Our list of the best quotes from Netflix horror anthology television series created by Guillermo del Toro. Cabinet of Curiosities is a collection of eight sinister stories, told by some of today’s most revered horror creators.
1. Lot 36
'The older we get, the stranger.' - Nick Appleton (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Eddie: Folks who don’t trust banks, who stash gold bricks inside of old couch cushions, fur coats in boxes. And for some reason, they leave it all behind. You know, the three Ds. Death, divorce, debt. Bad luck for them, good luck for you. But sometimes we roll up the door praying for a big score only to find a pile of s**t on the other side.
Eddie: We’re short and sweet today, starting with lot thirty-six. This is the one owned for decades by the same man. May he rest in peace up there, down there, or wherever he may be. I’m just covering all the bases.
Eddie: Let the bidding begin!
Bill: [as Nick bids] I got four bills. Four bills I got. Four hundred going once, twice, three times. Sold, to the shy man with the deep pockets.
Nick Appleton: [referring to the cash he gave Eddie] That’s minus the legwork and gas money.
Eddie: Guess that’s why you got the truck and I ride a busted moped.
Eddie: [referring to the old man that used to own lot 36] Ain’t you curious?
Nick Appleton: No, I’m not. And I’ve never been. Maybe that’s why I’m still alive.
Eddie: [referring to the old man that used to own lot 36] Guy’s had it since this place opened. Going back to ’45. Kept mostly to himself, polite, tighter than a Tupperware lid. White anger.
Nick Appleton: Am I allowed to say Black anger? I didn’t think so.
Eddie: Something special in there, for him to check on it like this?
Nick Appleton: Yeah, old clothes and worn-out shoes. I bought a unit in Palmetto packed with jars. Urine, feces, hair, and toenails. And bags and bags of coupons. The older we get, the stranger, man.
Eddie: [as they watch the footage of the old man at lot 36] Now look. Bag’s empty when he comes out.
Nick Appleton: Of course it is. It’s a f***ing storage unit.
Eddie: Yeah, but what was he up to? He dropped something in there. Every day for decades.
Eddie: [to Nick] Remember, I’m the one tipped you off. Don’t forget to spread the love. Stingy b****rd.
Amelia: [referring to her storage unit that Nick sold] All my family things are there. Letters, photos, personal stuff, you know?
Nick Appleton: Well, I threw a lot of stuff away, and sold some others. There may be some stuff left in there, but whatever is in there is mine now. Do you understand?
Amelia: No, it’s not yours.
Nick Appleton: I’m sorry for your troubles, but they’re not mine.
Amelia: You can do nothing for me?
Nick Appleton: A thousand bucks. You can have what’s left in there.
Amelia: I make this money in a month, cleaning.
Nick Appleton: [giving Amelia the padlock to her storage unit] Here. This is yours, I bet you can still use it.
Amelia: Do you speak Spanish?
Nick Appleton: No. And clearly you don’t speak English. So make an effort when you’re in my country and try and insult me in my own language. Dumb b**ch.
Amelia: I said I hope you rot in hell!
Nick Appleton: [to himself] As usual, it’s all on me. All on me. Like I don’t have enough problems. I don’t need this s**t.
Eddie: [referring to Amelia] Let the lady see if any of her stuff’s left, for Christ’s sake.
Nick Appleton: I’m not buying into being the bad guy here, especially not from you. Don’t be a hypocrite like everyone else.
Nick Appleton: The game has rules. You win some, you lose some. Look at me. I did what I had to for this country.
Eddie: How the f*** do you bring that into every conversation?
Nick Appleton: Because it bears f***ing repeating! The game I played was rigged. Lost this ear except for high-pitched ringing day in, and day out. Fine. Wife? Gone. I’ll take all the losses. But now it’s my turn.
Eddie: You’re not the only one that feels f***ed, brother. Rigged? The front line is all Black and Brown. Maybe you didn’t recall all the dark-skinned bodies you stepped over on your way to take a leak in the Perfume River.
Nick Appleton: I bought that unit fair and square. So f*** you. F*** her. And f*** this guilt trip! And in my unit, everyone was green.
Eddie: [referring to Agatha] She’s good people. So don’t be hostile with your big, weird eyes, and your bloody head.
Nick Appleton: F*** off.
Eddie: You need a chill pill, Nick.
Agatha: [over phone, referring to Nick] I have a client here with some very interesting items. Right up your alley, you know what I mean? Come quickly. Trust me.
Roland: [to Nick] You see, the fourth volume is the rarest one. Liber Quartus Sacramentum. The most desirable piece. It’s legendary. Full of symbols and spells to bind a demon, to make it earthbound.
Roland: The reason the fourth volume is the rarest is because it burns down completely at the end of the transaction with the purveyor of its favors. Except when…
Nick Appleton: Cut the f***ing drumroll, will you?
Agatha: You’ve got a tough case here, Rolly.
Roland: Except when the demon has been betrayed. Therefore, unable to collect its debt.
Roland: [referring to the owner of lot 36] Well, I hate to disabuse you on your relative notion of good and evil, but this man knew and did evil on a scale almost absolute.
Nick Appleton: Well, God’s got him now.
Roland: Ah, yes. God. Silent, strong type that loves to see us squirm with free will and other delusions. But what about his adversary? Huh? Relentless, feisty even. You know, whispering in our ears at every waking moment. Huh?
Nick Appleton: Something tells me you traffic in the wrong, feisty side yourself there, Hans.
Roland: Is this relevant to this transaction?
Roland: The owner of the unit was a sick man. Gambled his fortune away, destroyed his family, never had enough of anything. Bottomless appetites. You understand?
Nick Appleton: Yeah, another empty a**hole.
Nick Appleton: [to Roland] I’m not interested in any of this creepshow s**t you favor, okay?
Nick Appleton: [to Roland, inside lot 36] We don’t leave until we find it. Books don’t spontaneously combust.
Nick Appleton: [referring to the secret passageway inside the storage unit] What is that f***ing smell?
