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A YouTube content creator goes missing in the town of Shelby Oaks. Does her chilling last video clip contain the clues to the mystery of her disappearance?

It's not particularly unique but what it does, it does well.

I would have expected Shelby Oaks to be a blipvert, rapid fire absurdity for the TikTok generation but instead, it's a nicely paced, slow burn horror/thriller with some good touches and ideas.

The film looks very nice and performances are convincing. I saw the International Premier at FrightFest, London and it went down well.

It doesn't quite land the punches of genre movies, such as Sinister or Blair Witch Project but the viewing experience doesn't leave you feeling disappointed.

I don't think Stuckmann's name attached to this movie is going to affect its success one way or the other. The film stands on its own feet and will probably stick around for some years to come.

I don't care for Chris Stuckman's YouTube presence or for most of those influencer folks because rarely do they set their subjective bias aside when talking about movies, but I was immediately intrigued by his feature film debut because Mike Flanagan is an EP and the indie circuit buzz was exciting. Having finally seen it, it's not an impressive film.

The first half is thoroughly captivating as we're pulled into a bizarre mystery that defies reason, but the second half is just a hodgepodge of horror cliches and missteps. It's worth a look for hardcore horror fans, but otherwise, Shelby Oaks isn't a must-see in any regard.

I really thought this movie would be something different, but instead it follows a generic found footage movie. The budget considering being quite low for a film kinda shows.

The acting was passable but it's the directing and writing that really affects the movie. The plot just gets lost along the way and the pacing suffers.

As a horror movie fan if you're expecting to get scared, then this film will pile on more disappointment. I was hoping that Chris as a horror fan would understand the genre more and stray away from it's usual tropes, but nope his movies falls into typical stereotypes.

I guess being a decent critic doesn't mean you will automatically become a good director and it shows painfully throughout the entire runtime of the film.

Great debut for Chris Stuckmann. It was an amazing movie experience from a first time writer director. His love for movie making is quite transparent in his piece. I'm reminded of the first time I watched Duel or Reservoir Dogs, being riveted and hooked from start to finish. The acting was flawless, the sound design was gripping and visually it was gorgeous with a special nod to the lighting department.

Very much looking forward from Chris Stuckmann's other projects that will now, surely, have much bigger budget to put to the big screen those stories he has been working on for years. Glad I got to shake the hand of a great movie lover like me that now many will get to love his movies as well.

Rating - 7.4: Overall, a valiant effort for a directorial debut as Chris Stuckmann shows his potential as a filmmaker with captivating storytelling and ominous world-building, but the movie suffers from issues you would expect from a new indie filmmaker with its amateurish cinematography, cheap visual effects, and an inability to stick the landing because the final 5 minutes ruin this movie's chance of being something special; I hope Stuckmann can parlay this into making bigger budget movies as he shows potential as a filmmaker, but hopefully he uses his budget wisely because it is obvious Neon wasted the increased budget on cheap CGI and unnecessary reshoots.

Direction - Pretty Good to Good: The direction on a macroscale is built well, as they create this ominous mystery in a demented world; I really enjoyed how they weaved the documentary and found footage into the movie; I felt the filmmaking style in the dramatic moments felt a little amateurish with how it looked, which makes sense because this is a directorial debut; The direction on a microscale is pretty good, as you can really empathize with their struggle to find her sister; The storytelling is good for the majority of the movie, as they create a mystery that slowly unravels, but keeps you engaged, as you want to see how things play out; I was not a fan of how the storytelling was in the last five minutes; Tension is built well, as you are emotionally invested in these characters, so you feel on edge when something bad happens to them

Story - Pretty Good to Good: The concept is good, as it's a missing girl mystery that weaves in found footage elements to give it a Blair Witch feel, and the conflict is presented in a way that it doesn't give away too much, but at least gives you a why for why things are happening; The plot structure is good for the most part, as the movie feels like a good mystery that slowly unravels the more you try to solve the disappearance, though the resolution wasn't that great, as it felt forced; Character writing is good, as you get a sense of the protagonist's struggle trying to find her sister and the world they live in affecting them; The character writing is critical in helping connect with the protagonist's struggle, as you feel invested in her trying to find closure

Screenplay - Pretty Good to Good: The dialogue is sharp for the most part, nothing super outstanding; the symbolism is very strong, as the movie touches on issues of loss and grief as well as pagan and found footage supernatural tropes; the foreshadowing is strong in the movie, as it helps the protagonist try to solve the mystery

