This week, a double Friday Feature on an episode from Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities. Tori and JJ have previously written about other installments in the series: Graveyard Rats, Lot 36, The Outside, The Viewing, and The Murmuring.

Dreams in the Witch House (2022)

Do we need to start rating the rats in these episodes? I did not expect SO many rats! And this one might be the worst of the bunch. I wanted to like this one more than I did. It is certainly an interesting entry especially since it is from Catherine Hardwicke (director of Twilight and Thirteen). Rupert Grint gives a great performance. He is a unique actor and I would like to see him in more things. I am also a fan of any Lovecraft adaptation that stacks its cast with main characters who are BIPOC. I always feel like I can hear him rolling in his grave and it delights me to no end. The biggest strong points of Dreams in the Witch House are the set and production design—there are some impeccable looking set pieces. The effects and the design of the witch herself are also effectively creepy and look unlike any I have seen before. The story is a little hard to follow, and I am not entirely sure I understand the ending. Even though it is a Lovecraft adaptation, it does not really have the cosmic horror feel we have come to expect from his work, so it is actually hard to tell how many liberties they took with this particular story. But if you like stand-out performances (including a baffling DJ Qualls appearance) and visually stunning elements, this is worth a watch. 2.5 out of 5 sacs of blood. 

—Tori Potenza

As with the Pickman’s Model episode, my attention wandered, and I fixated on particular details in an attempt to stick with it. I’d hate to miss a purple passage in an otherwise gray expanse (or muddy CGI landscape). Such gleaning is also a way to cope with the duds in an otherwise worthwhile compilation. If I’d turned this off or passed out, I’d have never met the stellar hybrid rat in the Witch House. I’m intrigued by the concept of drug-induced interdimensional travel, sort of, and am almost always down for a magical forest, but I didn’t care about the protagonist or his child-actor sister. So I just waited for the pissed off man-faced rat to reappear (5 sacs for that little scamp). The decayed interior landscape attic room is also way more fascinating than whatever’s going on in there. Could have used more man-rat, for sure. 2.5 out of 5 sacs of blood.

—J †Johnson