Roland: In my field, we call it effluvia.
Nick Appleton: Oh, man.
Nick Appleton: You know, like when a cat or a dog mark their territory.
Roland: Do not touch anything. Do not say anything. Follow my precise instructions, please.
Nick Appleton: You a platoon leader now?
Roland: If anything not from the natural world is found on the other side of this threshold, I have one piece of advice for you. Do not make eye contact with it. Do not speak with it. It will sense the dark in you as I do. It will be greedy for it, hungry. Do you understand?
Nick Appleton: I’m pretty sure that’s two pieces of advice. And you don’t know s**t about me. So f*** off.
Nick Appleton: [referring to the book] There it is.
Roland: Do not cross that line.
Nick Appleton: F*** this, I’m going for the book.
Roland: No. Stop! Don’t! You have no idea what you’ve awakened!
Nick Appleton: [to Amelia, as she places the padlock he gave her earlier on the door] I’m in danger here, I need your help! Please! Open the door! No! Please! I’ll give you whatever you want, anything you want! Please!
[trapped in the building the demon soon finds him and kills him]
2. Graveyard Rats
'Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.' - Masson (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Masson: [to the grave robbers] Are you aware that the very foundations of society are built on the respectful interment of the dead? We stopped being apes when we dug our first graves. It was the birth of civilization. And it will be its end when we cease to honor those that came before.
Masson: The problem is the rats.
Hans Overfist: The rats?
Masson: Yes, the rats. They’ve infested my cemetery. The beasts steal the bodies before I have a chance to extract the items which constitute my stock-in-trade. Why, often is the time that after digging for hours in the dampness and the coldn of a miserable night, I reach my prize only to discover that it’s merely an empty box!
Hans Overfist: So you’s telling me rats is stealing bodies out of coffins.
Masson: What did I just say? It’s an epidemic.
Masson: And Salem’s rats are no ordinary rodents. No, they come from far-off lands. Have done for hundreds of years.
Masson: God in Heaven only knows what’s breeding down there.
Hans Overfist: They’re rats. Just kill them.
Masson: I have employed both guile and brute force to destroy these pests. Traps, poison, even gas. Nothing has stopped them. Their warrens are complex and well fortified. Not to mention I’m a certified claustrophobe. Small spaces are unbearable to me.
Masson: As you can see, I’m at my wits end. And I beg you and your employer to please, please, show me just a modicum of mercy, or at least patience as I contend with these issues.
Hans Overfist: You’s already used up my patience, standing here, listening to you’s yammer. As for my employers, they’ll give you one week. So if I was you, Mr. Masson, I’d pay what you owe. Otherwise, you won’t be in the cemetery business anymore. You will be the business.
Masson: You don’t understand, this is a matter of life or death.
Dooley: I only deal in the latter, and in this case, there are only paupers and vagrants. No one of particular value.
Dooley: Only one thing can convince me to let you examine those cadavers.
Masson: Oh, Dooley. I expected more. The Devil’s Elixir. If only you could muster the will to abstain. So many find their end in its dark pleasures. I pray you don’t one day count yourself among them.
Masson: [referring to the corpse] I need those teeth.
Dooley: Wait until tomorrow, and then I’ll let you have your way with them.
Masson: Tomorrow could be too late. Once he’s in the ground, the rats will get him!
Masson: “Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.” Truer words were never written.
Masson: Oh, Lord. Please show me mercy. If only this one time.
Masson: Madame, the name’s Masson. I’m the caretaker of your husband’s final resting place. I shall make it my personal mission to ensure its integrity is preserved in perpetuity.
Masson: [as he’s crawling through the hole] Come on, Masson, this is your pride, your prize, come on.
Masson: [to the rat] Where are you? I will have my vengeance! Mark my words! Lest I will return with hellfire for each and every one of you and your pestilent kin!
Masson: [as he’s trying to crawl out of the hole] Oh, Jesus, God above! I swear to you my eternal piety! I will commit my heart to you and only you! Please pity poor Masson.
Harry: [as the two grave robbers find Masson’s body in the coffin] Hey. Isn’t that…
Burton: Well, I’ll be damned. It is.
3. The Autopsy
'This is one of those nightmare specials. The kind you never get to the bottom of.' - Sheriff Nate Craven (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Sheriff Nate Craven: You’re so thin. They could use you for a whip. What’s your secret?
Dr. Carl Winters: Ah, you know, biology.
Dr. Carl Winters: Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?
Sheriff Nate Craven: What did they say in Montague?
Dr. Carl Winters: Not too much. Ten men dead.
Sheriff Nate Craven: Nine men. And one inhuman son of a b**ch. What would you call a man who…
Dr. Carl Winters: As bad as that?
'We're all on the same conveyor belt. Some of us fall off a bit sooner than the rest, but we're all heading for the same destination.' - Dr. Carl Winters (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Sheriff Nate Craven: I think I’m cursed.
Dr. Carl Winters: Cursed?
Sheriff Nate Craven: Well, for laxity and uselessness. The innocent get punished, and everything is just dust. I think I’m cursed by the Lord. I truly do.
Dr. Carl Winters: Nate, I’ve known you forty years. From the bottom of my heart, you’re not that special. That’s ego. Who are you to claim special qualities of sin from the rest of us? If you’re cursed, we’re all cursed. And I meant that in the nicest possible way.
Sheriff Nate Craven: Carl, this is one of those nightmare specials. The kind you never get to the bottom of.
Sheriff Nate Craven: Wasn’t animal work. It was knife work. All the edges butchered clean. But butchered meat will bleed, even after you drain it. There wasn’t one goddamn drop of blood. It was pale as fish meat.
Dr. Carl Winters: A cache, then?
Sheriff Nate Craven: Yeah. Yeah. Like you might put a pot roast in the icebox for making sandwiches.
Dr. Carl Winters: [referring to the bodies] No sign of them at all?
Sheriff Nate Craven: I wanted to chew nails and break necks.