Acting - Pretty Good: Camille Sullivan - Pretty Good to Good (The star of the show, she shows a wide range of emotions and is the emotional core for this movie; we experience this mystery through her eyes as she is motivated to find her lost sister after 12 years), Brendan Sexton III - Pretty Bad (Honestly, it feels very stiff and doesn't have chemistry with Sullivan), Robin Bartlett - Decent to Pretty Good (Plays a real sinister character, but doesn't have much time to work with), Sarah Dunn - Pretty Good (Really shows a wide range of emotions as she really embodies the character and feels like what the lead of Blair Witch Project should have been), Keith David - Pretty Good (Feels like he was a part of the reshoots, but he does a pretty good job and has chemistry in the one scene he is in), Rest of the cast - Decent (A pretty small cast, but what you would expect from a low-budget horror movie)

Score - Decent: Helps with building tension

Cinematography - Decent: Cinematography in the documentary and found footage moments was really good and weaved well into the movie; when they switched to a traditional camera, it felt pretty amateurish and not that appealing, which makes sense because it is a low budget directorial debut

Editing - Decent: Editing for the found footage and documentary clips was pretty cool, as it made the movie feel like a mockumentary, but the rest of the movie just felt kind of bland in terms of editing

Sound - Pretty Good: Feels amplified to help heighten tension and make you feel scared of what is going on

Visual Effects - Bad: It felt very cheap, and it was obvious it was added when the budget was increased

Production Design - Pretty Good: Help create this pagan, ominous world of the abandoned Shelby Oaks

Makeup - Decent to Pretty Good: Helps show the impact of the hauntings

Pacing - Pacing is fine for the most part as the movie goes at the right pace

Climax - The climax is good and well executed, and the ending was a big let down as it basically felt like they threw away everything they built up to

Tone - Tone was a mystery and a found footage film combined; I would have really liked to see them continue the documentary style throughout the movie

Final Notes - Saw press screening at Fantastic Fest; Met Chris Stuckmann after the movie.

This review is following a screening from Fantasia Festival and I realize that this is a first feature film and Chris seems like a nice guy but this was amateur hour.

I'll start with the positives, the cinematography was excellent and the lead actress was for the most part pretty credible. This film also had a promising prologue, although mostly riffing on Blair witch projects premise. Finally Keith David classed the joint up in a small role.

On the negative side, the relationship with the husband and lead was beyond poorly written, with a poorly acted argument sticking out in my memory. I was stunned when I was advised the husband is a working actor with many credits to his name.

The worst sin is that it's a horror film that just isn't scary, relying on cheap jumpscares and poor cgi dogs. The third act and ending also leave much to be desired where the audience was audibly laughing at what I would think were serious moments. The abysmal ending left me ambivalent rather than shocked as I imagine Chris intended. The biggest ruse is that this has been picked up for distribution, I can't see an average audience unfamiliar with Chris' YouTube career connecting with this film.

Review by Alejandro Estrada

When the lights go down and the screen flickers to life, Shelby Oaks pulls you into a ghost story that feels frighteningly real - not because of jump scares or monsters, but because of the aching human need to uncover the truth, no matter the cost.

Chris Stuckmann's long-awaited directorial debut arrives with the weight of legend - a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, years of fan anticipation, and whispers of a cursed production. The result is a film that feels both intimate and epic: a supernatural mystery wrapped inside a slow-burn psychological horror.

At the center is Camille Sullivan, delivering a riveting performance as Mia, a woman still haunted by the disappearance of her sister Riley - a member of a paranormal investigation group known as The Paranormal Paranoids. When new footage surfaces, Mia's descent into obsession begins, dragging her - and the audience - into a labyrinth of dread, grief, and half-remembered nightmares.

Stuckmann blends formats with bold confidence: the film opens like a found-footage investigation and gradually expands into a full-scale cinematic nightmare. The shift isn't just stylistic; it mirrors Mia's unraveling mind, as the boundary between memory and reality disintegrates.

Visually, Shelby Oaks is stunning. The cinematography paints Ohio's forgotten landscapes with a palette of melancholy - muted blues, flickering lights, the quiet menace of empty rooms. The sound design hums with tension, whispering secrets from the corners of the frame. And when the supernatural finally emerges, it does so with the chilling restraint of classic horror: suggestion over spectacle, shadow over scream.

