It's Del Toro Time!

Willow thinks I’m nuts for ever having liked this mess. It’s “Dread” by Clive Barker!

If you like non-verbal developmentally disabled men with borderline personality disorder performing inprov surgery on unconscious women, have we got a story for you! It’s “Bright Segment” by Theodore Sturgeon and it’s ICKY!

Are you scared of roaches? Hope not! Because we’re talking about Thomas M. Disch’s “The Roaches” from “The Dark Descent” and it’s got ROACHES!

We’re diving back into “The Dark Descent” because watching movies has PROVED DIFFICULT! And, what a story to dive into! It’s Robert Aickman’s “The Swords” and it’s about… sex? Stabbing? Thrusting? It’s fairly explicit and fairly grimy and we talk about it for a WHILE. Enjoy!

What do you get when Guillermo del Toro decides to make “Pinocchio?” “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio!” It’s an aggressively Guillermo del Toro movie and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

You like birds? You like murmuring? You like GRIEF? Well, we do! We close out Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities with the phenomenal “The Murmuring” by the incredible Jennifer Kent! Then, we rank the eps! It’s fun!

When the director of “Mandy” throws a bunch of comic actors and Robocop in a room together and makes them do Space Cocaine, the result is “The Viewing!” Also, Gremlin Water Hatchers; they grow!

We were having such a great run of episodes, it was inevitable we’d hit a dud. “Dreams in the Witch House” takes Lovecraft’s original story, removes the plot, keeps a few names, a rat with a face and calls it a day. It wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t so… bad. Sorry. https://ia904702.us.archive.org/14/items/20221110_20221110_2010/DelToro-Cabinet06.mp3

Whaddaya get when you take one of H. P. Lovecraft’s most famous short stories and streeeeeetch it out? You get the Cabinet of Curiosities adaptation of “Pickman’s Model!” Is it very much like the story? Errrr… Is it entertaining? Heck yes!

In “The Outside,” director Ana Lily Amirpour takes a webcomic by Emily Carroll and turns it into something else. Something full of body horror, comedy, self-loathing, and axe murder! It’s “The Outside!”

Way back in our “The Dark Descent” days, we covered Michael Shea’s phenomenal short story “The Autopsy.” Now, we’re getting to revisit it with the “Cabinet of Curiosities” adaptation by David S Goyer and David Prior! And, you know what? It’s really great!

Episode 2 of “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities” is a lively adaptation of Henry Kuttner’s “Graveyard Rats” a favorite of mine. We’ve got goopy corpses, rat monsters, boney bois. It’s a whole thing and we enjoyed it! Take a listen!

Welcome to the beginning of our coverage of “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.” We start off with a fairly straightforward, but creepy, little tale of greed and payback with “Lot 36.”

When Martin Scorsese made “Goodfellas” did he know it was going to change filmmaking forever? Probably. It’s “Goodfellas!”

He’s dark! He’s a man! He’s Darkman! In 1990, Sam Raimi took a chance on creating an original superhero(?) monster(??) thing(???) for the modern age, and he totally succeeded! It’s “Darkman!” Also, I’m very sick, so I sound like garbage! “Darkman!”

Hey let’s go… talk about “My Neighbor Totoro!” Honestly, what can you say about a nearly perfect film? It is what it is. It’s “My Neighbor Totoro!”

Are you ready to get GLOOPY? It’s the gloopiest film yet: 1986’s “The Fly” by David Cronenberg! I just love this sweet short film and Willow… has her thoughts about it. It’s Canadian! It’s gross! It’s gross and Canadian! It’s “The Fly!”

Some movies are just a joy to watch and “Castle in the Sky” is one of those movies. Ghibli’s first film, it has all of the hallmarks of Miyazaki’s work to come: pirates, airships, environmental stuff, robits. It’s all there. And, it’s just a dang delight.

In which Willow and Phil disagree slightly on the merits of this episode’s movie, but do agree that we have no idea what the Rules of Engagement even mean. It’s 1986’s “Top Gun!”