Sheriff Nate Craven: Sykes was an itinerant worker. He was reported missing nine months ago. Told a buddy of his he was going hiking in the woods. He wanted to check out a meteor shower. Never came back to work. A week later, he shows up in Bailey under the name of Joe Allen.
Dr. Carl Winters: You think Allen set off the explosion?
Sheriff Nate Craven: He must have. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it has something to do with that damn ball of his. No trace of that could we find, no. What I can’t figure out is how did he know that thing was in my car?
Dr. Carl Winters: [after confirming he has cancer and six months left] It’s okay. That’s how it goes. No point complaining.
Sheriff Nate Craven: You’ve made your peace with this thing, then?
Dr. Carl Winters: What’s the alternative? Can’t do anything about it. We’re all on the same conveyor belt, Nate. Some of us fall off a bit sooner than the rest, but we’re all heading for the same destination.
Sheriff Nate Craven: I’m having crazy thoughts with this thing, Carl.
Dr. Carl Winters: Let it lie, Nate.
Dr. Carl Winters: [to the dead body, as he begins the autopsy] I apologize for the indignity, my friend. If it’s any comfort, I’m right behind you.
Dr. Carl Winters: [recording his autopsy findings] This is good, Nate. I see signs of respiratory distress, concussive trauma. But nothing says “bomb” to me, nothing to prevent a finding of death by crush asphyxiation. Nothing for Waddleton to salivate over.
Dr. Carl Winters: [his reflection in the window] Run. Get out. Now.
Dr. Carl Winters: Run from what?
Dr. Carl Winters: Nate, I keep thinking, what if the explosion wasn’t a botched escape attempt? What if that sphere wasn’t a bomb? What if the sphere’s destruction was Allen’s actual aim? Not escape.
Dr. Carl Winters: [to the dead body as he begins another autopsy] Forgive me, friend. My curiosity necessitates opening you up.
Dr. Carl Winters: I’m thinking crazy thoughts, Nate. I’m thinking, I wonder if all that blood’s in Allen’s stomach. I’ll examine him.
Joe Allen: [as his body comes back to life] Help me. Trapped in this flesh. Starving.
Dr. Carl Winters: What are you?
Joe Allen: I’m a traveler. Not of Earth. My true form is small. Shape hideous to you. I feared death. The cave-in.
Dr. Carl Winters: Death was your escape.
Joe Allen: We must not be understood.
Dr. Carl Winters: Why not?
Joe Allen: Put down the knife. Do it now. For we are friends, Doctor.
Dr. Carl Winters: Livestock must not understand what devours it?
Joe Allen: Oh, fret not. You will understand what devours you. That is essential.
Joe Allen: I can smell your cancer, Doctor. It is delicious. Come, let me rid you of it. I will love you.
Dr. Carl Winters: That body will be your coffin. I’ll see you buried in it.
Joe Allen: [to Winters] It’s rotten blood. Thin nourishment. Animating this and synapsing with you is high cost. Once you and I are one, I will be near starvation again.
Joe Allen: But you are a prize host, Dr. Winters. Through you, I can feed even when killing is too dangerous. Meals are delivered to you still warm.
Dr. Carl Winters: You’re going to transfer yourself from Allen into me?
Joe Allen: Correct.
Joe Allen: You see, over eons, we have become perfectly streamlined to facilitate our entry into other beings. As a larva, I entered Eddie Sykes’s mouth as he slept. But I’ve grown since then. Oh, how I have grown.
Joe Allen: I am quite more familiar with your physiology than even you, Doctor. I know what I can and cannot cut. The most supreme adaptations are purchased at the cost of inessentials. Our hosts already carry structures for sight, sound, smell, locomotion. It’d be quite redundant to carry those capacities ourselves. So we travel light. No quaint fins, or stalks, or feathers terminating in hooks, or suckers, or little digits. We’ve no use for any of it, for we have transcended.
Joe Allen: Have I amused you, Doctor?
Dr. Carl Winters: You are truly self-deluded.
Joe Allen: You’re stalling for time. It’s already too late.
Dr. Carl Winters: You really don’t see it, do you?
Joe Allen: See what?
Dr. Carl Winters: You’re jealous.
Joe Allen: Absurd.
Dr. Carl Winters: You have no senses of your own. You have to steal them from others.
Joe Allen: We have inhabited men for millennia. We have caused great nations to fall.
Dr. Carl Winters: [to Allen] You’ve stolen everything you ever had. You’re nothing but a thief and murderer. A parasite. You’re pathetic. You’re nothing but cancer with a big mouth.
Joe Allen: [to Winters] Your friend, the sheriff, will come soon. Sunup, I believe. He will make a fine first meal for us. His flesh will nurture our body, and your anguish as we consume him will nurture my soul. To say nothing at all of his.
Joe Allen: You called yourselves our livestock, but you’re so much more. I could’ve eked two weeks out of Brady and Jackson if that was all. But I reinvested half the energy their blood gave me to keep their brains alive. That way I could whisper directly into their eighth cranial nerves. Just to make sure they understood everything that I was doing to them.
Dr. Carl Winters: You’re forgetting something.
Joe Allen: I forget nothing.
Dr. Carl Winters: Your arrogance makes you stupid.
Joe Allen: What have I forgotten, sweet doctor?
Dr. Carl Winters: Never mind.
Joe Allen: I will know every thought in your head in just a few moments, all your memories, your senses. And your fear, and your suffering, all mine. All mine.
Joe Allen: [after he transfers into Winters and Winters sabotages his own body] Where am I?
Dr. Carl Winters: You are in your new home, but you won’t be occupying it for long. There’s been some vandalism, I’m afraid. The lights don’t work. You’ll also find the neighborhood a bit quiet.
Dr. Carl Winters: I should mention the plumbing has a terminal leak. You only have a few more minutes before I bleed out.
Joe Allen: I will live. I will live.
