As promised, we are back with our next review for Guillermo del Toro’s horror anthology, Cabinet of Curiosities. Episode 3 is called The Autopsay, and its director, David Prior
The more I think about it, the more I realise how special this horror anthology is. There’s no one other than del Toro pulling the cinematic strings. I admit, I was a little bit uncertain about who David Prior was but I knew this guy is something special if del Toro has hand-picked him for a segment of Cabinet of Curiosities.
David Prior is best known for an indie horror movie released a few years back. It was one of the movies that separated the horror community – you either loved it or hated it. That movie was The Empty Man. The Empty Man was hugely compared to Lovecraftian-type horror, so it makes perfect sense that del Toro wanted him.
Episode 4 is written by Guillermo del Toro and David S. Goyer (Dark knight trilogy). It is also the longest episode yet at 57 minutes
This tale revolves around a pathologist who is called in to perform an autopsy on the bodies of a group of miners who died in a supposed explosion. We are then treated to a flashback story that fills in the gaps leading us up to their deaths. It all started when a miner decided to go to the mountains to watch a meteor storm He never returned. Sometime later, he appears in the town but now goes by the name of Joe Allen…his real name is Eddie Sykes. Something strange happened to Eddie when he was in the mountains. Not only that but he has returned with an otherworldly object, some sort of living ball of flesh-like material, spouting hairs and giving off a stench worse than death. As the autopsies continue, our pathologist starts to find extreme abnormalities in their organs that are beyond modern medical practice or knowledge. What follows is more cosmic and Lovecraftian terror.
The lighting in this episode is nothing less than chilling. The autopsies performed are some of the best visual, and practical gore that’s guaranteed to put a few people off of their dinner. The last 20 minutes are of some of the finest alien body horror a fan could hope for. Starring F. Murray Abraham, Glynn Turman &
Luke Roberts
As always, thanks for reading.
