An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
No spoilers! If you would like spoilers – check out the Spoiler post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at Netflix’s The Murmuring. The eighth and final mini-feature of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
After a personal tragedy, a married couple of ornithologists head to an abandoned mansion on an isolated island to research birds but one of them starts to experience evidence of the supernatural.
Is Cabinet of Curiosities: The Murmuring Scary?
The Murmuring has some pretty good jump scares and does a great job creating a sense of oncoming scares. Some are predictable so you might not be scared but overall you might jump a bit and might leave the episode a bit terrified of what lurks in old abandoned houses… and honestly that should be your default anyway.
All of our Cabinet of Curiosities Explanations/Reviews:
Ep. 1 – The Lot No Spoiler Review
Ep. 2 – Graveyard Rats No Spoiler Review
Ep. 3 – The Autopsy No Spoiler Review
Ep. 4 – The Outside No Spoiler Review
Ep. 5 – Pickman’s Model No Spoiler Review
Ep. 6 – Dreams in The Witch House No Spoiler Review
Ep. 7 – The Viewing No Spoiler Review
Ep. 8 – The Murmuring No Spoiler Review
Review:
The Murmuring is great and it’s mainly because of the acting and dialogue. Andrew Lincoln and Essie Davis do an amazing job at making you feel exactly what the characters are going through. The haunted house story is pretty predictable and there’s nothing on that front that will shock you or stick with you as much as the performances.
The atmosphere created by the direction and the sound design create great tension and definitely gets you a bit scared but it’s unfortunate they don’t do it often. If you’ve seen enough haunted house films you won’t be shocked at how this plays out but the way how it ties to the characters is what elevates it.
The only negative I have, and it’s barely a negative, is that it was pretty slow on getting started but that’s mainly because the set up is birdwatching. I’m not a bird watcher or an ornithologist so nothing they were saying was connecting with me. Though this definitely helped the episode feel like a traditional horror story wherein it’s just a set of average people, living out their lives and they’re put into a horror situation.
Overall I highly recommend giving The Murmuring a watch and if you only watch one Cabinet of Curiosities story, I have to recommend watching this one over any of the others.
Cast IMDB
Stuff to Ignore
Rotten Tomatoes – No Individual Page
Metacritic – No Individual Page