Shelby Oaks (2025)

2 Stars (out of 4)

Ghost Lines

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Chris Stuckmann's just-okay horror movie Shelby Oaks employs a mix of documentary-like "found footage" and regular fictional storytelling, but that gimmick aside, it never really goes anywhere terribly compelling.

A documentary filmmaker tells the story of Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn), who has gone missing. She was part of a popular foursome of YouTube ghost hunters calling themselves the "Paranormal Paranoids." After investigating an abandoned prison, they suddenly disappear. Three of the group turn up dead, but Riley's whereabouts remain unknown.

Interviewed for the documentary years later, Riley's sister Mia (Camille Sullivan) has vowed to find her. When a strange man shows up on her doorstep and shoots himself in the head, Mia discovers that he has a videotape in his hand.

The tape contains the last footage Riley and her crew shot, and it also, finally, after twelve years, contains the first clues that Mia needs to truly begin her investigation. But there are unknown dangers ahead in the town of Shelby Oaks.

A feature writing and directing debut by popular YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann, who raised the money via Kickstarter, Shelby Oaks has a few interesting things going for it, such as a haunted amusement park, a haunted prison, and a town filled with effectively moldy and grimy, and run down structures that inspire revulsion; you don't want to touch anything.

But it's curious that Mia goes on her investigation alone; it feels like suspense might have been bumped up from pushback or friction from another character or element. Perhaps even the found footage could have been better incorporated into the whole piece, rather than just as an introduction.

Then, a conclusion that is meant to be shocking really mostly leaves us with an uneasy, icky feeling. For the most part, Shelby Oaks dabbles in the familiar, calling attention to better-made movies. It never takes off on its own.

Neon's Blu-ray release has a fairly bland, beige-grayish color palette, so there's not much to say about the video transfer. The audio transfer sounds good. (The film is presented in three aspect ratios, so a lot of the early footage appears as if in a small box in the middle of your TV.) Audio is mastered in 5.1 DTS, and there's a descriptive track. Optional subtitles are available in English, French, and Spanish. Ample bonuses include a director's commentary track, various episodes of and random footage from "Paranormal Paranoids," a gallery of crime scene photos, a six-part making-of documentary, and trailers and TV spots.