Catherine Hardwickehas some experience with literary horror adaptations, having previously directed the firstTwilightmovie.
But strangely enough, there were similarities between adapting him and Stephanie Meyer.
Each installment ofCabinet of Curiositiesis helmed by a different filmmaker.
Keziah Mason (Lize Johnston) in ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities’ on Netflix.Netflix
That’s what we like to do.
We don’t wanna feel like robots who just took orders from somebody.
It was all additive, you know?
Rupert Grint on ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities’.Ken Woroner/Netflix
That was really cool.
There were two main creatures to design for this story.
“Dreams in the Witch House” is part of that canon, but its monsters are more down-to-earth.
Del Toro helped Hardwicke design that evil combination, while Qualls brought it to frightening life.
We tried things on, like fur and everything.
Let’s give him some more boils and pus!'
I would be like, ‘Yeah, that’s awesome.'"
His friend has rats in Vancouver, so he was just watching all their movements and everything.
And then his rat was actually from Shakespearean times, so the rat kind of speaks in Shakespearean English.
He’s very good at voices, you know?
So he was able to imbue this rat with all these characteristics.
I really love that."
Brown Jenkin is one thing, but his witchy mistress is even more fearsome.
“Our witch is played by this beautiful woman, Lize Johnston,” Hardwicke says.
“She’s very tall and has great movement.
So you have this whole costume that comes alive by a person actually having to move in it.
That’s just another level that you don’t get in CGI.”
Speaking of movement, the most memorable sequence in Hardwicke’sTwilightisthe game of vampire baseball.
“We do have a lot of really interesting movements in this one,” Hardwicke says.
In Lovecraft’s story, Walter is a lone student obsessed with magical mysteries.
This is fitting, because there was a family connection behind the scenes as well.
So that’s very rad.
In some of my movies, you’ll see her paintings sneak in.
But this was especially right because, I mean, she’s literally painted rats before.
All episodes ofGuillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiositiesare streaming now on Netflix.
