In a year overflowing with exceptional horror, films like “Sinners,” and “Weapons,” the recent crop has taken a nosedive. Between “The Conjuring: The Last Rites” and last week’s “The Black Phone 2,” the Halloween movie season has limped toward the finish line. Now, we have the final nail in the coffin with “Shelby Oaks,” an almost entirely crowdfunded effort from YouTube critic turned filmmaker Chris Stuckmann. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t have a single original bone in its body, leaning instead on a barrage of clichés, hollow jump scares, and contrived plot devices.
There’s no doubt Stuckmann is a genuine guy with a passionate fanbase—just look at the thousands who contributed money in the end credits—but admiration alone can’t compensate for a lack of creative identity. “Shelby Oaks” feels less like a debut from a new voice and more like a patchwork quilt of borrowed ideas from better, braver films.
It’s frankly baffling that Neon, the same studio behind knockout genre entries like “Longlegs” and this year’s “The Monkey,” picked up this one. Even more puzzling is the involvement of producer Mike Flanagan, whose track record speaks for itself. Reportedly, Flanagan helped raise extra funds to polish the rough edges and market the film as this season’s must-see chiller. But no amount of money can salvage a screenplay that runs out of gas almost as soon as it starts.
The movie begins in mockumentary style, introducing the Paranormal Paranoids, an online team of ghost hunters led by Riley (Sarah Durn). When the story picks up, Riley has been missing for a decade, her disappearance long unsolved. Her older sister Mia (Camille Sullivan, giving a wooden, disengaged performance) has kept the search alive, until a disturbed neighbor shows up at her door, commits suicide, and leaves behind a VHS tape labeled “Shelby Oaks.” It’s a promising setup, but Stuckmann’s direction immediately overplays its hand, indulging in slow-motion, split-screen “look-at-me” flourishes that screams first-time filmmaker.
From there, the film drifts through a maze of tired horror tropes. Mia’s investigation takes her to one overly familiar location after another: an abandoned asylum, a decrepit ghost town, a deserted amusement park, all rendered with a dreary sameness that drains tension rather than builds it. By the time the movie lurches toward its climax, any sense of mystery has evaporated. The big revelations are predictable and desperate, as if Stuckmann is throwing every genre cliché at the wall in the hope that something sticks.
The rushed finale and the tacked-on epilogue (which reeks of studio interference) don’t help. “Shelby Oaks” ultimately feels like a well-funded student film that stumbled into wide release. It’s the kind of movie that mistakes ambition for artistry: admirable in spirit, but painfully rough in execution.
To his credit, Stuckmann has acknowledged how difficult it is to make a movie, and he’s right, it’s no easy feat. But difficulty alone doesn’t earn a pass. “Shelby Oaks” may have been born from passion and perseverance, but the end result is a muddled, uninspired echo of far better horror films.
SHELBY OAKS is now playing in theaters.