An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free 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 Viewing. The seventh mini-feature of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
An eccentric wealthy man (Peter Weller) invites four experts in their fields to a special viewing of something out of this world that may threaten them all.
Is Cabinet of Curiosities: The Viewing (2022) Scary?
Not at all. There are no jump scares and just one pretty gory scene at the tail-end of the episode. If you make it to the end of the episode you’ll only be afraid of boring episodes of tv.
All of our Cabinet of Curiosities Explanations/Reviews:
Ep. 1 – The Lot Explained
Ep. 2 – Graveyard Rats Explained
Ep. 3 – The Autopsy Explained
Ep. 4 – The Outside Explained
Ep. 5 – Pickman’s Model Explained
Ep. 6 – Dreams in The Witch House Explained
Ep. 7 – The Viewing Explained
Ep. 8 – The Murmuring Explained
Plot Synopsis:
The episode opens with a shot of a fancy invitation from a “Lionel Lassiter” to the Sandpiper House and we learn it’s 1979, which explains the stylistic choice. Hard cut to some synth music and one of our main characters Charlotte (played by Charlyne Yi) speeding into a parking building.
Near the top, she meets with the other invitees and we learn each of them has appeared on late-night television at some point. So they’re not unknowns and are somewhat famous. The group is picked up by Lassiter’s driver, Hector (played by Saad Siddique). From left to right we have Charlotte, Randall (played by Eric Andre), Targ (played by Michael Therriault), and Guy (played by Steve Agee).
Meanwhile, we cut to eccentric rich guy Lassiter (played by Peter Weller) getting injected with, what appears to be, drugs by his doctor, Dr. Zahra (played by Sofia Boutella). By drugs I don’t mean the helpful kind, this seems to be a heroin-like drug.
The group arrives at the large fortress-like mansion and it’s a very 70s/80s aesthetic. Inside they enter a large room and sit around a circular couch where Dr. Zahra is waiting for them. There are already drinks waiting for them and they happen to be each of the group’s favorite drinks. So it’s pretty clear that Lassiter has been researching each of them.
As the group waits for Lassiter, they talk and we learn that Guy is a novelist whose sales have dipped lately, Targ is a self-proclaimed psychic, Charlotte is an astrophysicist, and Randall is a music producer and artist.
Lassiter arrives, gives a speech about a rare bottle of alcohol he is holding, and finally pours everyone a drink.
As the group drink, Lassiter compliments each of them based on their individual talents. Randall displays some humbleness and reveals he’s worried about his next album being a flop. Guy asks Lassiter how he made his fortune and it turns out it comes from war crimes which Lassiter feels he’s above. So he’s basically like every other billionaire.
Dr. Zahra passes around some weed and everyone takes a hit except Randall who takes several. I only point this out because he didn’t want to drink or smoke when he first arrived. Dr. Zahra then shares her past as Gaddafi’s former doctor and follows that story up by providing the group with cocaine with a special ingredient.
Everyone participates in the cocaine party and Lassiter reveals he picked each of them specifically to view a special item. A short time later Lassiter leads the group into a viewing room where they find a large growling rock on display.
Targ calls it ancient, Guy is unimpressed, and Randall starts smoking despite Lassiter telling him it’s not allowed. Charlotte immediately recognizes it as appearing like a meteorite but is confused as it doesn’t display typical qualities. Lassiter says he doesn’t know what it is and that several tests including x-rays and spectrometers revealed nothing.
The rock inhales the smoke so shits about to go down. The rock starts to warble and glow as the group is put into a trance. Lassiter reaches out and touches it which only causes the rock to emit a high-pitched screeching sound causing pain to the group.
The rock cracks open as it glows bright yellow but the group is unable to move from the pain of the screeching. The rock shatters revealing a weird alien blob-ish creature with two penises.
The screeching stops but the group is still stuck in a trance which causes their noses to start bleeding. Targ’s face melts, meaning he’s totally dead or someone gave me some of that weird Dr. Zahra cocaine. Guy’s face then blows up, the blood splatter knocking Charlotte and Randall out of their trance.
As Randall and Charlotte scream for help and look for a way out, Dr. Zahra reaches out to the alien and touches it putting her in a euphoric state. Her face then melts and she dies.
Hector opens the door allowing Randall and Charlotte to run out as he is shocked to see pretty much everyone else dead. As Hector runs back to grab one of the golden rifles on the wall, the alien melts into a blob and engulfs Lassiter.
Hector runs back into the room to find a Lassiter-alien monster that begs him for help. Hector then immediately helps the monster by filling it will lead.
The monster responds to this kind welcome by shooting electricity from its back horns at Hector and burning him to a crisp. The monster slowly walks out of the house and enters a sewer as we see Randall and Charlotte have made it a safe distance away.
The episode ends as the monster emerges the following morning from a drainage pipe in the middle of a city.
Review:
It’s extremely clear that The Viewing was made to appeal to those who prefer style and a specific substance as opposed to character development and story. The atmosphere, the directing, the set design, etc. were all great. So let’s get into the themes of the story and why a lot of people will hate this.
Analyzing the characters and dialogue, the episode was more about the exploration of the theme as opposed to the story or character, and… it does this brilliantly. The theme appears to be about how everyone is putting up a façade in various aspects of their lives. Every character is a fraud, hiding behind a façade, and/or is a contradiction to your typical trope.
