October 12 – R.L. Stine’s Monsterville (2015)
Posted: by Henderson
R.L. Stine’s Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls (2015) Directed by Peter DeLuise
In One Sentence: A group of teens fight to escape a demonic carnival.
Why You Should Watch: Sometimes you aren’t looking for a terrifying screamfest, or a gory blood drenched film. Sometimes (whether it be exposing your younger sibling to horror, a date, or just chilling out) you are just looking for a spooky but tame Halloween film to pass the time and give you a scare or two. When you are in that mood, Monsterville is just the film (and it’s on Netflix!).
Most of these “kiddie” horror films are pretty terrible. Child actors are usually bad, and cheap horror film actors are usually bad, and children acting in cheap horror films are notoriously bad. Yet somehow, Monsterville avoids this mess. Originally drawn to this film just to see how bad it could be, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s entertaining enough to be watchable for horror diehards, yet tame enough that even the biggest scaredy cats will survive.
Monsterville is the story of 4 teens (played by real teens) who are just hanging our crushing on each other, as teens do, when a horror carnival shows up for their town’s Halloween celebration. Pretty cool, but it seems to be ruining their friendship, and even worse kids are starting to disappear. Maybe the haunted house isn’t so fake after all! Yeah it’s not exactly a mind boggler but it’s a solid concept and it is well executed. The monsters are well designed and there are a few scares that might make you jump or laugh depending.
Most of all, I think I might like this film because it does a decent job showing what being a teenager in a small town is like on Halloween. I better stop now before all my horror cred is gone.
Favorite Line: “I’ve surfed in a monsoon once, outran an avalanche with a broken snowboard, so I wouldn’t say I scare easy.”
