Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is an American horror anthology television series created for Netflix by Guillermo del Toro.
The series features eight horror stories by authors such as Henry Kuttner, Michael Shea, Emily Carroll, H. P. Lovecraft, and del Toro himself.
In centuries past, when the world was full of mystery, and traveling was reserved for the very few, a new form of collection was born. The cabinet of curiosities. Now, this collection could be lodged in a building, a chamber, or a piece of furniture. In these private collections, one would find books, paintings, or specimens of natural and unnatural history. A dragon’s tooth, a Fiji mermaid, a unicorn’s horn. And behind each of these, a story. One could encounter something as large as a suit of armor or as small as a set of keys. The keys to a storage room. That old place where one keeps the past alive. The things that remind us of our deeds, our darkness, our sins.Guillermo del Toro, S1.Ep1: Lot 36
Graveyards, cemeteries, the ultimate collection. Layers of earth separate ancient burials, both pagan and holy. A witch, a warlock, a saint. And the soil is full of secrets and treasure. For the vermin that chews indifferently on wood or bone, it means nourishment. And for the humankind, bounty.Guillermo del Toro, S1.Ep2: Graveyard Rats
Are you aware that the very foundations of society are built on the respectful interment of the dead? We stopped being apes when we dug our first graves. It was the birth of civilization. And it will be its end when we cease to honor those that came before.Masson, S1.Ep2: Graveyard Rats
A shooting star crossing the vast, indifferent night sky. Perhaps carrying an answer to that age-old question, are we alone in the universe? Recorded on a modest device, stained with blood and death, the answer is a decidedly terrifying… “no.”Guillermo del Toro, S1.Ep3: The Autopsy
From the bottom of my heart, you’re not that special. That’s ego. Who are you to claim special qualities of sin from the rest of us? If you’re cursed, we’re all cursed.Carl Winters, (to Nate), S1.Ep3: The Autopsy
We’re all on the same conveyor belt. Some of us fall off a bit sooner than the rest, but we’re all heading for the same destination.Carl Winters, (to Nate), S1.Ep3: The Autopsy
Late-night TV. Images and voices in the dark. In our head. An electronic cabinet of curiosities, blurring the line between what is outside and what is inside. What we are, and what we are told we should be. Perfection is but a toll-free number away, and this cabinet is controlled by a magic wand made of cheap plastic and numbers. It fits right in your hand, and it is hard to let go.Guillermo del Toro, S1.Ep4: The Outside
True acceptance, harmony, peace, and divinity. All that stuff is a lie. We all just wanna be good-looking.Alo Glo Man, S1.Ep4: The Outside
You’re fine. You’ll always be fine. You wanna know why? Because you’re a man. Men can be fat and hairy and ugly and impolite and old, and nobody cares. Everybody likes you. Everybody wants to talk to you.Stacey Chapman, (to Keith), S1.Ep4: The Outside
“I paint what I see” is a painter’s maxim, and one that reveals to us the many layers of our world. Because behind everything beautiful lies the dark. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what about the horror? We ascribe these visions to a feverish imagination. A whim, a folly. But what if they are not? What if they are a careful record, a warning, or a family album?Guillermo del Toro, S1.Ep5: Pickman's Model
Suffering is living. We cannot let sympathy or altruism shield us from finding the truths of this world.Richard Pickman, S1.Ep5: Pickman's Model
It’s the world that’s mad. That’s what breeds fear. Knowing what lurks in the darkness. Knowing where fear lives.Richard Pickman, (to Will), S1.Ep5: Pickman's Model
H.P. Lovecraft, the author of today’s tale, feared the universe. He believed it to be a haunted house of cosmic proportions, one in which danger lurks behind every door, revealing new realities, dreams, nightmares. Especially for those of us who find the key.Guillermo del Toro, S1.Ep6: Dreams in the Witch House
I would rather see the wonders of the world than live dully at home.Jenkins Brown, S1.Ep6: Dreams in the Witch House
What happens when the collector becomes the collected? When a ruthless wonder hunter finds someone or something with a will, a hunger far greater than his own? Printed in heavy paper, embossed, not quite pocket-size, an invitation to a viewing. A night of pleasure for like-minded folk. A night that may also prove to be their last.Guillermo del Toro, S1.Ep7: The Viewing
Everyone has two lives, and the second life begins the moment you realize that, all along, you only had one.Lionel Lassiter, S1.Ep7: The Viewing
Ancient belief tells us that birds carry our souls, our beliefs, our hopes up to the gods. They are the dark messengers, crisscrossing the twilight sky, forming ever-changing patterns called “murmurations.” But that word… that word also suggests a voice, a whisper, a prayer uttered in the dark when we think we have lost it all.Guillermo del Toro, S1.Ep8: The Murmuring