Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 7 “The Viewing” Review: Capable of Giving A Very Particular Aesthetic, Is Thus Watered Down | Guillermo del Toro’s

Cast: Peter Weller, Eric André, Sofia Boutella

Director: Panos Cosmato

Streaming Platform: Netflix

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

As we will see in our review of the seventh episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, The Viewing is perhaps one of the most particular and different from all the others, one of the few in which the director’s vision is combined with an aesthetic and a narrative. Well-defined, even if the result may not completely satisfy the public. For the first time, however, you get the impression of an episode different from the usual, which knows how to distinguish itself from the rest of the production. And this is a great merit that, having arrived at the last day of stories, we hoped to be able to see sooner and more often.

It is time to visit mansions and villas. It’s time to find the horror outside your comfort zone, in unexpected, mysterious and even magical places. The latest diptych of the Netflix anthology series produced and presented by Guillermo del Toro focuses on just this: on visiting and being visited. Because the English word Visitation (which gives the title to the fourth and final day of stories of the series) does not only mean visiting someone, but also an event that brings with it a message or a punishment from God. episode directed by Panos Cosmatos represents its darker side.

Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 7 “The Viewing” Review: The Story Plot

It’s 1979. On a night broken only by synth wave music coming from a speeding car, four people meet in a public parking lot waiting to be picked up by a driver. They are four professionals, each an excellence in his field (some linked to spirituality, some to music, some to science and some to literature), invited by a mysterious man, rich and powerful, to his prestigious villa. Once there, the four protagonists are made to sit down and will be welcomed by this man who will flaunt his wealth and his conquests, from the audio system appropriately made specifically for the home to the most precious and pure cocaine to share. But the rare piece of the collection is locked in a room, an object never seen before and which cost a real fortune.

Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 7 “The Viewing” Review and Analysis

It’s 1979. On a night broken only by synth-wave music coming from a speeding car, four people meet in a public parking lot waiting to be picked up by a driver. They are four professionals, each an excellence in his field (some linked to spirituality, some to music, some to science and some to literature), invited by a mysterious man, rich and powerful, to his prestigious villa. Once there, the four protagonists are made to sit down and will be welcomed by this man who will flaunt his wealth and his conquests, from the audio system appropriately made specifically for the home to the most precious and pure cocaine to share. But the rare piece of the collection is locked in a room, an object that was never seen before, and which cost a real fortune.

The rhythm changes when the protagonists finally get up from the sofa and proceed to discover this mysterious object. It is only then that the episode explodes bringing to the stage all its horror, violence and hysterical. Only then will the fumes of alcohol and drugs seem to clear up to make way for a sudden, bloody and unexpected acceleration of events. Perhaps all of this comes a little too late, a little anaesthetized, even if one cannot fail to acknowledge the merit.

Because precisely in the penultimate episode, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities finds the strength of the vision of a director, is not suitable for everyone, particular and also repulsive, but certainly personal. From the first shots where the music explodes from the speakers of our television, with an omnipresent grain that gives the episode a tasty material look typical of a film shot, The Viewing proves to be one of the most satisfying and unique stories from an aesthetic point of view. Based on the shades of orange, the episode is unlike any other of the stories featured in the anthology series. And even if not everything is successful (sometimes the feeling is that of a showreel of form rather than content), one cannot but appreciate the desire to break away from the rest of the production.

This particular vision is also confirmed in the particular use of digital effects, which is assisted by a photograph that highlights the light points, making them shine, giving life to an aesthetic that pays homage to the special effects “of the past”, managing to best fit them within the chosen look. Between light trails and lightning almost drawn on the film, The Viewing works mainly thanks to these visual devices. Too bad, therefore, that everything is watered down in a too generous amount of time and that this seventh episode would have remained a little gem, if only it had come first to the point.

In reality, the evening is also too exposed to us, presenting the problem of the first episode: we end up where we should begin. And if we can excuse the first episode because there were only 40 minutes available, the 60 minutes of this one doesn’t help justify it. Almost trying to reinterpret David Cronenberg’s lesson, but using the language of “space horror”, Cosmatos presents us with a story that takes a bit for exhaustion. Initially, we are also curious to know where the story is headed, but soon we realize that we don’t care, arriving at the end almost asleep, later being awakened by something that… Well, hard to find the words.

The characters are barely sketched if only to give the idea of ​​ambiguity and absurdity of the situation. The whole thing is mostly shot in one room. Surely creativity takes over in the moment of “face to face”, while for the rest the direction remains fairly flat. There is a lot of reliance on dialogue, but on balance what is left is nothing. These are empty speeches aimed at buying time before arriving at the big “big surprise”. It comes naturally to wonder why you waste so much time. Given also the presentation of the episode, in this case, drier timing would have made the narration more fitting and effective. In this case, however, it is not even clear what you want to tell. A story that has very little to do with everything else, A little bit of the intruder, A real disappointment!

Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 7 “The Viewing” Review: The Last Words

Like the mysterious object that unfolds the narrative path of The Viewing, the seventh episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is far too asleep and wastes much of its time in static conversations that do not involve as much as they would like. This slow pace is broken in the last 15 minutes which offers some surprises. Too bad that first this personal, unique and singular vision of the director, capable of giving a very particular aesthetic, is thus watered down.