Daniel’s review published on Letterboxd:
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities - 5/8
Paint away your darkest fears. That could be one way to approach this. If you have not already decided to spend time feeling haunted. Not very ideal when awaiting feedback; but not something to be judged at all.
So far so good no more. There were nerves going into this one. Much more than the previous entries to come from the cabinet of tales. Not sure exactly what from; but seems like there might be a reason for them.
What this suffers from most is anything compelling. At least when you compare it to what has come before. Next to nothing about this was able to have me invested aside from select few shining moments above all.
There are still a few things going for this: from the casting to the classical setting. It was extremely impressive in terms of productions. Perhaps the most of any entry we have seen up to this point in the series. It's great.
I am no expert but I do know these things can only take you so far. Before you know it: the rest of the cracks will start showing if you can't do much else to start fixing them rather than just hiding from the bigger problem.
Lovecraftian elements are still captured almost exceptionally well. It feels in line in terms of the atmosphere with the rest of the series. Nothing about it felt out of tone or disjointed. Just fell down to being just lifeless.
That could be the word to describe this. It felt void of any real emotion. Something that hasn't been the case up until this point. At least from my opinion. None of this felt like an acting fault; rather writing or directing.
Everything does start to get relatively interesting as it is ending. Just took the entire runtime to reach that point though. Someone should maybe remind filmmakers that these aren't feature length. It's a one hour story.
I did like parts at the very least and there will be many that enjoy this alot. Not something that worked for me though. Straight up boring from the start to finish. Never enough to catch your attention long enough to care.
If we could start seeing more horrors in this setting and style: I wouldn't complain though. So long as they aren't as underwhelming and have less of Crispin Glover's strong accent but I will keep his freaky paintings.