Dr. Carl Winters: Wouldn’t you like to know what you forgot? The whole time you were forcing poor Sykes to slice himself up, you were being recorded. My tape machine was running. The tape ran out a while ago, but I’m sure the portion that’s left will make for interesting listening when my friend arrives.
[Craven then finds Winters body, with “Play the tape. Burn me” written on his chest in blood]
4. The Outside
'True acceptance, harmony, peace, and divinity. All that stuff is a lie. We all just want to be good looking. - Alo Glo Man (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Gina: I don’t get it. Twenty-five grand on liposuction, she’s still eating donuts. I mean, hello? It’s one or the other, sweetheart.
Gina: When Peter leaves me, I’m going to cut off his balls. I’m going to take the house, half his retirement, and he is going to be eating frozen dinners and Viagra trying to keep up with his new girlfriend.
'Men can be fat, and hairy, and ugly, and impolite, and old, and nobody cares.' - Stacey (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Stacey: [after Gina invites her to her party] It’s just women, you know? It takes a while for certain women to invite someone like me.
Keith: Oh, what do you mean, “someone like you”?
Stacey: You know, I’m just me. I don’t match.
Keith: Yeah. And thank God you don’t, Stace.
'It gets worse before it gets better.' - Stacey (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Stacey: [referring to Gina] She invited me to her Secret Santa, and I’m just dying to see the inside of her house. I bet it’s magnificent. I bet it’s like a catalog. I mean, her whole life is like a catalog. She’s got the most beautiful skin, and her hair is always so shiny. And she could walk into a room and make friends with anyone, you know? Imagine that.
Keith: You walked into a room and made friends with me, didn’t you?
'Side effects may include change of mood, stiff joints, hallucinations, fear of intimacy, internal emptiness, lack of ambition, lack of individualization, lack of independent thought and opinion. But it's all worth it.' Share on X
Kathy: And that is the upside of getting divorced. Getting away from that boring little d**k I was married to.
Gina: [referring to the Stacy’s gift of a taxidermied duck] You killed this thing?
Stacey: Well, yeah. I shot him. And then I skinned him. And I, you know, took out his insides so he wouldn’t rot. And then, you know, you just wash them up real good. And then, you know, I sewed him back up. Oh, but the insides are just Styrofoam and some wires. Oh, and the eyes are really cool glass beads.
Gina: Right. Okay.
Stacey: You can love him forever.
Stacey: [referring to Alo Glo] Of course I have to be allergic to the best lotion in the world.
Keith: If it was the best lotion in the world, it wouldn’t do that to your face now, would it?
Stacey: It doesn’t do this to anybody else’s face.
Stacey: It’s just me. I have a bad face. A stupid, ugly, bad face.
Alo Glo Man: You don’t have to go under the knife to achieve perfection. Just use Alo Glo. Transform yourself from ugly duckling to stunning swan, starting at just one hundred ninety-nine nintey-nine. Alo Glo can fix it all.
Alo Glo Man: Alo Glo is the only skincare product that transforms your body, mind, and soul. Whether you want porcelain skin, you want to turn heads, you want to fit in, or just make sure those ladies at the bank never laugh at you again. You know how they look at you. Or should I say, how they don’t look at you. Let’s fix it.
Stacey: What the heck is happening?
Alo Glo Beautiful Assistant: Side effects may include change of mood, stiff joints, hallucinations, fear of intimacy, internal emptiness, lack of ambition, lack of individualization, lack of independent thought and opinion. You may experience activities previously considered pleasurable. But it’s all worth it.
Alo Glo Man: What’s so funny, Stacey?
Stacey: No. I’m not talking to the TV.
Alo Glo Man: You’re not talking to a TV. You’re talking to me. I can give you the brand new you, and that’s not all. I can give you peace of mind. I can get you a seat at the table. Alo Glo can fix you, and that’s a guarantee.
Stacey: It stings. It’s making me all itchy.
Alo Glo Man: Of course it stings. It hurts when it works. Skin itches when it is healing. The more it itches, the more healing it is doing. You have a lot of healing to do, Stacey.
Alo Glo Man: Think about it, Stacey. It’s such a shame to have to be you, because you’re not someone anyone wants to have around. You’re not someone anyone wants to see. But soon, you will be the things you always dreamed of. True acceptance, harmony, peace, and divinity. All that stuff is a lie. We all just want to be good looking. So now step across to the other side, step out of your skin, and into your Alo Glo.
Alo Glo Man: Remember, it doesn’t work if you don’t use it.
Keith: There’s nothing wrong with you. Nothing at all. If there’s something wrong with you, well, there’s something wrong with me too.
Stacey: No. You’re fine. You’ll always be fine. You want to know why? Because you’re a man. Men can be fat, and hairy, and ugly, and impolite, and old, and nobody cares. Everybody likes you. Everybody wants to talk to you.
Keith: Yeah. Well, I don’t want to talk to everyone. I just want to talk to you.
Alo Glo Man: You need to let it grow.
Stacey: Let what grow?
Alo Glo Man: The new you. But you have to trust me. You have to trust the formula. And I feel that maybe you don’t trust me.
Alo Glo Man: You know, you have to go all the way. Any questions?
Stacey: Will it hurt?
Alo Glo Man: You tell me. Does it hurt when they exclude you? When they stare at you? When they point, and laugh, and whisper?
Stacey: Yeah.
Alo Glo Man: You want to know what it feels like to be pretty?
Stacey: Yeah.
Alo Glo Man: Let it in, Stacey. It’s already inside you.
Stacey: What’s inside me?
Alo Glo Man: Your new life, the one you want. It’s already growing, right there, under your skin.
Stacey: This is what’s going to fix me. It’s transformative!
Keith: You don’t need to be fixed.
Keith: You got to put your worries down sometimes. Huh? There’s nothing wrong with you. You are lovely. Inside and out.
Stacey: When you say “inside”, it means I’m not lovely on the outside.
Keith: No. You are. You’re lovely everywhere.
Stacey: Then why do I want to take off all of my skin and throw it in the garbage?!
Keith: You’re kind. And funny. And thoughtful. And I think you’re perfect.
