Main cast: Ben Barnes (William Thurber), Crispin Glover (Richard Upton Pickman), and Oriana Leman (Rebecca)
Director: Keith Thomas
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is fast becoming a thing in which I’m far more interesting in the props showed off in the opening segment and credits than the show itself. I especially itch to own a copy of that book Mr del Toro shows off in his segment for this episode, although I think even if these were for sale, I’d never be able to afford them!
Oh yes, Pickman’s Model is loosely based on HP Lovecraft’s story of the same name, hence that prop making my heart sing. I love collecting stuff related to the Cthulhu mythos whenever I can afford them, heh.
It’s 1909 and we’re in Arkham, the favorite tourist spot for the Elder Gods, Great Old Ones, and other reality-destroying spooks in the mythos.
Art student William Thurber is intrigued when the new student in class, Richard Upton Pickman, delivers works of gruesome glory, and they become friends. However, he realizes that he may have bitten more than he can chew, when he looks at Pickman’s works and starts hallucinating about disturbing things even in broad daylight.
However, Pickman moves out of his apartment shortly after, leaving behind no contact details, so Thurber assumes that he’s seen the last of the artist and his ghastly works.
Well, cut to 1926. Thurber, now a curator at a museum, is surprised by a visit from Pickman. The latter wants Thurber to get the museum to display his works. As much as he is fascinated and disturbed by his friend’s works, Thurber not sure if these things should be shown to the public…
Pickman asks Thurber to see his latest works, though, apparently because he values his friend’s judgment. If Thurber agrees, he can destroy Pickman’s works, and Pickman will be out of his life forever. That sounds like a nice offer, doesn’t it?
This episode is almost a home run. As someone that gives a side eye to most films that claim to do cosmic horror, I really like this one, and I’m not just saying this because the two lead actors are gorgeous to look at.
Sure, these two and the set pieces are beautiful, but the episode does a lot of things right: the pacing, the build-up, the atmosphere. The episode looks exquisite, and it almost makes me believe that this story really did take place back in the early 1900s.
Cosmic horror is not easy to capture on film, especially since the nature of such horror is open-ended and films tend to need a more conclusive kind of ending, but this one almost succeeds.
Almost, that is. Showing that monster, which is just CGI gone awry, is really a bad idea. Furthermore, the episode falls back on a bad habit of this show: over-explaining and hence ruining the sense of dread in the air. This episode should have ended with Thurber looking at the oven in horror. Everything after that is just overkill that works against the episode in so many ways, sigh.
This is easily the best episode of the series to date—four oogies. Dare I hope that things will only pick up from here?
