Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities: The Viewing [Film Review]

If you ever want to watch something mesmerizing that captures the essence of cosmic horror, I’ve got something special for you: The Viewing. The Viewing is part of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, which is a horror anthology on Netflix. It only got the one season, and despite being quite entertaining, Netflix sadly decided not to renew it for a season two. The collection got a few horror gems, but the stand-out is definitely The Viewing, so I’m glad we at least got that story before being axed like a slasher victim.

The guests
The episode starts with you being introduced to the guests, coming for the mysterious and very exclusive invite-only viewing. They are all experts in their fields from mathematics, to music composition—one guy is even in touch with the supernatural and can essentially talk to spirits. It’s pretty clear someone wants to cover all corners here, from the scientific to the philosophical—and the cool part is, the guests are as confused as the viewer. It has the very cool effect of feeling like part of this secret meeting of the eccentric kind—almost like you are the fifth visitor.  

The rich collector
The host of this eclectic meeting is the reclusive and strange billionaire Lionel Lassiter played by the legendary Peter Weller. Lassiter being eccentric is a given, but I feel he’s a step above, sliding into Eyes Wide Shut territory, which goes above and beyond the “mundane” weirdness of the common millionaire. In other words, he is a well-spoken nutbag with a ridiculously strong aura of new-aristocratic power.

What makes it so good
First off, it’s well-acted, with the actors fitting their roles perfectly—like the fat All-American writer with an ego as large as his belly. Peter Weller is fantastic as the cryptic host, and together with the guests it’s a slow but damn intense build-up for when it’s time for the object to be viewed in all its glory. It just has a cool, but unsettling vibe, and it’s hard to shake that something really bad is coming, which it does.

To create this atmosphere, it is filmed in the style of a psychedelic 70s flick where every light source bleeds a little—to forge a dreamlike scene for us to move through. If that wasn’t enough, the music is very slick, being diegetic for both us and the characters to experience. Very moody, indeed!

The facility where all this takes place also has a special energy, built as a brutalist bunker with disco lights and high-tech electronics for its time. It comes off as Deus Ex-esque in a sense, which works splendidly for me, as I love weird and eccentric architecture with a purpose. 

And finally, when the horror hits, it truly hits hard, playing into the terrifying unknown of cosmic horror. Something that goes beyond our simple understanding of things that hide in the black void… 

Conclusion
The Viewing was an awesome hour of set-up, characters, and horror, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes this style of horror. Now, it’s not particularly deep, but it’s extremely effective in visual style and is well-paced. When I watched it for the first time, I was captivated, fully entrenched in the plot and the imagery—and it’s a real shame the show didn’t get a season two. However, what we got here is something special that will stick with me for a long time. 

Thanks for reading.

– Thomas