At the outset of each episode of “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” the great filmmaker and master of the macabre himself ambles into frame wearing an impeccable three-piece suit, holding a key that unlocks an intricately carved, multi-tiered cabinet filled with wondrous and weird art and curios and talismans. Prior to the episode titled “Pickman’s Model,” del Toro says, “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. … Our tale tonight is ‘Pickman’s Model,’ and its director, Keith Thomas.”
At that point, del Toro places a miniature carving in the director’s likeness in front of a sketchbook of quite disturbing art, and let the episode begin. These intro sequences, which have echoes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and the Rod Serling classic series “The Twilight Zone” and “Night Gallery,” are exquisite. They’re haunting. They’re weird. They’re fantastic.