Stacey: That’s what’s wrong with you, Keith.
Stacey: It’s too late, Keith. She’s already here.
Keith: Who? Who is here? Who is here?
Keith: There’s no transformation!
Stacey: Okay. Okay. It’s just that you’re not going to change, are you? And you don’t want me to change either. Do you?
Keith: I don’t want you to change. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you until I’m blue in the face.
[Stacey then stabs him in the forehead, then kills him with a hatchet]
Jill: [as they see the new transformed Stacey] Oh, my God. It’s like when you’re in the desert, and like you’re really hot and dehydrated, and this thing appears before you…
Kathy: It’s a mirage. It’s a mirage.
Jill: It’s like a mirage.
Kathy: We’re not in the desert, Jill.
Jill: She’s an angel.
Kathy: You look amazing.
Stacey: I do, don’t I?
5. Pickman’s Model
'Suffering is living. We cannot let sympathy, or altruism shield us from finding the truths of this world.' - Richard Upton Pickman (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
William Thurber: I’d say you fellas could use a little of the new kid’s imagination.
Joe Minot: New kid? Pickman? That guy’s got to be at least eighty years-old. And from what I hear, he’s a wet fish.
Smithfield: [referring to Pickman] If his piece today was any indication, he won’t make it at Miskatonic. I mean, the entire point of the class is to draw what you see, not rotting flesh.
Joe Minot: Perhaps that is what he saw.
'Tradition is important. It endures. But what is art in this modern world without truth? A little risk?' - William Thurber (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
William Thurber: [to Pickerman] So do you do this kind of thing a lot? Haunt cemeteries in the dead of night?
Richard Upton Pickman: Oh, I’m not very interested in prizes.
William Thurber: Then what are you interested in, Dickie?
'Life can't always be beautiful.' - Rebecca (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
William Thurber: [referring to Pickerman’s drawings] These are powerful.
Richard Upton Pickman: The darkness. The ugliness. The corruption. Suffering is living. We cannot let sympathy, or altruism shield us from finding the truths of this world.
'It's the world that's mad. That's what breeds fear. Knowing what lurks in the darkness. Knowing where fear lives.' - Richard Upton Pickman (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
William Thurber: Don’t keep it a secret. Where does one find these, elusive truths?
Richard Upton Pickman: Where fear lives.
Richard Upton Pickman: Do you hear that? Do you hear them, Will? Beneath us, in the earth, my kin.
Rebecca: [to William] I don’t even recognize you anymore.
William Thurber: Tradition is important. It endures. But what is art in this modern world without truth? A little risk?
Richard Upton Pickman: It’s my business to catch the undertones of the soul. You won’t find those on artificial streets, on man-made lands. If there are any ghosts round here, they’re the tame ghosts of a salt marsh and a shallow cove. My art, well, my art is about the ancient.
Rebecca: You were rude tonight. I was embarrassed.
William Thurber: [referring to Pickerman] You were embarrassed? You were fawning over him like a schoolgirl.
Rebecca: Richard is the only friend of yours who’s succeeded as an artist. The way you treat him… People are talking, Will. At the gallery, at the committee. You are acting strange, and it’s not just with me. You’re coming home late. You’re barely home anymore. And when you are home, it’s like, I feel like you’re disappearing from me.
William Thurber: I have always tried to look for the joy and the beauty in everything. But around this man, and his work, I just… The darkness has a way of catching me.
Rebecca: Life can’t always be beautiful.
William Thurber: You stay away from my family.
Richard Upton Pickman: I thought we were friends.
William Thurber: Friends? As far as I’m concerned, the balance of our friendship is paid.
Richard Upton Pickman: I’m sorry you feel that way, but it was never about the money. I value your judgment. I always have.
Richard Upton Pickman: I know you want to see my new paintings. The finest I done. I need you to see them.
William Thurber: No. No, Dickie.
Richard Upton Pickman: And if I was to agree to stay away from your family? And also to offer to pull out of the exhibition, to destroy my paintings, should you still think them unsuitable, and stay out of your life forever?
William Thurber: You would do that?
Richard Upton Pickman: If you come to my house now.
Richard Upton Pickman: Do you feel it, Will? The fear.
William Thurber: Somebody has to stop you, Dickie! If I’m the one, I have to stop you! Your paintings infect my mind.
Richard Upton Pickman: It’s only art.
William Thurber: I thought that it was me. That I was drunk, or delirious, shell-shocked, and broken, but it was these paintings. This whole time it was the paintings! What you make, it crawls behind the eyes, and it makes you crazy. Dickie. Dickie, it causes madness. And I…
Richard Upton Pickman: It’s the world that’s mad, Will. That’s what breeds fear. Knowing what lurks in the darkness. Knowing where fear lives.
Richard Upton Pickman: [after William shoots him] Paint what you see, what is familiar to you. These entities are real close to me. Family portraits. The paintings don’t come from my head. They come from my life.
Richard Upton Pickman: [to William] Now it’s time for you to meet them. Time to see what awaits us all in the darkness.
Joe Minot: He is coming from the other side. He is coming for the feast. And he is coming from the darkness to show us all the beauty of fear!
William Thurber: [to Rebecca] I want to apologize to you, my love, for how I’ve been. I want you to know that it’s all over now. Everything is going to be better. I’m going to be better. I promise you. It’s all over. It’s over.
Rebecca: I know where it lives.
William Thurber: What? Where what lives, sweetheart?
Rebecca: [turns to reveal her bloody gouged out eyes] I know where fear lives.
William Thurber: Where is James? Where’s our son?!
Rebecca: Soon we will feast. And it will be glorious, my love. You’ll see.
[William then discovers Rebecca has beheaded James and is roasting him in the oven]
Richard Upton Pickman: Now it’s time. Time to see what awaits us all in the darkness.
6. Dreams in the Witch House
'What I've done cannot be undone.' - Jenkins Brown (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Jenkins Brown: This is a fable about love and life. The story of two fellas, myself and myself. But don’t you worry, I’ll help you figure it out, and I promise you a happy ending.
