Guillermo del Toro Touts Practical Effects in First Look at Netflix’s Cabinet of Curiosities Anthology

As we approach the genuine start of the Spooky Season window—indisputably the greatest time of the year, when it comes to entertainment—Mexican fantasist Guillermo del Toro is as excited as any of us. The Academy Award-winning director of such films as Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water always finds his name attached to seemingly half a dozen projects at any given time, which includes the long-awaited release of his stop-motion version of Pinocchio on Netflix this December, but he’s also got something for the horror fans in the house. Netflix has released the first look at Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, which sees the genre impresario providing a venue for some great horror talents to ply their trade, while del Toro himself waxes poetic about the level of practical FX on display.

Cabinet of Curiosities hits Netflix on Oct. 25, 2022, a horror anthology series with eight installments, each directed by well-established or up-and-coming horror auteurs. Del Toro didn’t personally direct any of these installments, though he did have a hand in writing two of them, including premiere “The Murmuring,” which is directed by none other than The Babadook’s Jennifer Kent. Other directors of note in the series include The Empty Man’s David Prior, Mandy’s Panos Cosmatos, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’s Ana Lily Amirpour, and Cube’s Vincenzo Natali. Also included, for the Lovecraft geeks in the house, are adaptations of two of the literary horror icon’s stories, in the form of “Dreams in the Witch House” and “Pickman’s Model.”

In the first look below, del Toro is particularly excited about aspects of production design, and you can get a good first look at some of the creature FX that will be seen in various episodes. Check it out below, as we wait for Cabinet of Curiosities to make its splashy Netflix debut.