‘Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities’: ‘Lot 36’ Shows You Sometimes Get More Than You Bargain For
In honor of Spooky Season, Netflix recently debuted Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. The anthology series curated by Academy Award-winning filmmaker del Toro himself collects eight different tales, each directed by a team of writers and directors chosen by him. The first in the series, titled “Lot 36,” stars Tim Blake Nelson as a down-on-his-luck man who purchases an abandoned storage unit. Of course, nothing is ever as simple as it seems in this show.
[WARNING: This article contains detailed spoilers regarding Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 1, “Lot 36.”]
Guillermo Navarro directs ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ Episode 1 ‘Lot 36’
Guillermo Navarro, the cinematographer behind Pan’s Labyrinth, brings us a story revolving around an abandoned storage unit. In the first few minutes of Cabinet of Curiosities’ “Lot 36,” audiences see an older gentleman watching the news as President George Bush talks about the military targeting Iraq and Kuwait. After finishing his TV dinner, he dons a rubber apron, picks up a knife, and starts chopping away at dead fish. Before he finishes, he has a heart attack and dies. As the camera pans away, we see a set of keys with a tag that reads “36.”
In the next scene, we meet Nick (Nelson.) Nick’s angry, owes money to some shady characters and is really just a miserable human being in general. The radio program playing in the background rails against immigrants and people of color as Nick nods his head in agreement.
Nick made a deal with Eddy (Demetrius Grosse), who manages the local 24-hour storage facility. A group of people gathers at the facility to bid on some abandoned units from long-term renters, but Nick wins the auction.
Later, in Eddy’s office, a Hispanic woman arrives and discovers Eddy accidentally sold her unit (a different one than Lot 36) to Nick. Eddy tells her to speak to Nick to see if he still has any of her possessions, but Nick dismisses her rudely when she does. He refuses to give any of her items back and walks away.
What’s in the storage unit?
Nick rummages through the storage unit in Cabinet of Curiosities’ “Lot 36,” but only finds a few items he thinks might earn him any cash. He also comes across an old photo album belonging to the man viewers saw in the opening minutes. The photos show his time in the German military as a Nazi. Plus, we see Nick take a piece of decor we later learn is made of human hair and a round table with a pentagram carved into it. Eddy gives Nick an address which Nick drives to that night. There, he meets a woman who specializes in antiques. She explains the table is a seance table, and when she runs her finger over the carving, a secret compartment pops open, revealing three books.
The woman calls an associate named Roland (Sebastian Roché) to inspect the books. We learn from Roland that a fourth book is the most valuable as it has spells inside that bind a demon to make it earthbound. He tells Nick that if he finds the fourth book, they might garner him well over $300,000. Roland and Nick immediately leave to search the rest of the unit.
Roland and Nick meet a brutal end in ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ episode ‘Lot 36’
On the drive over, Roland admits he knew the family who owned the unit. The man dabbled in the occult circles in Vienna and Berlin before emigrating to the United States. The man invoked a demon with the books and gave it an entity to occupy – his sister, Dottie Wolmar. Authorities never found Dottie once her family declared her missing.
Cabinet of Curiosities highlights some of the best in the industry when it comes to creating terrifying monsters with special effects, and Navarro’s work is delightfully disgusting. Roland and Nick discover a secret area of Lot 36, and when they go inside, they find the decaying body of Dottie tied to the floor in the middle of a pentagram. A hole replaces the space where her face once was, and a tentacled creature squirms inside. Roland, horrified and knowing what they’ve stumbled upon, warns Nick not to move. However, he doesn’t listen, and Nick breaks the circle, binding the demon as he tries to get the book that will erase his debt.
The body on the floor begins to move, and the tentacles stretch out from the hole, trapping Roland. The monster eats Roland, and Nick runs through the maze of a storage facility. When he reaches the door, he finds it locked but sees the woman from earlier, who he dismissed. He begs her to unlock the door, but she refuses because of how he treated her. Nick hears the squelching of the demon and turns to find it right behind him. The monster devours Nick, and the credits roll on Cabinet of Curiosities “Lot 36.”
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