Yet beneath the fear lies a beating heart. This isn't just a ghost story - it's a story about guilt, sisterhood, and the pain of never letting go. Like The Blair Witch Project meets The Sixth Sense, Shelby Oaks turns its scares inward, asking whether the real horror lives in the dark... or inside us.

It's not perfect - the final act leans a little too far into exposition, and some viewers may wish the mystery had stayed unsolved. But as a debut, it's an audacious and deeply personal work, proving that passion and persistence can still carve something new from the bones of horror tradition.

Verdict: An atmospheric, emotionally charged descent into the unknown. "Shelby Oaks" marks Chris Stuckmann as a filmmaker to watch - and to fear.

Had to make an IMDB acct because I'm shocked at how bad this film is.

I will try to avoid talking about Chris and his recent display of lacking a spine when reviewing movies. So I will only say that my only explanation on why this is so terrible, is due to the fact that he HAD to know that this script was very flawled and decided to lay low on heavy criticism.

So, in this movie we follow a group of Youtubers who get involved in a missing person case in which the victim's sister believes this to be of supernatural causes rather than criminal or accidental.

This youtuber glamour of the movie is the one that worked best for me, however that's not really an amazing achievement considering how easy it is to replicate a Youtuber format, which is why the rest of the movie dreadful atmosphere loses steam by the time the 30 min mark has passed and proceeds to become a bellow average found footage film with a quality that you... might see on youtube...

Maybe if this film was released in youtube as some kind of ARG it would've gained more attention, not to say it would be good, but at least it would hold the suspension of disbelief, and it wouldn't feel like such an amateurish production.

I know Chris Stuckman won't grow a spine to talk about actual movie criticism, so I at least hope he grows a spine to see how awfully generic this was.

I know it is actually meant to be found footage ... but then again, if this was a found footage movie, it would not use real cameras and switch back and forth between formats ... that said, having someone like Mike Flanigan standing behind (or in front of) your movie is quite the achievement and badge of honor I'd say.

This really drives home quite a few points to say the least. And it also has quite a few twists - before the movie started we were told not to give away anything ... even without that I would not have done it anyway. I don't like when people think it's ok to do that and spoil other peoples fun .... or enjoyment ... or just plain suspense they might have ... well had! So there is a bit of a Blair Witch feeling to this, but I would say it is a sort of update ... not just doing one style ... but making it more of a mystery ... I can say I saw the ending coming ... the very last twist was quite see through ... sometimes you have to throw some things out ... be it believes or whatever else comes in handy ... or convenient to further the story and plot ... you'll understand ... really well done! Shame the director couldn't be at the Festival (he had a cold - like the rest of his family ... and he did the sane thing ... not coming infecting others) ... would have liked to pick his brain on some stuff ... still really well done and check it when it comes out.

Coming out from Fantasia this was certainly an experience.

I honestly wish I had something insightful or even fun to say, but the truth is that I got nothing, because that's what this movie is, a nothing burger.

I honestly can't believe that this movie has Mike Flanagan involved, a master of slow burn horror and great series and movies like Midnight Mass, which in all it's 12 chapters of 1hr each, only had 3 jumpscares.

So why the hell does Shelby Oak's scare factor only relies on jumpscares? I thought this also came from a guy who thought the trope was overused and saturated.

Speaking of saturated, this is yet another found footage movie that looks like a budget version of Blair Witch (what a feat though, to make your movie look cheaper than Blair Witch). Watered down found footage horror that gets nowhere, ambiguity doesn't equal scary, Chris.

The main actress did a great job. I hope she does find a better movie than this slop. What a disappointment.

Valiant effort.

I wasn't familiar with The Paranoid Paranormal YouTube show until waiting in line for the screening, but the IYKYK vibe I'd then hoped for didn't even pay off (or maybe it did? Some true fan please tell me it did.)

It really seemed to sputter and burn out in the third act where what was intriguingly setup prior to felt crudely resolved like quickly gathered horror-trope loose ends of recent memory.

Did they hold off on some unused footage reserved for a hopeful sequel? Or simply telling Chris that selling his soul now will get him something better in the future?

Whatever it is, I respect how he got this made and the commitment to a longer form creative project like this - and I'm still intrigued to see what he does next.