Epperley Gilman: It’s coming.
Young Walter Gilman: What do you mean? Who’s coming?
Epperley Gilman: The ghosts. I don’t want to go with them. I don’t want to go.
Young Walter Gilman: Listen to me, okay, you’re not going anywhere. I won’t let you.
Epperley Gilman: Where am I? What’s happening? Walt? Am I…
Young Walter Gilman: A ghost!
Walter Gilman: I know the other side is real. I’ve seen it. But how am I ever supposed to prove that to the masses?
Walter Gilman: I thought you believed in the cause.
Frank Elwood: I do. I just don’t want to be a pauper forever.
Walter Gilman: Right. So money trumps honor?
Frank Elwood: That’s not fair.
Frank Elwood: [to Walter] You know, you care more about your dead sister than the living.
Atsidi: He’s a fool if he thinks he can affect another dimension. We visit the forest, but we don’t leave ripples.
Walter Gilman: What do you mean, “another dimension”? I’ve seen a forest. A forest that takes the dead inside. It’s real, isn’t it?
Walter Gilman: I’m looking for my sister. We were twins. I was there when she died, and I saw her spirit. She was pulled away from me into some kind of vortex. I looked inside, and there were trees.
Atsidi: They call it the forest of lost souls. A limbo for those who aren’t ready to move on.
Walter Gilman: You’ve been there?
Atsidi: I have.
Walter Gilman: How? Can you take me?
Atsidi: What can you pay, friend?
Walter Gilman: I saw Epperley.
Frank Elwood: What are you talking about?
Walter Gilman: You’re telling me that you put an unknown chemical from an unknown gentleman into your body? Have you gone mad?
Frank Elwood: If you used it, you’d understand.
Frank Elwood: I think you’re desperate, Walter. I think you’d do anything, anything, to prove that what you’ve been fighting for is real.
Walter Gilman: You never believed at all, did you?
Frank Elwood: I’ve never seen anything. You say you’ve seen all of this, but I never have.
Epperley Gilman: It really is you!
Walter Gilman: I knew I’d find you. I knew it would happen in the end!
Epperley Gilman: I never thought I’d see you again!
Walter Gilman: You look exactly the same.
Epperley Gilman: And you’re a man.
Walter Gilman: I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you when I had the chance.
Epperley Gilman: It was my time. I realize that now. If I hadn’t been so afraid, I wouldn’t have ended up here.
Walter Gilman: [to Epperley] I couldn’t think of anything else but seeing you again. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. To find you.
Walter Gilman: Are there rats here?
Audre: Rats, bats, who knows?
Walter Gilman: Looks damp.
Audre: It is.
Walter Gilman: [reading from the book] “The existence of other dimensions is indisputable. Our visitation of such lies solely in states of altered consciousness.”
Jenkins Brown: [referring to Walter] Smells like poverty, this one.
Jenkins Brown: [referring to Walter] Is this the one we’ve been waiting for, Keziah? Has he come to free us both?
Keziah Mason: The transport of matter from the next world to ours. Back again.
Epperley Gilman: Walt! You have to go, now. Something stalked you here. It followed you through the door.
Epperley Gilman: [to Walter] You never should’ve come back.
Walter Gilman: [to Epperley] Please let me take you home.
Jenkins Brown: Ha! Home. I would rather see the wonders of the world than live dully at home. Drink, dance, enjoy life.
Epperley Gilman: [to Walter] You brought me back. This is wrong.
Mariana: You opened a door. You opened a door inside the witch house? Tell me Keziah didn’t follow you. You brought her back with you. You left a ripple?
Walter Gilman: I just wanted my sister back. See? She’s getting stronger.
Mariana: Your sister is dead! Don’t you understand that?
Mariana: For the dead to become flesh, the living must die.
Epperley Gilman: Walt, I didn’t ask for this.
Walter Gilman: There has to be another way.
Mariana: No. My paintings never lie. The witch will have you dead by sunrise.
Mariana: Sister, we are in need of sanctuary.
Sister Lucretia: You chose to meddle in forces that have no place in God’s house. Get out, before I throw you out by the hair. And you. What demons have you been conjuring, boy? The dead want you now. Well, you won’t bring them in here.
Mariana: Sister! We need your help. We can’t fight this darkness alone. Neither of us want to submit to the Devil. We need your guidance to keep us firm. Please. Aren’t all souls worthy of salvation?
Mariana: [referring to Walter] Spirits are after his soul. He brought them from the Realm of the Dead.
Walter Gilman: [referring to Epperley] She disappeared. I think she’s trying to protect me. She knows that for her to live, I have to die.
Walter Gilman: Epperley, I don’t want to lose you again.
Epperley Gilman: I’m not scared anymore. Let me go.
Epperley Gilman: [as she disappears] I’m finally free, Walt.
Frank Elwood: The world will never know what we went through last night.
Mariana: [referring to Walter] My painting said he’d be dead before the sun rose. I’m glad I was wrong.
Frank Elwood: [to the unconscious Walter] I spent seven years working at the Spiritualist Society, and all that time, I never saw a ghost. But you were right all along.
Jenkins Brown: [after he bursts through Walter’s chest] What I’ve done cannot be undone!
Mariana: [after Walter] There’s nothing we can do.
Frank Elwood: We need to get help.
Mariana: [as she points to the sun rising] Look. My paintings never lie. She won.
Jenkins Brown: [to Walter’s corpse] I told you, you couldn’t escape me.
Jenkins Brown: [after he takes over Walter’s body] And there it is, a happy ending if there ever was one. Home sweet home. I’ll ride this body as long as it will last. After all, he wasn’t doing anything with it, was he?
7. The Viewing
'Everyone has two lives, and the second life begins the moment you realize that, all along, you only had one.' - Lionel Lassiter (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Charlotte Xie: You guys are here for the viewing, right?
