Student artist, William Thurber, becomes obsessed by the hellish imaginings of fellow painter, Richard Pickman, but what if the pictures aren’t imagined at all…?

The fifth instalment of Del Toro’s Cabinet, Pickman’s Model, is based on a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, so it’s only fair to say, that I have never got on with Lovecraft’s writings. I haven’t read the original, but in this undoubtedly well-crafted adaptation, I struggled to engage with the story or the characters.

The premise – an artist who fails to understand the true, horrific significance of the art that so preoccupies him – is solid enough, if overly predictable. The problem for me is that I don’t care about the central protagonist, or the antagonist, or even the child who is sure to come to a grisly end. There’s no emotional hinterland to the characters to root the horror in anything meaningful, aside from evil ghoulies being out there to get us if we let them in. Stuff just happens to them, leaving me thinking ‘so what’, and even stifling a giggle at the story’s melodramatic conclusion.

Verdict: If you like demonic horror for the sake of it, then this is perfectly competent, but it’s not for me. 6/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com