From the macabre to the magical, and from the gothic to the grotesque, these 8 ‘mini-movies’ selected by Guillermo del Toro for Netflix will make you shiver.
In addition to the wonderful (and terrifying) series like Black Mirror, Love, Death & Robots, or The Midnight Club, Netflix also hides in its catalog one of the best horror anthology series, sponsored by none other than Guillermo del Toro himself—the Mexican director and two-time Oscar winner for The Shape of Water (Best Picture and Best Director) and another for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Best Animated Feature). This collection includes 8 episodes that are essentially 8 mini-movies, each directed by some of the biggest names in contemporary horror and fantasy cinema.
Among the episodes, we’ll find two original ideas from Del Toro himself and two adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft, the master of cosmic horror. Expect witches, monsters, aliens, zombies, demons, and of course, ghosts and spirits. From the macabre to the magical, from gothic to grotesque, and spine-chilling in a classic style, these 8 tales—each equally sophisticated and sinister—come to life thanks to a team of writers and directors handpicked by Guillermo del Toro. Panos Cosmatos (The Visit), Jennifer Kent (The Murmuring), Vincenzo Natali (Graveyard Rats), David Prior (The Autopsy), Ana Lily Amipour (The Appearance), Guillermo Navarro (Storage 36), Keith Thomas (Pickman’s Model), and Catherine Hardwicke (Dreams in the Witch House) have each brought one of the 8 stories to life in the first (and so far, only) season of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, one of today’s best horror series.
Guillermo del Toro introduces each episode in the classic style of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with a brief preview of the terrors awaiting us in each installment, though he has yet to personally direct any of the episodes in the anthology series. Could this change in a potential Season 2 of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities? For now, after his success with Pinocchio on Netflix, Del Toro is preparing a new adaptation of Frankenstein featuring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac, and Mia Goth.
When he won the BAFTA in 2018 for The Shape of Water, Del Toro called Frankenstein “the most important book of my life,” and shared the following: “The most important figure in the English legacy is, incredibly to me, a teenage girl named Mary Shelley. She has continued to be a huge influence in my life, as if she were my family. And often, when I think about giving up, when people say that dreaming about the films and stories I dream of is impossible, I think of her. She gave voice to the voiceless and presence to the invisible, and showed me that sometimes, to talk about monsters, we need to create our own monsters.”
Until Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein arrives, make sure to check out the collection of stories featured in the best episodes of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Do you agree with our ranking in the link?
