When Guillermo del Toro walks onto a dark soundstage at the beginning of each episode of Cabinet of Curiosities, he's channeling horror icons from Rod Serling to Alfred Hitchcock to Jordan Peele to the Crypt Keeper in shows like The Twilight Zone and its revivals, Night Gallery, Tales From the Crypt, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Cabinet of Curiosities self-consciously operates in the tradition of those and other horror anthologies, telling stories that are comfortingly familiar in their creepiness.
Del Toro isn't as charismatic onscreen as those other horror hosts, but his enthusiasm is obvious as he introduces each episode, reaching into his own cabinet of curiosities and pulling out little totems to represent the titles and the directors. Del Toro himself doesn't direct any of the eight episodes in the first season, but two of them are based on his short stories. He recruits an impressive lineup of horror filmmakers to direct one episode each, along with his frequent collaborator Guillermo Navarro, who directs the opening episode, "Lot 36."
The two-episode premiere also includes "Graveyard Rats," directed by Vincenzo Natali (Cube, In the Tall Grass) and based on a short story by Henry Kuttner. At 38 minutes, "Graveyard Rats" is the shortest and most economical episode in the season, while most other Cabinet of Curiosities installments run about an hour. That's a little too long for these kinds of anthology stories, and the episodes tend to drag a bit in the middle. "Graveyard Rats," about a cemetery caretaker with a side business in grave-robbing who is plagued by relentless, ravenous rats, is entertainingly ghoulish, with an old-school EC Comics style and an enjoyably hammy lead performance from David Hewlett.
Most of Cabinet of Curiosities' episodes are based on short stories -- some of them classics that have been previously adapted to other movies and TV series, including two from H.P. Lovecraft. The only episode without source material is "The Viewing," from Director and Co-Writer Panos Cosmatos (Mandy, Beyond the Black Rainbow). It's the most clearly identifiable as the work of a distinctive filmmaker, with the same cosmic psychedelic style as Cosmatos' previous work. Like a lot of these episodes, it's an actors' showcase, with Peter Weller making the most of his role as an eccentric, rich recluse who summons a group of luminaries in various fields to witness a strange discovery.
Tim Blake Nelson gets a deserved spotlight as the star of "Lot 36," based on del Toro's short story, as a mean, angry military veteran who purchases a cursed storage unit. Many of Cabinet of Curiosities' episodes are period pieces, and "Lot 36" takes place around the first Gulf War in the early '90s, with Nelson's veteran spouting white supremacist views that make it more satisfying to see him get his comeuppance. It's a simple but effective narrative that goes exactly where it seems like it's going, but it's still fun to watch as it gets there.
F. Murray Abraham also commands the screen in what amounts to a partial one-man show in Cabinet of Curiosities' strongest episode, "The Autopsy," from The Empty Man Director David Prior and based on a short story by Michael Shea. Abraham plays a coroner performing autopsies on a group of miners who died in an explosion that may have extraterrestrial origins. The episode spends a little too much time on set-up, but once Abraham's grizzled doctor is alone in a makeshift morgue with the bodies, it's satisfyingly horrific. Abraham conveys the weariness of a man who's reaching the end of his life but also isn't willing to go down without a fight.
Not every episode succeeds, and "The Outside" belabors its one-joke premise about an insecure woman (Kate Micucci) who becomes obsessed with a disgusting cream that will supposedly make her beautiful. Working from a short story by Emily Carroll, Director Ana Lily Amirpour uses exaggerated camera angles, sing-song music, and tacky production design to illustrate strained points about toxic beauty standards and peer pressure. Dan Stevens is amusing as a sleazy TV pitchman who peddles the weird goop, but his presence is minimal and just serves to underline the obvious.
The good thing about Cabinet of Curiosities -- and any anthology series -- is that if one installment is a dud, there's an entirely new story waiting in the next episode. Del Toro is enough of a force in the horror world that he can enlist some of the best filmmakers to contribute to the series, and other episodes are directed by Keith Thomas (The Vigil), Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight), and Jennifer Kent (The Babadook). The eight episodes in the first season offer a glimpse into what del Toro has to offer, and if Cabinet of Curiosities can stick around longer than Peele's new Twilight Zone, it has plenty of potential for enticing new horrors.
Two episodes of Cabinet of Curiosities premiere each day from Oct. 25-28 on Netflix.