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Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

Started by Barrington Boots, 16 November, 2022, 02:43:01 PM

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Barrington Boots

Been watching these on Netflix and halfway through the series so far. There's some good names involved and overall a bit of a Masters of Horror vibe and generally pretty good: Episode 2 was a bit slapstick but suitably creepy at the end, whilst Episode 3 (Autopsy) is especially excellent, as you'd hope from something based off a Michael Shea short story. I then skipped ahead to watch Pickmans Model, which was alright but suffered a lot from being padded out to an hours runtime. Anyone else checked these out?
You're a dark horse, Boots.

moly

Autopsy was a great episode highly recommended

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

I've only seen three- Graveyard Rats, which I very much enjoyed as an adaptation of Kuttner's story, and which I thought benefited from crowbarring in the Lovecraftian Mythos stuff, seeing as Kuttner was originally part of that circle. Also, Pickman's Model was, I thought, a half-decent adaptation stretched beyond its limits, which ended up just about breaking even. Dreams in the Witch House, however, was beyond awful. Lovecraft's story turned into a limp Harry Potter fan-film. It's not often I watch an HPL adaptation and fail to find anything within that arguably added extra (if completely different) elements of enjoyment, but Witch House managed it. Pitiful. Shits in the Shit House, more like.

SBT

The Legendary Shark


The rats one was excellent. Most of the rest were okay or meh.

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




Dark Jimbo

Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 16 November, 2022, 07:02:49 PM
Dreams in the Witch House, however, was beyond awful. Lovecraft's story turned into a limp Harry Potter fan-film. It's not often I watch an HPL adaptation and fail to find anything within that arguably added extra (if completely different) elements of enjoyment, but Witch House managed it. Pitiful. Shits in the Shit House, more like.

I watched that one yesterday, and it had me wondering whether to even bother continuing with the series. Shits in the Shit House indeed!
@jamesfeistdraws

JohnW

I liked the first one. Tim Blake Nelson in full-on asshole mode was great.
The one with the rats was a little too slapstick, and the autopsy one might have been good horror but it was also too icky for my taste.
The overall style is appealing but for me it's a case of diminishing returns, so I may not watch any more.
Why can't everybody just, y'know, be friends and everything? ... and uh ... And love each other!

Leigh S

I'm the opposite in that I am always disappointed by HPL adaptations and no change with Pickman's Model

I get why the story as is doesnt make for an hour, so dont do it in an hour format maybe?  It just took teh idea of eldritch paintings and did a King in Yellow with paint rather than actually tell the story HPL wrote.

I'm suitably warned for Dreams in the Witch House


Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 16 November, 2022, 07:02:49 PM
I've only seen three- Graveyard Rats, which I very much enjoyed as an adaptation of Kuttner's story, and which I thought benefited from crowbarring in the Lovecraftian Mythos stuff, seeing as Kuttner was originally part of that circle. Also, Pickman's Model was, I thought, a half-decent adaptation stretched beyond its limits, which ended up just about breaking even. Dreams in the Witch House, however, was beyond awful. Lovecraft's story turned into a limp Harry Potter fan-film. It's not often I watch an HPL adaptation and fail to find anything within that arguably added extra (if completely different) elements of enjoyment, but Witch House managed it. Pitiful. Shits in the Shit House, more like.

SBT

Art

The autopsy one was my favorite of the bunch... tapped out after the Mandy one as that made it three in a row I didn't like, but the last is supposed to be great.

Fun aspect to the autopsy one is the monster has been used in a Call of Cthulhu story so I have stats for it.

Link Prime

Watched em all cause I love this kinda stuff.
I enjoyed 'Graveyard Rats' and 'Autopsy' the most.

Not once out of the 8 intros did I expect Del Toro to successfully waddle over to the Cabinet without keeling over.

Blue Cactus

Watched the first two of these which were both about unscrupulous people living off the remains of the deceased and who both uncovered a hideous monster in a dark catacomb of some kind and then spent ages trying to run away from it through dark tunnels. These just didn't grip me, despite some good performances and lavish production values. Partly I think I'm just not that keen on one-and done stories. I'm similarly not usually that taken by Future Shocks in the prog. I like story arcs and character development to be a bit longer form. Even though in prose I love a good short story. Go figure.

Barrington Boots

Quote from: Art on 16 November, 2022, 09:35:07 PM
Fun aspect to the autopsy one is the monster has been used in a Call of Cthulhu story so I have stats for it.

Is that from Delta Green by any chance?

I've seen Witch House now and agree that it's terrible. I thought Stuart Gordons attempt in Masters of Horror was miles better, and that was far from perfect.
There's always some duds in an anthology series like this and it's a shame that both the HPL ones fall into that category. Elsewhere the Lovecraftian elements in Autopsy, Graveyard Rats etc are far better done. Overall I'm digging it so far.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

abelardsnazz

I've only seen the first one but thought Tim Blake Nelson was great. GdT is one of the great film-makers of our time, I think he's as good as Cronenberg, Lynch and Scorsese.

JayzusB.Christ

I only watched Witch House, which was fairly pants, and the one about the lockup auction, which I found a bit disappointing too. For both, there was just too much spectacle and not enough story or creepiness.  Witch House in particular had a hugely haphazard plot that didn't seem to know what it wanted to be.

Also a huge problem for both was the very long focus on their respective monsters.  I found myself wondering what kind of fibreglass they used for the witch's face.

So yeah, so far I'm not impressed.  However, I might watch the Autopsy one based on you guys' accounts.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Barrington Boots

The final one, The Murmuring, is excellent. More chills than thrills, very subtle in places and beautifully shot and acted.

It's the usual mixed bag you'd expect from an anthology series. A couple of really good ones, a couple of turkeys, and a bunch that were good to alright. I'm a fan of this format and I hope it returns for another series - and that it gets better rather than worse (unlike Masters of Horror)
You're a dark horse, Boots.

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 16 November, 2022, 07:08:31 PM
Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 16 November, 2022, 07:02:49 PM
Dreams in the Witch House, however, was beyond awful. Lovecraft's story turned into a limp Harry Potter fan-film. It's not often I watch an HPL adaptation and fail to find anything within that arguably added extra (if completely different) elements of enjoyment, but Witch House managed it. Pitiful. Shits in the Shit House, more like.

I watched that one yesterday, and it had me wondering whether to even bother continuing with the series. Shits in the Shit House indeed!

I would also tentatively add: Shit Thirty Shitx, more like.  Not as shit as the Shits in the Shitch House, but still a bit on the shit side. Still haven't got round to the rest of them.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"