Just Finished Frankenstein? Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities Is Your Next One-Season Horror Obsession
The gold standard of modern horror anthologies has arrived—sharp, unsparing, and guaranteed to haunt you long after the credits roll.
With the Oscars closing in and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein hovering near the top of the awards chatter, it feels like the right moment to dive back into what makes his work click on a gut level. The films run the spectrum from cracked fables like The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth to bold studio swings like Nightmare Alley and The Shape of Water. On TV, he has hits like Tales of Arcadia and The Strain. But the crown jewel on the small screen? That is Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities.
Why this one stands out
Conceived as part of his ongoing run with Netflix (where he made Pinocchio and Frankenstein), Cabinet of Curiosities is a compact, gorgeously mounted anthology: eight lush, Gothic-tinged horror tales introduced by del Toro himself. He pops open a literal cabinet each time, pulls out an object, and teases the nightmare to come. Think Rod Serling's Night Gallery as a spiritual compass, then filtered through del Toro's meticulous textures, monsters, and morbid whimsy.
Across eight entries, the show slips between classic hauntings and squishy body horror without losing its personality. It is elegant, it is weird, and it can be flat-out horrifying. In the crowded field of TV anthologies, it is easily one of this century's strongest.
How del Toro shapes it (without smothering it)
Despite fronting every episode, del Toro mostly plays maestro, not lead violin. He serves as creative supervisor, handpicks the storytellers, and lets them drive. He co-wrote one entry, and two episodes spring from his own short stories, but the directors get the room to flex their own styles. That balance is the magic trick: the series feels unmistakably del Toro while still belonging to eight distinct voices.
Cast and vibes
The bench is deep: Rupert Grint, Dan Stevens, Peter Weller, and Crispin Glover all show up, among others. Each hour feels like its own little movie, with top-shelf craft and a nasty sense of humor when it wants one.
Where a second season stands
A follow-up season remains off the slate at Netflix. Del Toro hardly sits still, though. He is in production on a stop-motion take on Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant and scripting Fury, which he has teased as:
"very cruel, very violent"
That one reunites him with Frankenstein star Oscar Isaac.
Episodes to queue up first
- Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow, Mandy) delivers the series' wildest detour with The Viewing. It is the late-night, neon-drenched one that goes places.
- Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) closes on a hushed, beautiful note with The Murmuring, led by Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln. It lingers.
- Guillermo Navarro, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of Pan's Labyrinth, kicks things off with Lot 36, which carries that unmistakable del Toro look and texture.
- The Autopsy might be the scariest of the bunch: F. Murray Abraham anchors it, David Prior (The Empty Man) directs, and David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight trilogy) pens the script.
The bottom line
If Frankenstein has you craving more of del Toro's sensibility but you want to stay in TV land, Cabinet of Curiosities is the sweet spot: eight nocturnal nightmares, eight strong points of view, and one very particular host opening the door to all of it.