Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is considered an anthology of scary episodes and we share the top three scariest episodes according to IMDb.
Halloween season saw a lot of horror and thriller programming released in the past week. One of the more popular watches is Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.
The eight-episode season one anthology is currently critically acclaimed as a must-watch mixed-bag of horror and thriller episodes.
Seeing as each episode is a standalone episode which can be watched independently from the other episodes, feelings about some episodes from the public have been mixed.
But according to IMDb, the three most touted episodes are “Pickman’s Model”, “The Autopsy”, and “The Murmuring”.
Is Cabinet of Curiosities based on a book?
With a title like Guillermo del Toro Cabinet of Curiosities, you would not be wrong to think that the title was inspired by a book. But the actual inspiration for the series is an interesting story.
This is as del Toro is believed to have been inspired by the true story of him famously filling a two-story home in Los Angeles with books, props, paintings, sculptures, and other artefacts from his own filmography.
This house was dubbed Bleak House as it was considered a museum of some sort of his works.
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How scary is Cabinet of Curiosities?
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is an anthology of eight standalone episodes that do not have to be watched in sequence. Del Toro is touted to have written two of the episodes but curated the rest of the first season’s episodes.
He is considered more of a “master of ceremonies” as he appears at the beginning of each episode to open a different cabinet drawer of curiosity.
As such, the series is regarded more as a coming together of the minds of some of the horror familiars and del Toro’s collaborators coming in to deliver their respective episodes.
del Toro’s frequent cinematographer, Guillermo Navarro, directed the first episode titled “Lost 36”, which Guillermo co-wrote with Regina Corrado.
Furthermore, familiar directors in the horror genre like Vincenzo Natali, who is behind Cube and Splice, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’s Ana Lily Amirpour, Panos Cosmatos of Mandy, and The Babadook-director Jennifer Kent all contributed to the series.
Since it is an anthology of episodes, feelings about the first season of the series have been polarised in terms of whether the entire series was successful. But it did earn 8.1 out 10 on IMDb, in terms of the overall viewers’ ratings score.
However, a look at the individual score of each episode and the premise of the three top rated episodes reveals the following:
| Episode number | Title | IMDb rating out of 10 |
| One | “Lost 36” | 6.7 |
| Two | “Graveyard Rats” | 7.1 |
| Three | “The Autopsy” | 8.1 |
| Four | “The Outside” | 6.2 |
| Five | “Pickman’s Model” | 7.2 |
| Six | “Dreams in the Witch House” | 6.4 |
| Seven | “The Viewing” | N/A |
| Eight | “The Murmuring” | 9.1 |
“Pickman’s Model” synopsis
“Pickman’s Model” is one of the standout episodes in the Cabinet of Curiosities series. Considered a more pointed period horror, it is unabashed to fully lean into the horrific.
The premise sees Ben Barnes and Crispin Glover play the central characters of Will and Richard, respectively. An odd pair of art students, whose work is dark, and haunts Will.
It is the episode’s ability to merge the grotesque through imagery and paintings with its Lovecraftian trope in its telling, which has caused viewers to claim the episode as one their favourites to watch.
“The Autopsy” synopsis
“The Autopsy” leans more towards a thriller mystery. Though it is a slow burn, the journey is still gripping, as it starts with F.
Murray Abraham playing the role of a seasoned pathologist, who is enlisted to help an old-time pal and sheriff investigate a series of mysterious deaths.
The episode carefully lays the groundwork to the explosive final moments when the chilling truth of the murders is finally exposed. As such, while it begins quite slowly, the pace makes sense once the mystery is resolved.
“The Murmuring” synopsis
“The Murmuring” may not be traditionally scary, but the episode is definitely haunting, and it stays in the mind long after watching the episode. The episode marks the story in which Essie Davis and director Jennifer Kent reunite.
Davis and Andrew Lincoln play love birds and ornithologists who retreat to a secluded home to research bird migrations and recover from a terrible loss.
However, as the rift between them grows, it is the tension, silences, and the camera work by Kent which delivers a tear-jerky episode, which seems to assert Cabinet of Curiosities as a triumph for del Toro.