R.L. Stine's Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls

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!

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.

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.

I don't watch horror. Predictable. And gore is just cheap schlock.

But I love circuses and sideshows. And there are many movies about them. First main introduction was Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way comes which was made into at least two movies.

Anyway...

This one is all a bit predictable. It takes a while - i.e. too long - to get going and it changes protagonists half way through! Really! If you've one eye on the plot line it's a bit jarring.

It's def YA. Not just YA but childish YA. Sub 12 maybe. So although it has a great theme and some spooky moments, the childish parts really detract from the overall movie.

But nice characters, well played and a suitable music score by Ryan Shore.

But does the inane pop/hip hop music splattered throughout really appeal to the target audience? Really?

Yeah, I know that's twice I've said 'Really'.

I can't help but think how much better it would have been if it had aimed at a slightly higher age range or, at the very least, not been dumbed down so much. Hey ho...

So, if you're a young and unfussy YA, go watch it.

I was actually looking for a different movie when I stumbled upon this through Netflix. By the time I realized my mistake, I decided to give it a shot anyway. I went in with the mentality that this was a kids movie because it is. Anyway, I saw the plot coming a mile away but it was still fun to see the character's reactions to it. Dove Cameron did a great job with her character and most of the others portrayed their intentions pretty well. I absolutely loved the dynamic between Beth and Hunter. I wanted, more than an adult woman should want, for a second movie to come out just to see what would happen if the bad guys came back. I enjoyed this more than many of the other Goosebumps movies and I say it's worth a shot as a family flick. Go in with low expectations and come out with great rewards.