Shelby Oaks

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.