This is an exciting year for Guillermo Del Toro fans. The famed filmmaker and screenwriter are also behind the terrifying Netflix series Cabinet of Curiosities, in addition to his eerie stop-motion animated tale of Pinocchio. While the series doesn’t launch until late October, the streaming service published a first-look video featuring Del Toro today to get fans excited. The stories in this anthology series will be dark, macabre, gothic, and spooky, challenging the conventions of the horror genre. Del Toro dons a costume in the video and extends an invitation to his story universe. The filmmaker did more than just serve as showrunner; he or she also handpicked the series’ writers and directors.
In the video, del Toro says that one of his defining traits is prevalent throughout the series: his predilection for real effects, props, and make-up, which are more expensive but result in far more visually captivating storytelling. Del Toro has said that Cabinet of Curiosities is a programme he has “always wanted to do,” and he has now revealed some concept art for the series. However, he has also said that he respected each director’s autonomy and let them steer the ship in their own direction.
While showing unsettling videos from the series, the Oscar winner hints at the fact that they were able to generate some of the most amazing visuals in the series. Ultimately, he says, “What I’m trying to express with Cabinet of Curiosities is, ‘Look: The universe is lovely and dreadful at exactly the same time.'” In addition, Del Toro has issued a formal statement in which he describes the stories featured in Cabinet of Curiosities and the process by which they were compiled. We wanted to use ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ to shed light on the strange and unusual things that exist in the world beyond our own.
Whether these stories originate in the cosmos, the otherworldly, or the depths of our own imaginations, we have carefully selected and curated a collection of storytellers to bring them to life. For the spookiest holiday of the year, these eight stories offer a glance into the wondrous cabinet of pleasures that lies just underneath our everyday lives. Rupert Grint (Harry Potter films), Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), David Hewlett (The Shape of Water), Tim Blake Nelson (Watchmen), Ben Barnes (Shadow and Bone), Crispin Glover (American Gods), Essie Davis (The Babadook), Peter Weller (RoboCop), and Eric André are just a few of the stars who appear in the series (The Righteous Gemstones). Beginning on October 25 with two episodes, Cabinet of Curiosities will continue to release two episodes every day until October 28 on Netflix.