From Guillermo del Toro to Netflix: A Cabinet of Curiosities

The beloved Mexican filmmaker, winner of an Oscar in 2018, settles on Netflix with a horror anthology, in the best style of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", entitled "Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities". In this foray into the world of series and on-demand content platforms, the director arrives preceded by the expectation he generates, thanks to the reputation he has built over the years, for being considered one of the current masters in the fantasy genre film. In addition, he reaches the universe of terror, in which he has established himself with films that occupy a privileged place in world filmography such as "Pan's Labyrinth", "The Devil's Backbone" and "The Shape of Water", with which, he won best director at the awards of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among others.

The director, a native of Guadalajara, has launched himself into the arena of the series with a motley collection of eight terrifying narrative stories, which premiered between October 25 and 28, with two episodes each day, increasing expectations around this delivery. Each chapter was entrusted by Guillermo del Toro to a different director to be commanded under his cinematographic perspectives, which adds variety to the style and audiovisual narrative of each work.

What's in the cabinet of curiosities?

The term "cabinet" is a place in which a collection of curious objects intended for the study of science or art is exhibited. According to the science magazine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, during the 17th century, cabinets of curiosities became fashionable, as a piece of furniture or a special room that was used to collect various strange objects, which could range from stuffed animals, bones, even ritual utensils from other cultures. Thus, under this conception, the title emerges that covers the set of stories that the series created by the Mexican shows us.

In this anthology of cuts from old iconic series such as "The Twilight Zone", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Tales from the Crypt" or even "Amazing Stories", the Oscar-winning director includes two stories based on stories written by himself, which in turn head and close the miniseries: "Lot 36" and "El murmullo". Likewise, there are episodes in the collection that are inspired and adapted from the literature of HP Lovecraft and other authors, such as the Canadian illustrator Emily Carroll, the British Michael Sea and Henry Kuttner, an American science fiction and horror writer from the early 20th century.

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Guillermo del Toro and company

Totoro, as the Mexican is also known, is the creator and executive producer, but, in addition, he is in charge of making a brief introduction to the story and presenting the director who was in charge of making each chapter. The eight directors chosen by del Toro have a career that stands out and makes them worthy of the filmmaker's support. The first of them is Guillermo Navarro, who accompanied his namesake in the direction of photography for several of his films, including "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth." There is also Vincenzo Natali, who became known with his debut feature Cube in 1997, which catapulted him as a promise of the seventh art. David Prior, who is in charge of "The Autopsy", the third story that the series shows us. The young filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour, who is an explorer of the genre with a taste for the contemporary gothic.

The other women in the group accompanying the direction of the series are: Catherine Hardwicke, who adapts the story of HP Lovecraft's narrative universe about a haunted house, and the Australian Jennifer Kent, who made her film debut in 2014 with "The Babadook". Completing the saga of directors of this horror compilation are Keith Tomas, whose feature debut was "The Vigil", and, lastly, Panos Cosmatos, an Italian-Canadian made famous by the film "Mandy". This is the list of filmmakers who, together with del Toro and stars such as Rupert Grint, Harry Potter's companion, and Andrew Lincoln of the popular "The Walking Dead", among others, give life to worlds and stories that, like the ancient cabinets are full of curiosities that can be scary.