Guillermo Del Toro Explains His Curation Strategy For Cabinet Of Curiosities
"Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities" debuted on Netflix this month. So far, audiences and critics alike are loving it (via Rotten Tomatoes). There are eight episodes total for Season 1 that span a wide variety of sub-genres that dance under the much broader umbrella of big and small-screen horror. And they were all specifically chosen and brought to life by del Toro himself.
Netflix is doing something uniquely different with this show, however. Instead of releasing the whole season at once, they're staggering the episodes across four consecutive nights. Night one introduced audiences to devilishly clever man-eating rats and demons hungry for human possession. Night two was full of unnerving aliens and terrifying transformations. Night three's stories explored how art and dreams can be interpreted through the lens of horror. The fourth and final night is up next, and del Toro has revealed in a cryptic tweet what the final stories will be about — as well as his explanation for why he planned out Season 1 the way he did.
It's his version of a charcuterie board of horror samplings
As an extra special treat for fans on night three, del Toro tweeted: "Tried to make a horror sampler w Cabinet if [sic] Curiosities: First night: EC vibes, Second night: unsettling and 'now,' Third night: period/pulp classics and Final night: voices that, in my estimation, are clear and loud in the symphony of our genre." And for those who aren't in the know, "EC" is an old-school comic books publisher that gave us such classic series as "Tales from the Crypt" (and many others) in the 40s and 50s. Anyone who was a fan of "HBO's Tales from the Crypt" in the 90s can testify that the first night's stories dovetail with that particular vibe quite well.
So what is he hinting at for the final night of stories? It's hard to guess with del Toro being so cleverly vague, but one might assume he's going for something that's both classic and epic, perhaps with a Kubric-esque feel to it. Regardless, fans are already heavily invested and even begging for a second season already. Replies to his tweet are full of praise from viewers who have been enjoying his horror sampling, with some like @alienfirst waiting to binge it over the weekend and others like @ToffeeChuChu actually reactivating their Netflix account just to watch this one show. It seems pretty clear that Netflix and del Toro have created something really special...and really, really creepy. But in a good way, of course.