SHELBY OAKS:
CHRIS STUCKMANN CRAFTS A PRETTY CREEPY FEATURE!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4
NEON
What happened to Riley Brennan in Shelby Oaks
YouTuber, Chris Stuckmann makes his feature film directorial debut with the new horror film, Shelby Oaks released by Neon and produced by Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Doctor Sleep, The Life of Chuck). I’ve enjoyed many of Stuckmann’s videos on YouTube whether it’s his in-depth and professional movie reviews or the more comical, Hilariocity Reviews, the guy has a passion for what he does and a clear love for film which gets nothing but respect from me.
Actually, my introduction to Chris Stuckmann was from his crossover review with the Nostalgia Critic (One of my favorite reviewers and content creators) on 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which got me interested in checking out his channel. So yeah, I really like Chris Stuckmann so you bet your ass I was curious to see his first venture into feature films with Shelby Oaks.
This movie certainly had a lot of buzz when it was being made, the entire thing was funded through Kickstarter, premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2024 and got the attention of Flanagan and Neon, and underwent reshoots and re-edits before the official release. Even when people were skeptical about whether or not Stuckmann would deliver or just outright make fun of him, I had confidence in him especially after James Rolfe managed to bring his web character, the Angry Video Game Nerd to the big screen with Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie in 2014.
If the Nerd can do it then so can the guy who destroyed a bunch of Dragonball: Evolution memorabilia on camera. I’m not sure if this would be a hot take given the mixed reactions from critics and audiences, I really enjoyed Shelby Oaks.
Do I think it’s one of the all-time greatest modern horror movies? No. Are there some things about it that don’t exactly work? Sure. But for what I saw, I thought it was a solidly crafted, atmospheric, and downright chilling horror film.
The film revolves around YouTube paranormal investigator, Riley Brennan who is the host of the web series, Paranormal Paranoids and mysteriously disappears in the abandoned town of Shelby Oaks, Ohio in 2007. Twelve years later, Riley’s sister, Mia (Camille Sullivan-Dead Rising: Endgame, Hunter Hunter, Shattered) obtains a mini-DVtape labeled as “Shelby Oaks” and starts to finally uncover the truth about what actually happened to Riley, but as she digs deeper into the mystery, the more nightmarish it gets.
The film also stars Brendan Sexton III (Black Hawk Down, The Messenger (2009), Don’t Breathe 2) as Mia’s husband Robert Brennan, Michael Beach (Aquaman, If Beale Street Could Talk, Saw X) as Detective Allen Burke, and Keith David (Gargoyles, Spawn, The Princess and the Frog) as Morton Jacobson.
Overall, Shelby Oaks is a solid first directing effort from Chris Stuckmann and a very effective horror movie and a lot of that comes down to how Stuckmann shot and edited this film. This is a damn good looking movie in terms of the cinematography, camera work, and uses of grainy VHS quality and Blair Witch Project-style found footage, definitely takes advantage of the big screen and if you can see it in theaters, do so.
Probably my favorite sequence in the movie is the one where Camille Sullivan’s Mia is in the abandoned prison (Which is also the same prison they filmed The Shawshank Redemption in) to look for answers and it ends with this huge overhead shot of her running out of the prison from some sort of entity. It’s a well-shot and suspenseful scene that looks great on a movie theater screen.
Granted, there are a lot of scenes and ideas that are derivative of other movies particularly those that Stuckmann himself is a fan of like M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs and there’s even a sequence that’s one great big callback to The Ring. I don’t care where the inspiration came from, Stuckmann’s homages to movies he loves are still very well executed here and you can tell it’s from someone who enjoys film.
I was very invested in the plot; my eyes were glued to the screen during the opening which hooked me in instantly. A paranormal investigator mysteriously goes missing without a trace and now it’s time to figure out what actually happened and where this person is, it’s a gripping premise for a movie that lends itself to a lot of scares and intrigue which Stuckmann does well for this movie.
This was my first time seeing Camille Sullivan in action and I thought she was great as the film’s protagonist, Mia. It’s clear in the final product that she brought this high energy to the set every single day they were shooting and she’s easily the most endearing character in the whole film thanks to her performance.
The scares are very effective albeit a few jump scares, but it’s mostly atmospheric creeps and less overblown scares. In this film’s case, less is more and Stuckmann knows that with some of the best scares being just from looking through dark windows or hallways whether it’s a sudden crack in a window or something lurking in the shadows.
The majority of this film worked for me, but I’ll admit the ending was hard to stomach, not that it’s done bad or anything, but I wasn’t sure what to make of it and left me puzzled. Despite this, I admire Stuckmann’s intentions behind it and I’m sure he has an interesting explanation or interpretation of the ending to his film.
Shelby Oaks may have been somewhat overhyped at film festivals, but I still think it’s a well-crafted and suspenseful horror film that will hopefully lead to a bright future for Stuckmann as a filmmaker. The man is just out here living his dream and it’s pretty hard not to appreciate that even the film is all over the place amongst moviegoers.
So, those are my thoughts on Shelby Oaks, definitely worth watching in theaters to get the best experience and if you like that, you can click right here and get Stuckmannized! Please don’t sue me, Chris!
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