Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 7 follows a hypnotic and engrossing portrayal of the horror element, with a story about an insanely rich man, who invites a bunch of specialists to his mansion to study a petrifying object. The episode stars Peter Weller (RoboCop, Sons of Anarchy) as the reclusive wealthy man, and is directed by Panos Cosmatos. It is part of the final instalments of the horror anthology series that explores some deepest and darkest fantasies of the genre.
The rest of the cast includes Eric André, Sofia Boutella, Charlyne Yi, Steve Agee, Michael Therriault, and Saad Siddiqui with a screenplay from Panos Cosmatos & Aaron Stewart-Ahn. The title of this creepily hypnotic episode is The Viewing and has a total running time of fifty-seven minutes.
-Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 7 Review Contain No Spoilers-
The episode starts with a late-night gathering of four individuals from different professional backgrounds. Including an Astrophysicist, a Billboard Chart Topper, a Psychedelic person, and a fourth guy who just came to get high. They all are taken inside a creepy mansion for a special viewing, curated by an insanely rich old man (played by Peter Weller). At first, he looks like another old timer who hit his random jackpot, but there’s more to him than meets the eye.
The eccentric old man is more articulate than your average horror anthology guy. He knows his stuff about physics, music and architecture and formulates deep conversations with the guests. Ultimately, he reveals the main attraction of the night to the random individuals which turn out to be a freaking object.
What happens next, will fixate a horrifying image inside your head, with an after-effect of melting even the strongest (for the tenth time, quite literally).
The episode is mostly intellectual conversations layered with funky electro music in the background. Which feels more than enough to generate fear, curiosity and the inevitable horror. In fact, the end reveals of the episode is the petrifying bulk of it, which steals the entire show.
There is a constant shade of orange in the episode, which reminded me of several 2001: A Space Odyssey segments. Plus, there is no direct remark about the time and setting, but the presidential reference of Jimmy Carter clears that the events are taking place in the late seventies. Furthermore, the raw and to-the-core climax performs a visual ode to the era.
I was mesmerized by the ending of this episode, which broke the high bar set by its predecessors. It also left me with a hallucinogenic impact and the kind of horror that stays even after the credits.
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 7 Final Thoughts
Also Read: Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 1-2 Review: Storytelling of Horror At Its Peak
The final instalment of the horror anthology is hypnotic, alluring and raw. It also has a kind of fatal attraction that will leave a strong feeling inside your gut. Episode seven is available to stream on Netflix.
Let us know your thoughts about the monster-ish episode in the comment section below.
Also Read: Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 3 – 4 Review: As Graphic As It Can Get
First of all, the very beginning of the episode tells you it’s 1979 on the invitation they got. I did not understand this episode at all. I thought it was pointless. Maybe it’s just me. The other seven were awesome @
Thank you for this Cindy. I also felt like this episode was 1: shock factor for shock factor’s sake. Also, they barely had any intellectual conversation. It was the equivalent of listening to drunk friends talking round in circle while you’re the only one who’s sober. What was the point of the drugs? What was the point of having the novelist there? What was the point of the end with them driving away for what seemed like a fifth of the episode and the monster slow-motion walking out to civilisation?
It didn’t feel like it needed to be included with the other good episodes that actually had a story to tell.