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.
