Shelby Oaks

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.