- Run Time: Around 50 Minutes per episode
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3E1URhCR60
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone of the series as a whole
Each episode of this anthology begins with Del Toro coming out of the darkness and opening some drawer, door, or slidy-thing on a big cabinet prop. He pulls out some individual trinket and talks about some overall theme. He then places the object and a figure of the director on a table, and the story starts. None of the stories are interconnected, so you can watch or skip any of them with impunity.
Guillermo Del Toro is quite a mumbler, and I found him a little hard to follow, but fortunately, none of his bits really impact what happens in the stories— he’s trying to be a modern-day Rod Serling or Alfred Hitchcock.
Overall, the stories themselves are excellent. Each one has one or two very recognizable stars, and the special effects and stories are really good. We both thought the final two episodes were pretty weak, but the ones getting to that point were a lot of fun.
Episode 1: Lot 36
- Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
- Written by Regina Corrado, Guillermo Del Toro
- Stars Tim Blake Nelson, Sebastian Roche
An old man watches the President talk about invading Iraq. He seems to eat a lot of TV dinners. After dinner, he goes into the kitchen to cut the head off an opossum and has a heart attack. We see that his keychain has “36” stamped on it.
Nick Appleton listens to country music and right-wing talk radio. He goes to one of those auctions for unpaid storage lockers. Lot 36 is first on the block. Nick wins for $4oo. He’s got some scam going with Eddie, the guy who runs the storage place. Eddie plays a tape showing the dead man coming to his storage locker. He has been coming every single day for years— since 1945. He’d bring a bag full of something every day and leave with an empty one.
Emilia comes in upset that Eddie has auctioned off her unit. It was his mistake, but it’s out of his hands now. She had unit 87, and Nick bought it too. Nick is not sympathetic about the woman’s photos and pictures being lost. He’s a jerk and racist, too, so she yells a curse at him.
Nick goes to unit 36 and starts emptying the stuff. There’s a photo album that shows the former owner in WWII. We he a nazi? On the way to his truck, a man hits him and his vehicle with a hammer. Nick owes money to some very bad people. Ms. Emilia watches the whole thing.
Nick takes a few of the pieces from Lot 36 to an appraiser. There’s a seance table, and she opens a drawer with three books written in Latin. There’s also a wall hanging made from human hair and a gold candlestick. She calls in Roland, an expert on occult antiques. He says the table is used to “summon an entity.” He suggests that there may be a fourth volume somewhere and that one is worth much, much more.
On the way to the storage unit, Roland says that he knows all about the old man’s family. He was a nazi. The unit’s owner was a sick, sick man with bottomless appetites. He offered up his sister for the entity to take. They never found her.
Roland and Nick find a secret compartment in the back of the locker. Roland gives some rules to follow if they find the demon. They do find the old man’s sister, with the demon living inside. Nick sees the book and crosses the pentagram, breaking the line, which frees the demon. A bunch of tentacles rises up out of the dead body on the floor, and they eat Roland.
The tentacle thing chases Nick through the halls of the storage facility. He gets locked in, and only Emilia can let him out. She smiles and padlocks the door. He doesn’t get out.
Commentary
This is really good. The main characters are interesting, although not particularly likable. The stuff inside the storage locker is cool even without the supernatural element.
The way Roland talks about the candlestick hints that it was probably made from the gold teeth of concentration camp victims. The creature’s effects are really good— that thing is nightmare fuel.
Episode 2: Graveyard Rats
- Directed by Vincenzo Natali
- Written by Henry Kuttner, Guillermo Del Toro
- Stars David Hewitt, Alexander Eling
A couple of grave robbers open up a grave and admire her jewelry. When they’re done, a man named Masson pulls a gun on them, claiming to be the caretaker. Once those two are gone, Masson climbs into the grave and pulls out one of the dead woman’s gold teeth. He drops the tooth and gets bitten by a rat.
Masson owes a loan shark and often comes up short on his payment. He blames rats for digging under the graves and stealing the bodies through tunnels. “God only knows what’s breeding down there,” he complains. The loan shark gives him a week, or he’ll be the one in the cemetery.
Masson goes to Dooley, the coroner, and checks if any rich people have died. He bribes Dooley to let him look for gold fillings. Dooley says to wait until tomorrow for the rich shipping magnate, but Masson says that’ll be too late; the rats will get him by then. They overheard the man’s widow talking about burying him with a priceless saber. Maybe he can wait…
We see that Masson is both terrified and obsessed with rats. The next day the funeral proceeds, and later that night, it’s time to dig the shipping magnate up. He opens the coffin and watches the body being dragged into a tunnel. No, no, no, he needs the money, so he has no choice but to follow.
Masson soon discovers that there are a lot of tunnels down there, just big enough to crawl through— and he has claustrophobia. He’s swarmed by rats, so he fires his gun— right through his own foot.
Then he runs into a rat bigger than he is; it’s the Queen Rat. He shoots it and crawls away, dropping his gun in the process. Masson falls into a deep pit filled with human bones. There are also lots of trinkets and gold teeth, so it’s not all bad! He also finds the old man’s sword. He looks around some more and finds that he’s in a “black church” where evil rituals have taken place.
There’s a mummified body there wearing a fabulously expensive-looking amulet. Naturally, Masson pilfers it. The mummy comes to life and bites Masson on the ear. It yells, “Mine!” Masson finds a shaft leading up and starts to climb.
He soon finds himself between the Queen rat and the mummy with nothing but a sword. There’s a convenient cave-in that smashes the rat and traps the mummy. There’s another upward shaft with a light above him, and he starts to climb. When he reaches the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s not what he thinks it is…
Commentary
David Hewlett is perfect here. He’s both evil and a whiny coward at the same time. The Queen rat isn’t as convincing as it could have been, but it gets the point across. If you hate rats and tunnels, this is the story for you!