Lassiter made his fortune off of war crimes but keeps weapons on display stating that this shows they’re harmless, they’re also loaded and ready to fire. His actions are the opposite of what he’s saying.
Randall is a great musician who time and time again has created top hits but still believes he’s going to fail. Again actions don’t reflect his confidence in his music.
Charlotte is an astrophysicist who has caused controversy with her recent paper that discusses panspermia. The hypothesis that life exists throughout the universe and travels through space to inhabit other planets.
This is a fringe theory since in order for this to happen the organisms would have to somehow have left their planet which includes surviving the pressure and speeds of leaving their planet, then surviving the vacuum of space; the freezing temps, the temps, and pressures put on them by entering a new planet; the impact of hitting the ground, and then being able to survive in that atmosphere.
It’s a hypothesis that has never been proven and even as of now, there is no proof to back it up. Since Charlotte is a scientist, this implies theories based on things that can be tested or at least based on facts. Today it’s debatable whether this theory can be tested and most scientists regard it as impossible to test without an organism that can survive all those qualifications. While Charlotte’s character isn’t a contradiction to what she displays, the work she has done compared to her job is a contradiction.
Guy is/was a great novelist, something that requires a creative mind but is close-minded about Targ’s abilities and the alien life form.
Targ is a psychic but clearly a fraud, we’re never shown any proof that he has abilities, and is constantly called out by Guy. Most of his “guesses” are very clearly done after someone says something that would naturally lead him to that conclusion, it’s essentially cold reading or just being observant.
Dr. Zahra is a doctor implying she would be focused on healing but she was a doctor to Gaddafi, a ruthless tyrant, and also supplies the group with drugs like cocaine and alcohol which definitely don’t heal. Her story about Gaddafi focuses on who he was behind his image of a ruthless killer. She points out he would cry randomly and dress like a Rockstar when alone.
Even Hector’s character is hiding who he truly is. Lassiter says the weapons are Hector’s story to tell but then immediately doesn’t let him tell the story and Hector barely speaks throughout the entire episode, therefor he never “tells” anything. He is also shown as watching over them, sort of like an enforcer or security guard but sheds a few tears when reminded of the weapons. This goes against the trope of a stern emotionless watcher.
Looking at the bigger picture, the whole premise of the episode is a contradiction. It’s implied Lassiter brought the four there because they’re exceptional in their fields but through dialogue, we find out they’re not.
Guy is no longer considered a great novelist and compares his recent sale numbers to the numbers of corn dogs sold at a fair; Targ gets the architecture design wrong and, once again, doesn’t ever show real psychic ability; Charlotte’s paper is, as she states, a rough, rough, draft; and Randall’s next album is sure to be a flop.
On another level, even if every one of them were at the top of their field, it all amounts to nothing. None of their skills serve the story in any way, switch them out with any other occupation and you’d have the same story because they all either die or run away at the end.
On yet another level, nothing happens in the episode for the first 45 minutes. Everyone just sits, drinks, does drugs, and talk. This goes against what an episode of television is typically thought of as being. It’s as if the writer and director did everything they could to make the best anti-television hour of television ever, it’s a contradiction to story-telling in this medium.
Almost every character starts in one position and ends in the same position, nothing changes character-wise and they don’t grow in any way. Randall is the only character who somewhat changes and that’s only because he gets tempted into the drugs after saying he was trying to quit.
Almost every character was a trope; the secretive eccentric rich guy, the timid scientist, the empty-inside artist, the dick writer, the fake psychic, the quiet enforcer/guard. Dr. Zahra was the only interesting character with any substance.
Finally, in the end, the only characters that stay alive are the ones who were true to themselves. Randall was completely honest about his feelings towards his failing music and embraced smoking (his addiction) by the end. While Charlotte’s actions at her job were the opposite of her job, she was always true to herself. Meanwhile, the biggest faker of them all, Lassiter, becomes the monster.
All of this doesn’t happen in one piece of writing unless you were purposely trying to do it and since it fits perfectly with the theme, I can’t imagine this isn’t what they wanted. This was brilliantly written and the directing emphasizes that something is actually happening in the episode when nothing is really going on. Cut out the first 45 minutes and you lose nothing.
I write all of the above because I want to show that I completely understand what the episode was going for before I say that I hated it. It was the worst and most boring thing I’ve seen on my computer screen in some time but it was brilliant and that’s okay.
As a horror show, it was even worse, there is no suspense, no enticing build-up, and no real payoff. Sure the death scenes were pretty cool but they all happen within 60 seconds so you’ll leave the episode yelling, “that’s it?”.
Unless you love the highly artsy stuff, I can’t recommend this episode at all. This is definitely not for the average viewer and more for people who like to analyze every single line of a show. I’m sure there’s more that I didn’t explain and every time I re-watched it I caught something else but the problem is, I just don’t care for the characters or about what’s going on. As an average viewer, I hated it but as someone who forced themselves to analyze it, I thought it was brilliant… but I still hated it.
Overall I can’t recommend this episode at all to the average viewer especially if you’re looking for something entertaining and horror-related. This episode is best for those that love to needlessly analyze everything.
Cast IMDB
Stuff to Ignore
Rotten Tomatoes – No Page
Metacritic – No Page