It's Del Toro Time!

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!”

It’s here! Our look at Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil!” It made Willow hide under the blanket!

Da doo Ran Ran! It’s Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran” and it kicks BUTT! We really liked this one, so it’s a bit of a love fest. Can you blame us? “Ran!”

It’s Morbin’ Time! So, Willow watched “Morbius” and wanted to talk about it. I’m sorry. We’ll be back next time with “Ran” I swear to God.

You know what’s a weird movie? “The Thing!” You know what’s a perfect movie? “The Thing!” This week we’re looking at a favorite film of both of ours, John Carpenter’s “The Thing!” What more is there to say? It’s Thing-tastic!

All spheres are rock albums but not all rock albums are spheres. If that makes sense to you, welcome to our discussion of Alan Parker’s Roger Waters’s “Pink Floyd: The Wall!” the movie of the stage show of the album of the trauma!

HOO BOY! We’re back with a MODREN FILM, and it’s a doozy. The del Toro-produced, Scott Cooper-directed Native American(?) inspired(???) adaptation(!?!?!) of Nick Antosca’s short story(???!??!?!) that throws in a bunch of alcoholism, child abuse, Indigenous lore, and disjointed plotting that all adds up to a whole bunch of, well, BAD WORDS. It’s “Antlers!”

We did it. We watched all of “Fanny and Alexander.” And here’s the proof!