TV REVIEW: GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES - Season 1

3.5/5

The Monster, The Witch and The Cabinet.

8 Episodes. Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, David Hewlett, F. Murray Abraham, Glynn Turman, Kate Micucci, Martin Starr, Dan Stevens, Ben Barnes, Crispin Glover, Rupert Grint, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Sofia Boutella, Peter Weller, Essie Davis, Andrew Lincoln & Guillermo del Toro. Created By: Guillermo del Toro. 

A skeleton key will open Guillermo del Toro's 'Cabinet Of Curiosities' on Netflix and your worst nightmares this Halloween (sure, we're a little late in our savouring, anti-binge, season's greetings to you and yours). All for a new streaming service deal for the Oscar winning director of Best Picture 'The Shape Of Water', who also received nominations for his 'Nightmare Alley' ensemble this year. This anthology series like a horror 'Black Mirror' stalking those same streets in the same week his 'Pinocchio' showing stop-motion truth to Disney +'s live-action remake with Tom Hanks is about to carve the animated Academy Award in wood. Producing here (although we miss his direction), del Toro opens each cabinet with his own candid and compelling introduction to each story. As the horror master channels a Jonathan Frakes meme, entering a Jordan Peele 'Twilight Zone'. 

And how about the shuddering stories? Eight wonders of Gothic and Grand Guignol macabre madness. Delicious, sophisticated horror with a bloody twist to each tale. Open del Toro's scripted shorty story of 'Lot 36' to begin this trove with Tim Blake Nelson. No stranger to Netflix anthologies, headlining 'The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs'. Bringing that voice back this week for Showtime's 'George and Tammy', cameoing as Roy Acruff and 'Pinocchio' by the nose too. This man has more character on his face than this anthology has in players. And the shock and awe he evokes in the first of many big reveals will emote your greatest dread.

David Hewlett steals the show in 'Graveyard Rats' as a grave gold digger (but not the marrying kind) who didn't count on some furry friends like Thomas Jane in Stephen King's '1922'. Bur legend F. Murray Abraham opens up even more for a chilling 'Autopsy' with 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' scene stealer Glynn Turman as a signature sheriff. If anyone's getting an Emmy out of this, it's the versatile voice of Abraham who provided a spiritual boom to Marvel's 'Moon Knight' miniseries next to top-tier thesps Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke. That is, unless, Kate Micucci's amazingly awkward sweet soul with an 'Outside' chance, doesn't bag it like the age and social anxiety defying cream pedalled to her by the real housewives of the office and an incredible Dan Stevens, breaking her fourth wall from inside the boob tube (truly 'Mirror'-ish), looking like he just stepped out of a 'Stranger Things' Papa audition in this 80s tale of excess. Even a sweet, supportive 'Spider-Man' sensei husband in Martin Starr can't teach this old dog idea that new tricks are sold like our souls for clicks. Whether it be remotely, or in the new black rectangle control we always hold in our fragile hands.

'Pickman's Model' gives 'The Punisher' Jigsaw of ever handsome Ben Barnes more to piece together before everything pulls him apart than the time he was literally 'The Portrait Of Dorian Gray'. Not to mention the truly terrifying two-fer, most haunted and harrowing moment of this horror spectacle. There's always been something about 'Back To The Future' George McFly, 'The Doors' Andy Warhol and 'American Gods' star Crispin Glover's effects. It truly gets special in the witching hour of Wizarding World 'Harry Potter' King Rupert Grint and his 'Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power' best friend Ismael Cruz Córdova in the death dealings of 'Dreams In The Witch House' and some real horrible hocus-pocus. But it's the saturated gold grandeur of separate 'Star Trek' stars Peter Weller ('Into Darkness' and that voice) and Sofia Boutella ('Beyond') that really put the riches spell on you in the grandiose, very 'Black Mirror' reflecting 'Viewing'. Right until some raw reverie is offered to us via an enigmatic Essie Davis and 'Walking Dead' wonder Andrew Lincoln in 'The Murmuring' which will bring new, unsettling meaning to 'The Birds'. Before showing us that horror can have a heart too. A labyrinth of treasure, opened up like a week-by-week advent, we hope del Toro has another cabinet locks down for the next calendar. As our curiosity like DiCaprio's attention in 'Django' is anything but curbed. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Black Mirror', 'Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio', 'Nightmare Alley'.