• Netflix’s Cabinet of Curiosities is a new horror anthology series.
• The first episode, “Dreams in the Witch House,” was directed by Catherine Hardwicke.
• It stars Rupert Grint, Ismael Cruz Córdova, DJ Qualls and Nia Vardalos.

The spooky season treat we didn’t realise we needed until Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities showed up on Netflix.

Eight contemporary horror stories, including two that del Toro co-wrote, are included in the new anthology series.

They were all written and directed by different filmmakers. Directed by Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, the recently released episode “Dreams in the Witch House” is based on the short story of the same name by HP Lovecraft.

The director recently discussed her experience working with del Toro and creating demons for her episode with Entertainment Weekly.

The heartbreaking horror film “Dreams in the Witch House” stars Rupert Grint, Ismael Cruz Córdova, DJ Qualls, Nia Vardalos, Tenika Davis, and Gaby Moreno.

The protagonist of the tale is Walter Gilman (Grint), who, following the death of his twin sister Epperley, seeks a route to the plane of the dead in an effort to rescue her.

The “wonderful thing” about del Toro, according to Hardwicke, is that he “truly wanted to give the directors ownership,” and that’s why “So then I got to put my brain, my heart, my soul, my blood, and my sweat into it. That’s what we like to do. We don’t wanna feel like robots who just took orders from somebody. So, he really made an effort to do that, and he was supportive of everything that I came up with.”

Walter was characterized in Lovecraft’s original story as a solitary student intrigued with enchanted secrets, but Hardwicke’s adaption gave his obsession a traumatizing origin.

The evil witch Keziah Mason and her talking rat add to his psychological torment. Del Toro “was there to aid us in areas that we’re not as much of an expert in as he is, like the creatures,” the filmmaker stated.

Hardwicke worked with the imaginative “fantasy artists” of del Toro to accomplish this. “So I gave a lot of ideas to them, and we would brainstorm, me and the artist, and go to the sculptors’ studio. We tried things on, like fur and everything. Then [Guillermo] would look at everything too, and either sign off on it or come up with an even more crazy-ass idea: ‘I love the rat. Let’s give him some more boils and pus!’ I would be like, ‘Yeah, that’s awesome.'”

The result of the collaboration between the filmmaker and del Toro was an episode that brought together witches, horror, and our worst dreams.

Netflix has started broadcasting every episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.

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