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 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 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:
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. The episode was more about the exploration of the theme as opposed to the story or character, and… it does this brilliantly. But because the theme is not something that would make for entertaining television, a lot of people will hate this.
In the spoiler post I go into the themes and how it relates to all the characters, I go into pretty deep detail only because I wanted to show that I completely understand what the episode was going for before I say, 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 ending had a pretty cool gory scene but that’s it 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. 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.
Cast IMDB
Stuff to Ignore
Rotten Tomatoes – No Page
Metacritic – No Page