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Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is a Wonderous Delight
The anthology series is a beautiful balance of various horrors
Guillermo del Toro opens the series displaying an impressive cabinet full of hidden compartments and tells us the premise of the production:
“In centuries past, when the world was full of mystery and traveling was reserved for the very few, a new form of collection was born. The cabinet of curiosities. Now, this collection could be lodged in a building, a chamber, or a piece of furniture. In these private collections, one would find books, paintings, or specimens of natural and unnatural history. A dragon’s tooth, a Fiji mermaid, a unicorn’s horn. And behind each of these, a story. One could encounter something as large as a suit of armor or as small as a set of keys.”
With each episode, he gives a short introduction, takes an item out of a hidden compartment of the cabinet, and tells us who directs the episode.
Episode 1: Lot 36
A racist Vietnam veteran buys a storage locker at an auction. His intent is to use the contents to pay off debts, but he buys more than he bargained for when he purchases a lot owned by a strange old man.
Director: Guillermo Navarro
Have you ever watched “Storage Wars” and wondered what an episode would be like if it took a horrible turn that included demons?
Set in the early 1990s, Tim Blake Nelson plays Nick Appleton who has an inside track on which storage lot to bid upon. He acquires a storage space that belonged to a man who had a unique and consistent way to enter the unit.
While rummaging through the items, Nick finds a few occult items he takes to a dealer. Martha Burns plays Agatha who refers Nick to Roland played by Sebastian Roché.
Sebastian is immediately taken in by the books and knows there is one more to the set. He offers Nick a large sum of money if they find it. They head back to the storage unit.
Nick and Sebastian find exactly what they want. But as they say, be careful what you wish for.
The episode conveys that evil and greed in all its forms have been around for a long time and never…
