Monsterville : Le Couloir des horreurs

I'm a big horror nut but sometimes I like the soft stuff. I've read a few R.L. Stine's "Goosebumps" novels and they're always an enjoyable read. I feel like he captures teenage life quite nicely and he creates likable characters who you root for. He's been well served by the television medium as his "Goosebumps" TV series is quite well done and I've just began watching his "The Haunting Hour" show and so far so good.

"The Cabinet of Souls" is, likewise, a very solid TV offering of light horror aimed (mainly) at kids and adults alike. The setting is good; a traveling house of horrors with a mysterious owner who collects the souls of customers and feeds off of them. It could very well be a premise for a full out gory R-rated film but it manages to generate a few creepy moments and is always entertaining.

The cast is likable and their characters as well. They do possess qualities that are admirable and that's a nice thing for a parent to know if they'd like to sit down with their kids for something a little bit on the scary side. Bad language is nicely sidestepped without the film feeling corny or something like that.

"The Cabinet of Souls" is an all around decent flick which many age groups can enjoy.

R. L. Stine's Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls (2015) is a movie my daughter and I recently watched together on Tubi. The storyline follows a group of high schoolers that notice some strange things at the local carnival in town. As they investigate the carnival owner they discover some unique history of events surrounding the carnival but they may be pointed in the wrong direction by his minions. Can the teenagers save their town and classmates?

This movie is directed by Peter DeLuise (Dark Matter) and stars Dove Cameron (Agents of SHIELD), Braeden Lemasters (Flock of Four), Katherine McNamara (Arrow), Tiffany Espensen (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Fiona Vroom (Big Eyes).

I did love the depiction of the carnival in this. The props and sets had a cool look to them. I will also say I enjoyed the costumes, makeup and masks of the various characters. The magic scenes are fun, the witch is excellent and the werewolf was pretty cool. There's also a clown sequence I loved. However, this does have a made for television feel to it in terms of acting, storyline, dialogue and events. There's a lot of cheese here for sure.

Overall, this is a fun movie to ease kids into horror movies but not a must see for horror enthusiasts. I would score this a 4.5/10 and recommend seeing it with the appropriate expectations.

If you have nothing else to watch and this is the only thing on TV, watch it I guess.

The biggest problem I had was with the weird camera-work. Almost everything is blurred at the edges and I am guessing they were trying to give it a fairy-tale look with the blurring, but it just looks silly.

The second problem is that the lead male and female have no chemistry. The Hunter guy has more chemistry with the lead female and mostly because they actually are a couple in real life.. so yeah.

In the end, acting is fine, girls are fine, mood is light and I was kinda hoping for all that. But unlike Goosebumps, this movie wasn't very entertaining. Teen problems mixed with campy horror. Meh!

It's a horror movie for kids OK? Look at all the awards. It hit it's mark "dead" on. My little guy goes running out of the room in terror at the first scene, and watches it over and over running into Daddy or Mommys arms everyone. Then he laughs. It's priceless. I agree that Dove Cameron did a great job. The kids are believable and the plot is decent.

I was amazed by this movie. Thought it was gonna be just another cheesy kids horror movie, but I was surprised that it wasn't! The movie had a good plot and the "twist" in the movie was unexpected to me, which made it even better! Visual effects weren't that bad. The makeup could've been done better, but for budget wise was pretty good. Surprisingly, the guy behind the camera did pretty well! The direction of the film had some good shots but mostly just basic film capturing. Dove Cameron and Ryan McCartan were the two actors I recognized in this film. Their acting was pretty descent. I think Dove Cameron was the better actress out of this film. It seems like she works with her role and makes her character the best she can! Anyways, I really would take a shot on this film before turning it down. I really think this movie will surprise you, but probably won't scare you!