Spooky Surprise: "Shelby Oaks" Takes Viewers on a Haunted Ride

YouTuber turned filmmaker, Chris Stuckmann’s “Shelby Oaks," funded by the biggest Kickstarter pot for a horror film, takes us on a mysterious journey with a side of déjà vu. Released in theaters by Neon on Halloween season's peak, Oct. 24 - over a year since its premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival - it serves up familiar scares, but with a question mark over its potential to bloom into a franchise.

Launching his YouTube career in 2009, Chris Stuckmann sculpted his identity as a film reviewer, gathering over two million followers before transitioning towards his filmmaker persona. But it seems like the director's narrow spectrum of horror entertainment resulted in a pastiche of borrowed, mainstream horror elements in "Shelby Oaks".

The film's opening act is an homage to the faux-documentary genre as we're introduced to the enigma that revolves around Riley Brennan (Sarah Dunn), a YouTuber turned ghost-chaser. Along with three friends, she ran a channel, “Paranormal Paranoids” dedicated to investigating spooky oddities. However, when the Paranoid team mysteriously vanished while investigating the ghost town of Shelby Oaks, public opinion on their authenticity began to sway. Riley's chilling footage in an ominous room - spooked by unnerving noises and her subsequent disappearance - added fuel to this haunting mystery.

Brennan's companions' mutilated corpses were eventually uncovered, but her fate remains a puzzle. This conundrum is Mia's (Camille Sullivan), Riley's older sister, nightmare and obsessive quest. The melodrama dials up when an ex-con with ties to Shelby Oaks' infamous penitentiary shows up at Mia's doorstep, promptly shoots himself and leaves behind a cassette tape that unveils a part of the overarching enigma.

Mia, however, doesn’t believe that the ex-con acted alone, and, to her husband's (Brendan Sexton III) dismay, she becomes possessed - obsessing over unveiling a formidable supernatural truth behind Riley's vanishing and Shelby Oak's decline. As Mia embarks on her chilling investigation, the film is peppered with routine genre play and daunting scares, and veers towards spine-tingling nonsense when spectral "hellhounds" make an appearance.

While Stuckmann's film serves up a slice of horror, it is weighed down by a script that borrows from the depths of the horror convention rather than creating a unique narrative. Ontop of thinly veiled attempts at depth, the story suffers from unimaginative names, like "Darke County," and stale dialogue. However, the intrigue sees a spike with the introduction of a unique cabin housing a creepy old woman (Robin Bartlett) in the woods.

The cast struggles to grapple with the constant state of fear dictated by the narrative, but doesn't succeed in capturing the authenticity, thanks in part to the film’s shaky execution of pseudo-found footage that later transitions into a traditional narrative. However, executive producer Mike Flanagan managed to uplift the film slightly with well-placed jump scares and unsettling locations.

"Shelby Oaks," despite its stock horror elements, offers a respectable and fun viewing experience. It might not be your next horror staple, but for those looking for a familiar, spooky ride, it's not to be missed.