R.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls (2015)

Powerful

Beautiful, moving film.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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.

When i was a kid i enjoyed goosebumps a lot, i assume that is what got me into liking horror movies. So my sister told me about this new movie, and i decided to watch it, its very likable. It got me pumped for Halloween in a nostalgic way. It captured the original formula that the original goosebumps had, with the premise being about a haunted horror house capturing visitors and turning them into monsters, only to have their souls fed on by the villains. Let me just say the practical effects and makeup look amazing, and clearly they had a bigger budget than other goosebumps. The set looks great, the horror house made me go out and find a horror house that very night.The main characters are actually likable, the main lead is played by Disney star Dove Cameron ( who i have a crush on now), but of course shes already got 2 guys who like her, one of them has a childhood crush for her and through the movie hes trying to tell her that he likes her, kind of reminded me of my own real life crush on a girl i knew. Also the villain is entertaining,kind of creepy ( he looks like the guy from "something wicked this way comes"), but is not really scary, also his introduction could have been way better and creepier. However his daughter with the sultry voice, was well played and was one of the best characters in the film. The script and dialogue was not awful, but it still felt like a Disney channel movie sometimes, despite being soft horror, there were some genuine creepy moments and a few jump scares,one of the characters turns into a very creepy clown, that looks just like the new penny wise! the plot did get overly complicated for a goosebumps movie,like their was a love rectangle happening, also the only way to turn people into monsters is to show them their deepest desires,but this did lead to the love interest for dove having the most bad ass dream sequence ever, where he, dove, and his rival are fighting in a apocalyptic punk world, i loved that scene! Other than that i didn't find too many problems with the movie, i actually kind of wish they did make it more scary but its just a goosebumps movie, its supposed to be training wheels for kids, to help them get more into the horror genre, just like i did. its certainly one of the best goosebumps I've seen, it has awesome visuals, its a great Halloween movie to get you pumped and i recommend it.

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!

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.