Targ Reinhhard: Indeed, we are gathered for the viewing.
Guy Landon: Yeah. So far, we’ve established the three of us have been on late-night talk shows. What about you?
Charlotte Xie: Me? Yeah, I have. That’s weird.
'Science tells us that you can never truly know the future state of a particle.' - Charlotte Xie (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Targ Reinhhard: But even I cannot pierce the veil of secrecy surrounding our host.
Guy Landon: Really? That’s a little dramatic. There’s plenty of rich, powerful people that nobody knows about.
Targ Reinhhard: Yes, but there was a time when everyone knew everything about him. Surely men like ourselves, accustomed to being in the public spotlight, know how difficult it is to retreat from glory.
Guy Landon: Speak for yourself.
'There's a void inside of me, you, everyone. An endless abyss. And everything you collect, every success, everything you take to shrink that void down, none of it works. It's like a black hole.' - (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Charlotte Xie: I’m an astrophysicist.
Randall Roth: Maybe this is a dumb question, but where does someone like you stand on horoscopes?
Charlotte Xie: If I’m honest with myself, I’d say they’re not for me.
Randall Roth: Very Capricorn of you.
Targ Reinhhard: Where should we sit?
Hector: By your favorite drink, of course.
Randall Roth: I am not going to let temptation get the better of me.
Guy Landon: You a big expert on Aztec architecture now?
Targ Reinhhard: Among other varieties of ancient civilizations that exceeded the capabilities of their time, yes.
Guy Landon: Well, I thought you were just famous for bending spoons with your mind, or some s**t.
Guy Landon: [referring to themselves] Fifteen hours later, they all woke up naked in a ditch.
Lionel Lassiter: Dead worlds seed new, living ones, time and time again.
Targ Reinhhard: [referring to Randall’s new album] What’s the concept?
Randall Roth: It sounds ludicrously simple, but it’s one word. “Fantasy”. Yeah, it’s going to f***ing flop.
Lionel Lassiter: It’s guaranteed to be a hit.
Charlotte Xie: I mean, I don’t know about that, Mr. Lassiter. Science tells us that you can never truly know the future state of a particle.
Lionel Lassiter: You’re charming, Charlotte, but with a gentle push, someone like me can make people flow.
Randall Roth: Okay, well, maybe that’s the thing I’m conflicted about. Am I really taking a big creative risk here, or is the machinery of my industry all that matters?
Lionel Lassiter: Perhaps control of the machinery is your real ambition.
Lionel Lassiter: I collect beyond the known.
Randall Roth: So, you collect people? How do you do that? You just pay for it?
Lionel Lassiter: Money is irrelevant. It’s only the pursuit of my tastes. And there’s no accounting for taste.
Charlotte Xie: So, you’re a scientist?
Lionel Lassiter: No, but you have no idea how much money it takes to be this rich.
Lionel Lassiter: Randall, what would it take to get you to make music for me? What could I give you to sweeten the deal?
Randall Roth: When you ask people that, do they always have an answer?
Randall Roth: I want something that doesn’t exist.
Dr. Zahra: Then tell us what it is.
Randall Roth: There’s a void inside of me, you, everyone. An endless abyss. And everything you collect, every success, everything you take to shrink that void down, none of it works. It’s like a…
Charlotte Xie: Like a black hole.
Randall Roth: Everyone has a black hole inside of them. What I want is for mine to stop eating everything up all the time.
Lionel Lassiter: It’s a very paranoid time. The truth is much more complicated.
Targ Reinhhard: What do you expect when the truth is so often kept from us by those in power? As if we could not handle the revelations.
Lionel Lassiter: I have seen things that would make you s**t your mind, kemosabe.
Charlotte Xie: Well, how about sharing a small, complicated truth amongst us?
Lionel Lassiter: Who would I be without Doctor Zahra? She keeps me alive. I would do anything for her. Everything I have is hers. The way I see it, I serve her.
Lionel Lassiter: Let yourselves go. Be in service to Doctor Zahra’s brilliance. It’s changed my life.
Randall Roth: Is this some kind of test?
Lionel Lassiter: I admit it is.
Guy Landon: Oh, a test where I have to do cocaine? Finally, a test I can pass.
Lionel Lassiter: Randall, there’s an old Zen koan. It goes like this, “Everyone has two lives, and the second life begins the moment you realize that, all along, you only had one.”
Lionel Lassiter: By now, all of you are still wondering why in the hell it is I chose to bring you here. It’s because, from each of your own distinctive worlds, and with your own individual talent, you may shine some unique and profound appreciation on what it is that I have to show you. And the item that I have chosen to show you was acquired with the utmost difficulty at the greatest expense. It is time.
Guy Landon: [to Lassiter] Thank you for the space cocaine. That was f***ing incredible. But you brought me all the way out here to show me a f***ing rock?
Charlotte Xie: This rock is unlike anything humankind has ever encountered.
Targ Reinhhard: [referring to the rock] You think you’re looking at it, but it’s looking at you.
Lionel Lassiter: It is.
Randall Roth: [to Charlotte, referring to Lassiter] He said we were chosen. What did he mean, “We were chosen”?
Randall Roth: Did that just happen?
Charlotte Xie: Yeah.
8. The Murmuring
'If there is a God, he certainly is a very cruel one.' (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Nancy Bradley: To those unfamiliar with the dunlin, it would appear to be an unremarkable bird. But to those familiar with its breathtaking flight patterns, known as murmurations, this species is a miracle of nature. And a never-ending source of mystery.
Nancy Bradley: We are not entirely convinced there’s anything as mystical as bird mind-reading going on. But we are entirely devoted to finding out answers.
'They roll like a drunken fingerprint across the sky.' - Edgar Bradley (Cabinet of Curiosities) Share on X
Mr. Montague: What about you, Mrs. Bradley? What do you love most about birds?
Nancy Bradley: Oh. Their freedom. Who wouldn’t want to lift off and fly away from the world like that sometimes?
Edgar Bradley: What are you doing here in the gloom? You’ll ruin your eyes.