A hilariocity this is not. This is Chris Stuckmann's first film, and he directs as though he is a veteran filmmaker. Having just viewed "Shelby Oaks" at Fantasia, I can honestly say that it did not disappoint. I am of course biased, being a long term fan of his YouTube channel, but I would argue that it has little to no effect on my 10/10 rating. This is a great film which will I believe will please both fans of Stuckmann and people unaware of who he is. It is no exaggeration to say I love this movie and would definitely recommend it to others looking for a new good horror movie. Can't wait to see what he does next.

It may not be one of the worst movies I've seen this year but it is the most boring. You have a extremely generic plot with a couple sprinkled in pretentious moments with little to no substance. It's a shame that neon has been making poorer movies with each year that comes out. I would not recommend this to anybody even if it was streaming.

Just stay with the review. Bad enough you have empty reviews on the channel, Now the guy is making empty movie. Hopefully this is the first and the last time.

Start with long production, mundane and cliche piling up and up. The director supposed to be a horror movie fan but how he brought this movie is so weak, there is nothing horror about the movie itself.

There is no vision, as far how the the directing goes I can tell that the director is trying hard but has an unbelievably no experience whatsoever. The movie relies heavily on jump scares, generic as it may be. There is nothing different, positive wise.

Looking forward for him to "Review" the movie.

I've been following Chris Stuckmann on YouTube ever since I saw his explanation video of 'Enemy' over ten years ago. I haven't watched his channel in a few years since he decided to change things up, but I've followed the progress of 'Shelby Oaks' since its inception back in 2021. I finally got to see it today and it was - quite a letdown, I'm sad to say.

Back in 2014 Stuckmann did a video titled 'The Problem with Horror Movies Today' and a large segment of that video was explaining why jump scares are so terrible and such a cheap gimmick. A direct quote from that video was, "The jump scare is the cheapest tactic used in horror films today." I tend to agree. So I had really hoped that Stuckmann would make a point of avoiding them all together in his debut film. Sadly, he did not. There aren't too many of them but they are in there and they are not well done. He even uses one during a piece of found footage, which is a major no-no.

The film is terribly clunky. It starts as a mockumentary and then suddenly it's not. The story has no focus and darts all over the place with terrible (CGI? - they looked CGI at least) dogs guiding the film. And the ending sequence was bizarre and didn't work for me at all. It felt like he was trying to cram ten films into one.

It's low budget so the acting is very dodgy in a lot of cases. Thankfully the lead actress Camille Sullivan is decent. She does her best to carry the film and keep it watchable.

This one didn't work though. It's never scary or interesting. The mystery doesn't captivate and there are a lot of choices that are quite cringe inducing. It's a debut film so there's plenty of time for him to learn and grow is the good news. 3/10.

Now before I begin, I want to say I enjoyed Chris Stuckmann's critic videos and works in the past. Having seen his reviews and talks about his upbringings in the vile Jehovah Witnesses cult was interesting. He seems like a chill person. Now for his first debut feature film, there are some good aspects, yet also not so great aspects.

Starters, the atmosphere and presentation is pretty good. With the tones of supernatural, mystery, found footage style and blended with paranoia themes, it helps add layers of tension within the setting and concept. Alongside with some solid special effects, production designs and camera work, there are some genuinely good moments of creepy sequences, atmospheres within the setting, and the colors too. Stuckmann's direction is decent, as he was able to capture the essence of the themes and balances pretty well. Alright admittedly, there are some direction chops that didn't land very well.

The performances are pretty solid. Camille Sullivan was really good, alongside with the rest of the cast members too. Unfortunately, the writing and execution causes the movie to prevent it from being good. First of all, the story and concept is good and the writing does offer some unique and fun horror ideas. But the issues is that it feels like Stuckmann struggles to blend the writing perfectly with what he wants to present. Because of that, the writing demonstrates a lot of horror cliches that are predictable and moments that feel messy. Which makes the characters of the movie hard to believe in nor engage.

Alongside with some annoying jump scares, the dialogue does feel wonky. As if the dialogue feels like something of a student film project does. On the effects, there are some good animal and blood effects, including sound designs. And the pacing is pretty solid.

At the end, I'm happy Chris Stuckmann is able to finally make his movie. He has talent for sure and I do like to see where he leads next. But, he really needs to get a better writer.

I went to see Shelby Oaks on 10/24/25, which was the first day of its theatrical run. I was alone at my screening.

