David Prior has been working in Hollywood for more than two decades, quietly directing behind-the-scenes documentaries on David Fincher sets. He finally directed his debut horror feature, The Empty Man, in 2020. In that time, he learned a few things. “What I’ve learned in my many years in the industry is: If Guillermo del Toro calls you up and asks if you want to do something with him, you say yes,” Prior tells Tudum. That’s exactly the situation Prior has found himself in, directing one of the eight episodes of del Toro’s horror anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities.

“David Prior really has a sort of precise, unsparing and methodical approach to the fantastic,” del Toro says. “And I love that.” Upon being handpicked to direct an episode of the series, Prior was offered a choice between del Toro’s menu of delectably spooky treats. He selected “The Autopsy,” based on the iconic Michael Shea short story of the same name. “One of the things that I like about Guillermo is that his frame of reference is very similar to mine,” Prior says. “The other stories were really intriguing as well, but in a very different, quieter mode. There’s something about the blood and thunder of this that intrigued me.”

Glynn Turman inspects the scene as Sheriff Craven.

Blood and thunder indeed. “The Autopsy” follows small-town sheriff Nate Craven (Glynn Turman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), who finds himself investigating a string of mysterious disappearances — only to uncover a much more gruesome and macabre secret. “He’s got a kind of depth that maybe only years can give you,” Prior says of Turman. “But he’s not sentimental at all, and that’s exactly the right combination of qualities that you want for this character, that he feels very deeply but he’s not maudlin.”

The other main role of “The Autopsy” is a choice part for any character actor: Dr. Carl Winters. “Dr. Winters is a very interesting character,” says F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus), the performer chosen to play the good doctor, “because what he does is look inside people’s bodies.”

Go Under the Knife with this Cabinet of Curiosities FeaturetteGo inside the practical effects work of The Autopsy.

When Nate leaves his old friend Carl a body to examine, “The Autopsy” reaches its chilling climax. “All Craven does, finally, is rely on my character to help him out, because he’s completely lost,” Abraham says. While Winters tries to clear things up for his old friend, things very quickly get out of hand. To say any more would be to spoil the surprise — but suffice to say… it’s not the fun kind of autopsy.

The sequence quickly takes a turn toward the “blood and thunder” Prior described. “What makes those sorts of situations work usually boils down to silence and darkness and the extent to which you’re willing to let an audience live in a moment and make it last a little bit longer,” Prior says.

F. Murray Abraham prepares for the autopsy as Dr. Winters.

Of course, the mood on set was quite a bit lighter than it is in the episode. In particular, Abraham and Turman sparked an immediate friendship, one that saw Abraham very quickly singing his co-star’s praises — not all of which were relegated to his performance skills. “He’s a bull rider!” Abraham says. “And you’ve got to be a tough man to be a bull rider! Either that, or crazy. But he’s a man that you want to be around. A great raconteur.”

Of course, much of Abraham’s time in the episode is spent alone, with only a dead body as a scene partner. But the actor found a way into the scene in a rather unconventional way. “In fact, what he does is treat the dead body as an associate,” Abraham says. “It’s one of the things I love about my character. He doesn’t dismiss this corpse as a thing, but rather as a human being.”

For Prior, the episode was more than just a style or acting exercise: It was an opportunity to take a true nostalgia trip. “It’s a really unique throwback to the kind of genre movies that we used to make in the ’70s and ’80s that just are seemingly rare these days,” he says.

And of course, as Sheriff Craven knows very well, it helps to have some talented co-workers. “When you have a Stradivarius like F. Murray Abraham sitting in front of you –– and you know that if you say something, he’s going to give you something even better than what you asked for –– you take every opportunity,” Prior says.

“The Autopsy” is now streaming on Netflix, along with seven more stories from Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.