‘Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities’ can be considered a success for Netflix having debuted at No. 3 of its top 10 with 50 million hours viewed in its first six days of availability. The horror anthology series consists of eight episodes, two co-written by Del Toro and six written and directed by filmmakers such as Vincenzo Natali, David Prior or Panos Cosmatos, all with the director of ‘Hellboy’ as host.
The variety of stories it presents have in common a taste for classic horror movies, weird literature and Lovecraft almost present in all the chapters in one way or another and the presence of the director himself in the first minutes, recovering a lost tradition of seeing a visible head that accompanies us through the panorama of exhibitions that is to come, in the tradition of Chicho Ibáñez Serrador, Rod Serling, or even literary creators such as Roald Dahl or Ray Bradbury in their respective series based on their works.
The occasion of the premiere of this series of eight episodes leads us to remember other anthologies in feature film format or collection of episodes, which we can find in streaming, all with a point in common with the Netflix proposal, either because of its related classic literary inspiration, its presenters with a resume in terror like Del Toro or the idea of objects as the common thread of all stories. If you want to know more about horror seriesyou can check our list on different platforms, our special for Halloween or our ranking of horror anthologies.
Tales from beyond the grave (From Beyond the Grave, 1974)
Direction: Kevin Connor. Cast: Peter Cushing, Ian Bannen, Ian Carmichael, Diana Dors, Margaret Leighton, Donald Pleasence, Nyree Dawn Porter, David Warner.
One of the best horror anthologies of lhome British specialist Amicusin this case applying a special maturity to his stories, both in their staging, and in the decadent setting that unites them, with a store, which, like Del Toro’s Cabinet, has cursed objects whose buyers acquire to take us to mirror stories with inner demons, dopplegängers and other evil happenings.
Available in filmin
Chronicles of Evil (1992)
Address: José María Carreño (Creator) and vvaa. Cast: Antonio Resines, Javier Bardem, Ángel de Andrés López, Manuel Alexandre and Juanjo Puigcorbés.
forgotten Spanish horror anthology of 13 episodes which, like Del Toro’s, follows the same creative line to manage the work of different directors and screenwriters, such as Ricardo Franco, Ivan Zulueta, Manolo Matjí or Antonio Drove, and national film stars such as Antonio Resines, Javier Bardem, Ángel de Andrés López, Manuel Alexandre and Juanjo Puigcorbé.
Episodes such as ‘The door of success’ stand out, about a child lost in the bowels of an English Court that leads a diabolical Sancho Gracia to hell, along with other stories set in Spain arriving at the Olympics, with werewolves, witches, zombies or Zulueta’s swan song, an unclassifiable surreal journey entitled ‘Ritesti’.
Available on Rtve Play
‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ (Scary Tales to Tell in the Dark, 2019)
Direction: André Øvredal. Cast: Zoe Margaret Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Zajur, Gabriel Rush, Kathleen Pollard, Gil Bellows, Javier Botet.
The other anthology produced by Guillermo del Toro is an adaptation of a group of children’s horror books that became famous for their macabre illustrations, which led to the ban. Here the stories take shape within a general one that collects several supernatural urban legends shaped into tremendous monsters and beings that, as in the Netflix series, are carefully recreated with costumes, animatronics and makeup. Oh, to see what passion he puts into it.
Criticism in Espinof | Available on Netflix
Monsters (1988-1991)
Direction: Richard P. Rubinstein, Mitchell Galin (Creators) and vvaa. Cast: John Bolger, Pamela Dean Kelly, John Saxon, Lisa Waltz, David McCallum, Tempestt Bledsoe, Carlos Lauchu, Robert Weil, Michael J. Anderson.
An unknown horror series that shares with ‘The Cabinet of Curiosities’ a obsession with creatures created in the traditional way, whether with puppets or costumes, being the attraction of each of its episodes. The stories are not bad, but with just 20 minutes it hardly reaches a translation of the 5 pages of rigor of an EC comic. A bit of what ‘Tales from the Crypt’ would end up doing with more money, although this one never lacked some kind of grotesque being every week.
Available on Youtube
Body Bag (Body Bags, 1993)
Direction: John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper. Cast: John Carpenter, Tom Arnold, Tobe Hooper, Robert Carradine, Alex Datcher, Peter Jason, Stacy Keach, David Warner, Mark Hamill.
If seeing Del Toro presenting each episode in person is a luxury, imagine if it were the very director of ‘The Thing’ or ‘Halloween Night’ who hosted his own stories. And also disguised as the living dead. It is not only an event to recover for this, but because he himself directs two segments, leaving the third to Tobe Hooper, being the first a small classic at the height of the best works of his filmography.
Available on Amazon Prime
Creep Show (2019-)
Direction: Greg Nicotero (Creator) and vvaa. Cast: Logan Allen, David Arquette, Madison Bailey, Adrienne Barbeau, Hannah Barefoot, Tobin Bell, Nelson Bonilla, Connor Christie, Chad Michael Collins, Nathan W. Collins.
The series that bears the mark of the film of George Romero and Stephen King It doesn’t do justice to its title, but it is a good adaptation of ‘Monsters’ to modern times, with Greg Nicotero turning his very humble production into a spectacle of special effects and monstrous, gory and macabre creations that, although they do not have the accompaniment they deserve in staging and direction, they always deliver and turn the horror into a little show in less than 20 minutes.
Criticism in Espinof | Available in Atresplayer