By John Corrado
Shelby Oaks is a horror movie that serves as the crowdfunded feature directorial debut of YouTuber and film critic Chris Stuckmann, now fully dipping his toes into the world of genre filmmaking.
It’s easy to root for a film critic making the jump to actually directing (for me at least), and Stuckmann’s debut, which premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival last year where it subsequently gained Mike Flanagan as an executive producer, got picked up by indie distributor NEON, and underwent some reshoots, is pretty good.
The film is named after a fictional Ohio ghost town called Shelby Oaks, that is best known for its abandoned amusement park. It starts off as a mockumentary about a group of YouTube paranormal investigators called the Paranormal Paranoids, led by Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn), who all went missing while investigating this titular town.
The disappearances gripped the country, fuelling speculation amongst the group’s online fanbase, who searched for clues in their final videos. We mainly follow Riley’s sister, Mia (Camille Sullivan), who has never given up on trying to find her, but finds herself being sucked deeper into a sinister mystery surrounding her disappearance.
Right off the bat, it’s easy to see this as a personal project for Stuckmann, who also co-wrote the film with his wife Samantha Elizabeth, tapping into the idea of people who are passionate about what they do finding a community through YouTube. Stuckmann does a fine job of establishing the story and building a sense of atmosphere in the opening sequence, employing a found footage approach that fits the narrative. As a filmmaker, he not only displays a clear love for the horror genre, but also shows promise behind the camera.
The film has a polished look to it (including some visual effects and gore upgrades after the NEON purchase), mixing filming styles to ape the aesthetic of old school YouTube videos and modern true crime documentary. This is where the film is at its best and most inventive, with the first section in particular feeling like it has been cut together through clips found on the internet by an amateur investigator obsessively searching for clues in the footage that was left behind by these paranormal YouTubers.
Stuckmann has clearly been inspired by found footage movies like The Blair Witch Project, but he also mixes in elements of missing persons thriller, police procedural, and demonic horror. After the solid and intriguing opening act, Shelby Oaks does become a bit more conventional in its approach. The characters also make some frustrating choices along the way, and the film can’t help but feel somewhat derivative of a myriad of other horror movies.
But Shelby Oaks remains spooky and intriguing enough to keep us entertained, with Stuckmann delivering some decent scares throughout, crafting something that is meant to capture the vibe of watching footage that feels cursed. It’s a pretty good debut effort that suggests he has the goods to deliver something even better next time around.
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