body horror – but the plot fell short and I was bored for the majority of it.

7.) Dreams in the Witch House (Catherine Hardwicke)

The story of a man who, as a child, saw the ghost of his twin sister. He then dedicates his entire life trying to see her again and enlists in the help of a man who introduces him to some kind of illicit drug that allows him to visit purgatory where he can talk to his dead sibling.

I may be alone in ranking this segment so low, first of all, I was never a Harry Potter fan – so Rupert Grint’s casting had little impact on my desire to engage with this segment, especially when the storyline felt so generic. I would say this segment lacks the things I’m personally seeking out; scares or body horror. I think it tells the story exceptionally well, but this one just wasn’t it for me. Although I did enjoy the surprise twist at the end.

6.) Lot 36

This segment follows a right-wing angry at the world pillock who purchases a storage unit and all its contents of a man who recently passed. Inside, he finds Satanic books, which are worth a fortune in their full series, and could solve his financial woes. He just has to find the final missing book.

I could’ve ranked this much higher had I actually liked the protagonist (or more like antagonist) – I’m aware we are clearly meant to dislike this character, but I struggle to care what happens to characters I have no emotional connection to. It’s another typical “bad person gets punished” trope, but his total disregard for the warnings from professionals makes him so wildly… stupid. Basically, his reaction upon seeing a literal demon is not realistic and it annoyed me. On the other hand, the horror elements are what kept this segment out of the bottom two.

5.) Pickman’s Model (Keith Thomas)

Art student, Will Thurber, befriends the mysterious Robert Pickman, an artist whose work depicts demons and gruesome scenarios. Over the years, Thurber is tormented by Pickman’s paintings, suffering horrifying nightmares and hallucinations. 

As someone who has a morbid curiosity with dramatic illumination paintings and the Black Paintings, I was really fascinated by the horror elements revolving around the impact of certain art styles and their ability to negatively affect those who view them. The reason I only ranked this 5th is because Thurber was driven mad over decades by the evil material, whereas his wife turned instantly insane at one peak of the paintings – perhaps this was intentional but to me this felt like a grey area in the plot. 

4.) The Outside (Ana Lily Amirpour)

Stacey, an “unattractive” outsider who becomes infatuated with the beauty of her high maintenance colleagues, begins using an unusual lotion that leaves her with a horrific rash. However, the infomercial for the product claims this is all “part of the process” in becoming beautiful.

While I did enjoy this segment, and had an overwhelming urge to nurture and care for our heroine, Stacey – I did feel this was much longer than it needed to be. At just over an hour long, and with a very basic plotline, some scenes felt repetitive and held no true value to the story. That’s not to say I didn’t like this segment – I’m a huge fan of body horror so I always knew this would rank higher than some of the other segments. I also loved the use of taxidermy in this segment to enforce Stacey’s warped sense of beauty that as long as you look good on the outside, no one cares what’s on the inside.

3.) Graveyard Rats (Vincenzo Natali)

Masson, a man who robs the dead in his own cemetery to pay off gambling debts, is pushed to extremes when a wealthy aristocrat is buried with possessions that could solve his financial worries. Unfortunately, large swarms of rats that act with a hive mind are kidnapping the bodies before Masson has a chance to eviscerate the graves. He has no choice but to follow the swarm into depths of the tunnel system below the graveyard. 

Everything that could go wrong for Masson absolutely does. What he endures out of pure desperation is something of your gross, dark, claustrophobic, creature feature nightmares. I loved the pacing of this segment – it felt cartoonishly chaotic in a good way. It follows the typical “bad person being punished” trope again, but what Masson is put through kind of has you rooting for his survival in the end. It’s so simple, but so much fun. 

2.) The Autopsy (David Prior)

A terminally ill man is asked to perform autopsies on the bodies of several miners who were killed in an explosion caused by one of them carrying a mysterious object. 

It’s quite clear from the start that this is an extraterrestrial life force that appears to be taking over the body of its hosts. I feel that this segment has the best gore from the entire series with some scenes being extremely uncomfortable to watch, and that’s coming from someone with a very strong stomach. The autopsy scene itself, which takes up more than half of the entire episode, isn’t dull for even one fleeting moment – you’re so well positioned with our protagonist you feel like you’re almost performing the autopsy yourself (gross but cool). This segment took a trope and flipped it on its head to create a highly original sci-fi-esque horror. 

1.) The Murmuring (Jennifer Kent)

This segment tells the story of two married ornithologists who are studying bird murmurations and behaviours. They travel to a remote country home to enhance their studies and escape the grief of losing their infant daughter, Ava, who is hardly discussed between the two of them.

I was hooked from the get-go, and this could be down to the casting – Andrew Lincoln (aka Walking Dead’s Rick Grimes) and Essie Davis (The Babadook), two incredible actors who had fascinating onscreen chemistry. If you told me they were married in real life, I would believe you. I would say this is the most frightening and eerie of the whole series with lots of ghostly apparitions, jump scares, and excellent tension building. While it may rely on clichés to achieve this atmosphere and its scares, they’re executed in a way that doesn’t feel cringe or overdone. Furthermore, the whole bird watcher study plot was super original and I even found myself fascinated by the behaviour of the birds!