I went because I love horror. The movie's premise reads like something you'd read for any random horror movie on the Tubi app: a woman goes missing while she investigates the paranormal, and her sister tries to find her. It's an extremely basic, cliched, un-original premise for a horror. But I was fine with it because, again, I like horror (I even enjoy those Tubi original horror flicks even!)

But in the end, I hated this movie

There are so many issues that I can rattle off -- the first, which might be most conspicious, is that the lead actress is way too old for the role; she looks more like a distressed mother than a sister. She and her missing sister Riley look nothing alike. They do not pass as sisters

In addition - the movie has an awkward construction. It starts off in a documentary fashion, as if it were a found-footage film. Then when the main character Mia goes out to look for the missing sister, the documentary/found-footage perspective goes away entirely. This jump in presentation, from found-footage to conventional, is simply weird and puzzling; and I'm not sure what the point is. The movie could have easily been made as one or the other. It could've been told as a complete found-footage or a conventional movie.

Some of the plot details don't work. The girl had been missing for 12 years, and in spite of all the police work and publicity, nobody else could spot the details that Mia does when she watches her sister's old videos ... the character Mia has a husband who serves no purpose in the movie (infact, I actually think they should have scrapped his character entirely to give the sense that Mia had nobody else but her sister) ... when Mia goes out into the woods to look for her sister, she bizarrely goes out by herself. What happened to the documentary crew? That Mia is alone means that she wanders about in silence, which becomes a drag. Having someone to talk to might've made these scenes a bit more lively. I found myself yawning and getting restless during that part ... the movie's ending is unsatisfying

The only positive is that some scenes are visually well-done, and there's even one really creepy scene involving a photo album. But they're not enough to make up for the film's many shortcomings

3.5/10.

Well, there isn't a lot to say about Shelby Oaks, not even much to spoil

This movie connects to Chris Stuckmann childhood story, which adds a little bit of understanding for the project. But... duh

It's a generic movie, and this is a generic review. That's hard it is to give it justice. It's an absolutely generic horror film with everything in the kitchen sink. It lacks continuity, development, structure, and confluence. It ends up abruptly with no real resolution, which is normal since it lacks development

I really wanted to give Stuckmann some courtesy, I wanted to give his movie more than a single star, but I ended up regretting that there's no zero here! He hyped it up out of his own passion, but he didn't do his job for his debut. Ngl, I feel cheated!

Total, cringey, waste of time. I'd rather watch the paint dry.

I can't believe Shelby Oaks is a real movie and not a 2-hour tutorial on how to ruin a good idea. This film promises mystery and horror but delivers boredom and confusion wrapped in pretentious monologues. It's like all the tension, scares, and storytelling took a day off - and never came back.

The pacing crawls. The plot goes in circles. The characters have the emotional depth of a loading screen. Every scene feels like it's building up to something... and then nothing happens. It's as if the movie is constantly whispering "just wait, something big is coming," and then rolls the credits instead.

For something that had so much hype, what we got is an overlong, directionless YouTube fan film with a Hollywood runtime. Not scary. Not clever. Just disappointing.

Do you like horror movie tropes? Do you like jump scares? Do you like Blair Witch Project style jumpy camera work? Did I mention tropes?

If you can think of a horror movie trope, it's in here. Strung together with a threadbare plot they just keep coming.

I'd say wait for it to hit streaming, invite your friends, and host a MST3K style party.

I drove 45 mins to see this utter disappointment of a movie that desperately wanted to be 20 movies in one. Scenes dragged on and on like the scene when Mia went to the prison at night was painfully boring.

Everything was ripped off here from Silent Hill to Twin Peaks. I desperately wanted to like this film to support indie horror but it was so dull, lifeless and disjointed.

The actrsss that played the missing sister was pure cringe snd so bad. The ending was atrocious and such a letdown that some of my audience members booed and yelled "That sucked!" One of the worst horror movies of the year. I can't believe Mike Flanagens name was attached to this. So embarrassing.

High hopes dashes away midway through film. It started off with a uniquely fresh approach to telling the story, but fell into the cliche of brave person falling in the trappings of a common horror movie. There's a lot of scenes that made no sense that the only conclusion is exactly how most horror films with a supernatural villain ends. The protagonist's conviction after 12 years has finally waned when presented a means to her true desire - succumbs to temptation. A solid 7 for the unique, ala dateline NBC news segment style film intro. 7 for the good actors. An awful 1 score for the predictable ending which diluted the effectiveness of the scare score of 3. See it if you dare sit through another frustratingly cliche horror film.