Nancy Bradley: They’re already ruined.
Edgar Bradley: [referring to the Dunlin] We’re not even dealing with them in the mating season, darling.
Nancy Bradley: Every aspect of their behavior could be a clue. How they mate, how they nest, how they forage. Why don’t they engage in murmurations during the breeding season, for example?
Edgar Bradley: Too busy making love.
Edgar Bradley: “They roll like a drunken fingerprint across the sky.” Richard Wilbur. He’s talking about murmurations. Beautiful poem.
Nancy Bradley: [referring to the birds] It’s like they’re drawn to this house.
Edgar Bradley: Drawn? To this house? That’s a leap.
Nancy Bradley: Well, why are they roosting in this house and nowhere else on Earth?
Edgar Bradley: That we know of yet.
Nancy Bradley: This house gives me the creeps.
Edgar Bradley: Old houses do that. They’re creepy.
Nancy Bradley: Don’t touch me.
Edgar Bradley: Why not?
Nancy Bradley: What’s the point?
Edgar Bradley: The point is I love you.
Nancy Bradley: I’m so sorry. I just need…
Edgar Bradley: More time. I know.
Nancy Bradley: What’s the one word I always mention when anyone asks me why I’m drawn to birds? You laugh about it.
Edgar Bradley: You always go on about their freedom.
Nancy Bradley: Yes, that’s right. Freedom.
Edgar Bradley: It’s a feeling a lot of people get when they look at a murmuration, Nance.
Nancy Bradley: [referring to Claudette, the former owner of the house] She must have felt very trapped here. I know how she felt.
Edgar Bradley: Why are you so interested in their story?
Nancy Bradley: Why? Because I want to know how they ended up on this island all alone. It’s sad. We’re staying in their house.
Edgar Bradley: And how do you know they’re dead?
Nancy Bradley: I have a feeling.
Edgar Bradley: You have a scientist’s brain. Since when have you relied on “I have a feeling” in place of facts?
Nancy Bradley: Oh, yes, Edgar. God forbid I should feel something.
Edgar Bradley: The minute some people step into a falling-down old house, they start seeing ghosts.
Nancy Bradley: Some people? I am not “some people”. And I don’t believe in ghosts.
Nancy Bradley: [to Edgar] Forgive me for being interested in something other than birds for five minutes!
Edgar Bradley: Let it out, Nance. You haven’t cried at all. Not since everything happened. It would do you good to let it out.
Nancy Bradley: Just yesterday, you told me you didn’t want me to feel.
Edgar Bradley: That’s not what I said.
Nancy Bradley: You said I was being unscientific. Relying on my feelings.
Edgar Bradley: No, I said I was surprised you were relying on your feelings.
Nancy Bradley: Because that would be so terrible, wouldn’t it?
Nancy Bradley: So, which wife do you want me to be, Edgar? The one who feels, or the one who doesn’t?
Edgar Bradley: I’m sorry, Nance. I’m not perfect. I’m trying.
Nancy Bradley: Oh, yes. You’re trying.
Nancy Bradley: Why did she live all the way out here alone with her son?
Mr. Grieves: Her family put her here. It was too isolated. And it didn’t work out.
Nancy Bradley: How did it not work out?
Mr. Grieves: The boy died.
Nancy Bradley: How? Please, Mr. Grieves, how did he die?
Mr. Grieves: He drowned.
Nancy Bradley: She drowned him, didn’t she? And where is the mother now? Please, Mr. Grieves.
Mr. Grieves: She did away with herself.
Mr. Grieves: People say they see things here, but it’s just a morbid fascination with other people’s misery. People see what they want to see.
Nancy Bradley: Of course.
Mr. Grieves: It’s all a load of rubbish. I don’t believe in ghosts.
Nancy Bradley: [referring to Claudette and her son] I have seen and heard them. In this house. Their voices, their forms. And I would love it, I would dearly love it, Edgar, if I could just tell you this, and you would believe me.
Edgar Bradley: I know you’ve had no proper sleep for a whole year. Even sane, rational people like you will start to see and hear things when they’ve had no sleep.
Edgar Bradley: I haven’t seen anything, Nance. No ghosts or goblins. Nothing but a big, sad old house. So forgive me. I am trying to understand.
Nancy Bradley: Don’t tell me you’re trying to understand like I’m some crazy person.
Edgar Bradley: I never said you were crazy! All I know is you’ve been dealt the worst blow any mother, any human being could’ve been dealt, and I’m very worried about you!
Edgar Bradley: I feel lost! I feel angry! I feel completely heartbroken. And I don’t understand you. I don’t understand how our darling Ava can die, and you haven’t shed a tear, not one single tear in the whole year since.
Nancy Bradley: You want me to cry for you? Would that make it better?
Edgar Bradley: No, of course not. I just thought a mother would cry for her child.
Edgar Bradley: We took this trip to make things better, and now we’re here, and you seem to care more about these people, these dead people, than you do about your own daughter. You asked me how I feel. Well, that’s how I feel. You’ve never let me in, Nance. Not once through this horrible mess of a year. I try, and I try, and I just feel you slipping away.
Young Boy: [as Nancy hears the boy crying] Mommy is mad at me. And I don’t know why.
Nancy Bradley: Sweetheart. Your mommy did a bad thing to you. You were hurt. And you’re not alive anymore. You did nothing wrong. You were the perfect child.
Young Boy: I’m so cold. It’s so dark.
Nancy Bradley: Come into the light, sweetheart, where it’s warm. Can you do that? Take my hand. You won’t be alone or cold anymore. Run into the light, sweetheart. You’re safe. Run into the light. Run into the light!
[as he turns towards her he suddenly disappears]
Nancy Bradley: [over radio] I’m so sorry. I’ve been so lost.
Edgar Bradley: Of course, my darling. I understand.
Nancy Bradley: I love you.
Edgar Bradley: I love you too, my darling. So much.
Nancy Bradley: I want to talk about Ava.
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