Shelby Oaks (2025) Neon/Horror RT: 91 minutes Rated R (violent content/gore, suicide, language) Director: Chris Stuckmann Screenplay: Chris Stuckmann Music: James Burkholder and The Newton Brothers Cinematography: Andrew Scott Baird Release date: October 24, 2025 (US) Cast: Camille Sullivan, Brendan Sexton III, Michael Beach, Sarah Durn, Robin Bartlett, Keith David, Charlie Talbert, Eric Francis Melaragni, Anthony Baldasare, Caisey Cole, Lauren Ashley Berry, Derek Mears, Brenna Sherman, Sloane Burkett.
Rating: ** ½
What’s worse, a bad movie or a frustrating one? I’d have to say the latter. A bad movie is a bad movie through and through (e.g. Hurry Up Tomorrow). A frustrating movie, on the other hand, starts off strong but fails to deliver on its promise. It’s aggravating when this happens.
The new horror film Shelby Oaks comes out of the gate strong with one of the best openings I’ve seen in a long time. It establishes itself as a hybrid of mockumentary and found footage in laying out the events surrounding the disappearance of Riley (Durn), a YouTuber who leads a group of ghost hunters known as the “Paranormal Paranoids”. They investigate all sorts of weird, spooky stuff. In 2008, all four of them went missing after doing a piece at an abandoned prison. Shortly thereafter, all but Riley are found murdered. What happened to her?
Riley’s sister Mia (Sullivan, The Marine 3) wants answers. She’s been looking for Riley for the past 12 years. She tells the story to a film crew shooting a documentary about the case. We see clips of the interviews and the last known footage of Riley and the others. Then out of nowhere, a mysterious man (Talbert) shows up at Mia’s front door and apologizes before shooting himself in the head. In his hand, he holds a tape containing previously unseen footage of Riley’s disappearance. It leads Mia to the nearby abandoned town of Shelby Oaks where she hopes to finally solve the mystery of Riley’s disappearance.
Shelby Oaks marks the directorial debut of Chris Stuckmann, a YouTube film critic who clearly loves the horror genre. The set-up, a mish-mash of styles (pseudo-doc, found footage), is solid. It brings to mind titles like The Blair Witch Project and Lake Mungo. As the film progresses, it borrows ideas from Session 9, Silent Hill, Hereditary and Rosemary’s Baby. It’s pretty good for a while. It seems to be heading towards something truly terrifying. Then it peters out with a disappointing third act. When we find out what’s what, it’s hardly what I’d call awesome. It’s more like a “what, that’s it?” kind of thing. You’d think Stuckmann, who also wrote the screenplay, could come up with something better.
Shelby Oaks has this cool low-budget vibe going for it. It’s an independent film all the way. It doesn’t rely on CGI or star power to get by. It has some CGI in it, none of it terribly convincing, but it doesn’t overdo it. The scares come more from sudden noises and fuzzy ghostly figures seen lurking in the background in the old video footage. As for the cast, there are a few familiar names like Brendan Sexton III (Boys Don’t Cry) as Mia’s unsupportive husband, Michael Beach (Saw X) as a detective, Keith David (They Live) as a prison warden and Robin Bartlett (Deceived) as a crazy old lady. Derek Mears, known to horror fans for playing Jason in the 2009 Friday the 13th remake, shows up as….. I’m not telling. You’ll see.
The acting in Shelby Oaks is about what you’d expect. It’s not Oscar-level stuff, but it’s not rock bottom either. The actors give the kinds of performances required by the material. Bartlett gives viewers the creeps with her greasy-haired hermit character who might be connected to the case. Keith David has only one scene, but it’s enough for me to know I want a spin-off movie featuring his character. There’s another story there.
Shelby Oaks has chills and plenty of atmosphere. It even has a couple of decent “BOO!” scenes. It’s really a pretty good flick. And that’s the real tragedy here. It could have been great if Stuckmann had stuck the landing. It’s not a terrible ending; it just doesn’t live up to the promise of its opening. To its credit, it’s not a great big put-on like Blair Witch. Stuff actually happens. In any event, Stuckmann is a filmmaker to keep an eye on. He shows definite promise with this flawed but interesting first effort.
