‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ Emmys FYC panel: Behind the crafts of Guillermo del Toro’s ‘wheel of crazy’ Netflix series [WATCH]
One of Netflix’s strongest hopes at hitting a Creative Arts Emmy Awards jackpot this year lies with “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.” The anthology series’ eight-part inaugural season was presented last October as a collection of hour-long horror stories brimming with terrifying sights and sounds crafted by del Toro’s talented team of frequent collaborators. Recently, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff moderated a 2023 Emmys FYC panel made up of executive producer J. Miles Dale, production designer Tamara Deverell, costume designer Luis Sequeira, visual effects supervisor Dennis Berardi, prosthetic HODs Mike Hill and Sean Sansom, and re-recording mixers Paul Shubat and Michael Woroniuk. Watch the video Q&A above.
In addition to falling under del Toro’s well-known horror brand, one of this series’ main draws is that each episode was helmed by a different director. Dale, who shared in the Best Picture Oscar victory of del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” (2017), said “Cabinet of Curiosities” was “meant to be something where these directors… who had not been widely seen because of their indie careers, could come in [and] make some great showpieces that would be seen by millions and millions of people.” He then spoke for the creative team by describing working for eight people as “a bit like a wheel of crazy” as they all felt a responsibility to “manage the directors and get the best out of them.”
Deverell, who won an Art Directors Guild Award for this series in February, explained that her greatest challenge was “maintaining [del Toro’s] vision [and her] vision [while] trying to adjust with each personality of each director.” When asked to describe her experience working on the seventh episode, “The Viewing,” she said “there was a lot of back and forth” between her and director Panos Cosmatos as they played with “firm realities and making strange new spaces for this weird environment.”
Sequeira also got specific when reflecting on his work in episode six, “Dreams in the Witch House,” which is one of two installments adapted from an H. P. Lovecraft tale. After previously thinking the witch would be a primarily CGI character, he and his team learned that they would be responsible for creating her intricate costume, which he described as a “unique challenge.” He then went into detail about how they “hand-sculpted each of those branches and… worked on the mechanism of the dress to be able to hydraulically lift and lower” while consistently referring to creature concept designer Guy Davis’ blueprints.
Hill also brought up Davis’ impact on this project, saying that, thanks to his and del Toro’s collaborations, it was “pretty obvious how [the makeup artists] would bring [the characters] to life.” He also praised the horror master himself by expressing his feeling that del Toro “brings out the artist in you that you didn’t know you had.” As far as what did feel challenging, he said “making eight movies” in less than a year meant that he constantly had to think ahead in terms of his creature creations, but that it “was so much fun.”
Sansom, an Emmy winner for “Grey Gardens” (2009) and (with Hill) recent Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Award nominee for this series, said that “if there was anything that was too challenging for [them] to do, [they] would collaborate… with visual effects and then they would help bring it to the next level.” He then spoke extensively about the third episode, “The Autopsy,” for which he and Hill created an adaptable body cavity he refers to as a “gut bucket,” as well as “replaceable skins” that could be cut and stitched and “various internal organs for the different stages of the bodies.”
As for the sound design in “The Autopsy,” Shubat revealed that “so many elements went into taking it from dissection to [the] gorier bits,” including Foley tracks derived from “frozen pigskin [and] leather.” He also expressed admiration for the show’s visual elements, saying, “It’s all there [on screen, and] you have to hang some great sound on those images.” Woroniuk, who was nominated alongside Shubat for a Cinema Audio Society Award in January, added that “The Autopsy” required “delicate nuance” so as to avoid “over-exaggerating” the artificial yet seemingly authentic sounds.
Berardi, a two-time Emmy contender for “Vikings” (2013-2014) who started his Herne Hill Media company specifically for this series, said that working with so many directors and “this all-star team of people” was “a great way to launch a creative studio.” He also reminisced about “The Viewing,” saying that the episode’s VFX work grew out of a “beautiful hybrid approach” that was “illustrative of the team solution” del Toro had orchestrated. Referring to the finished product, he said, “I think we achieved something kind of weird and special and different, [and] it involved everyone on this panel.”
Dale later concurred that the team del Toro has built over the years and their “beautiful communication system” was “the key to this show being good.” Its Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 93% indicates that most consider it worthy of at least a “good” label, with Nick Allen (RogerEbert.com) saying that “it’s a special treat to see [these directors] guided by a master’s standards,” Leila Latif (The Guardian) calling it “an absolute triumph,” and Olly Richards (Empire) speaking for its biggest fans by saying, “Hopefully this cabinet has many doors left to open.”
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