Shelby Oaks
YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann’s first stab at directing is a slender, monotonous affair concerning the disappearance of a YouTube presenter.
Image courtesy of Altitude Film Distribution.
The YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann gave up his day job because he no longer wanted to offend the filmmakers that were his bread and butter. And maybe he thought he could do better than Ari Aster and Jordan Peele. And so, following in the pen strokes of Godard, Truffaut and Peter Bogdanovich, he decided to swap his bedroom greenscreen for a bona fide film set. With the aid of a budget largely raised through Kickstarter, Stuckmann hired a decent cast of established actors and none other than The Newton Brothers to help scare up some eerie music. Opting for atmosphere over expensive special effectives (although he’s hired an army of compositors to do their thing), Stuckmann has dragged out a skimpy plot over a mystifying 90 minutes (it feels longer, and much of that time is allotted to the endless credit scrawl of Kickstarter backers).
Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn), the host of a spooky YouTube show presented by the ‘Paranormal Paranoids’, vanishes under mysterious circumstances and her devoted sister Mia (Camille Sullivan) goes in search of her. As Mia sets about gathering various clues, we are treated to a potted biography of Riley via video clips, home movies and talking heads. And so we learn that Riley was a child mature for her age, a gifted guitarist interested in the arts and an engaging YouTube presence. Mia also comes by a video cassette, formerly in the possession of a convict from the ghost town of Shelby Oaks, Ohio, which she neglects to show the police. For her, it reveals something quite extraordinary…
Blending elements of The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Hideo Nakata's Ring (1998), Shelby Oaks prolongs the action at an agonisingly slow pace, testing the patience of its audience to breaking point. Most of the drama is played out on Camille Sullivan’s face as she peers round doors and stares through windows, creeping around at night when daylight exploration might have proved entirely more practical. And Stuckmann is not afraid to use the tropes of the genre, utilising loud bangs and half-glimpsed figures, while constantly stretching the viewer’s credulity. Much of it is nonsensical while precious little character interaction is provided to give us anything human to grasp on. When Mia shows her husband (Brendan Sexton III) the video cassette and suggests that something supernatural might be at play (for good reason), he says, “you need help, Mia,” and walks out of the room just when she needs him the most. Camille Sullivan isn’t half decent, but then no actress could hold our attention for all the longueurs that Stuckmann dishes out. It’s baffling to think that the story, for what it is, was actually conceived by two separate individuals.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Camille Sullivan, Brendan Sexton III, Keith David, Sarah Durn, Derek Mears, Emily Bennett, Charlie Talbert, Robin Bartlett, Michael Beach.
Dir Chris Stuckmann, Pro Aaron B. Koontz, Cameron Burns, Ashleigh Snead and Chris Stuckmann, Ex Pro Mike Flanagan, Screenplay Chris Stuckmann, from a story by Samantha Elizabeth and Chris Stuckmann, Ph Andrew Scott Baird, Pro Des Christopher Hare, Ed Patrick Lawrence and Brett W. Bachman, Music James Burkholder and The Newton Brothers, Costumes Shawna-Nova Foley.
Paper Street Pictures/Intrepid Pictures-Altitude Film Distribution.
90 mins. USA. 2024. US Rel: 24 October 2025. UK Rel: 29 October 2025. Cert. 15.
