Shelby Oaks

With Sullivan's phenomenal performance and Stuckmann's keen eye, Shelby Oaks allows us to witness the start of one of the most promising new voices in horror.

While Shelby Oaks doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the horror genre, it does just fine with what it has to work with. If you look past the fact that it’s created completely out of pre-existing tropes, you can enjoy the story. It’s made well, the actors are all good, and the cinematography and audio are all done at a high level, especially for a new director’s first film.

Chris Stuckmann’s utilitarian approach is doubly frustrating considering that Shelby Oaks does, at least in the early going, point toward potentially having something to say about the vlogger space, internet infamy, and the way tragedy takes on a cultural virality.

Save for a single sterling jolt, his compendium of clichés is a case study in knowing a genre’s tricks but doing absolutely nothing of interest with them.

As its clichéd and underwritten story progresses, however, it goes from mildly interesting to underwhelming to actively bad in the end. By the standards of a major release in competition for Halloween season screens with some of the best horror movies of 2025, it's a failure.

A derivative and dogged horror movie that reverts to rote with wearying regularity.

Even in an oversaturated genre of increasingly diminished returns, Shelby Oaks is about as dispensable as it gets.

'Shelby Oaks' starts strong and slowly collapses. I went in with zero expectations and still felt both intrigued and frustrated. The opening mockumentary is polished, atmospheric, and genuinely engaging, creating real narrative hunger. But once the investigation begins, everything turns repetitive: the same clues, the same conclusions, circling endlessly without escalation. The emotional core barely reaches beyond the protagonist, and while the cinematography carries much of the weight, the story itself feels hollow. The supernatural element is reduced to a sketch — an idea that never fully materializes. The film seems afraid to commit to its own monster. The final twenty minutes are flat and rushed, offering no catharsis, only disappointment. And yet, it’s not a bad movie: there’s love for the genre and competent direction. With a sharper script and a braver third act, this could’ve been great. Instead, it feels like catching smoke with your hands.

Some Youtubers I regularly listen to were really trashing this film. I am not a fan of Chris Stuckmann, I have never seen his show. I also know that he is a leftist and I pretty much hate leftists. However, I pride myself in giving credit where it is due. So, with that being said, I think that the people trashing this movie are really going overboard. I think the main problem with this film is the first 20 minutes or so and then the final scene. The first 20 minutes border on intolerable; there is something very cheap about all of it. The acting is weak, the dialogue is weak, and the exposition is weak and overdrawn. A lot of found footage is used and found footage is notoriously cheesy and hard to make work. Once you get past the first 20 minutes, the film really does become something entirely different and it is quite good. The ending, which I will not spoil, needed to be SLIGHTLY tweaked and I feel like it would have really stuck the landing. I also want to note that while I was watching the movie "Barbarian" and many other horror films, I will be screaming at the screen wondering why the characters are acting so damn stupid. That didn't happen in this film. The characters behaviors and actions make sense within the situations they are in. The only exception to that is the husband not believing his wife about the what happened to Riley, even though she has A PHOTO OF A DEMON behind her. You would think that might move the needle for him a little but no, he just thinks she is crazy. TL;DR: Get past the first 20 minutes and this is quite a good horror film.

Not gonna be able to escape my own biases here, so I might as well address them head-on. Big fan of Chris Stuckmann's and I've been a follower of his for quite some time now. Seeing him fulfill his dream of being a filmmaker has been nothing short of a treat, to be sure, even if this freshman effort leaves a few things to be desired. In its finest moments, "Shelby Oaks" is an atmospheric spine-tingler, offering the audience sweeping establishing shots of the desolate American rust belt, leaving us all wondering what might be lurking in each shadow. It's when we're shown what's in those shadows -- that's when things are either gonna get a lot more or less interesting for you. I suspect I'm more in the former category, though I understand where those in the latter group are coming from. Once everything's said and done, the true nature of things wasn't entirely clear to me. I still had questions, but the general idea of the ending came across, if that makes sense. There are also a few immersion-breaking moments here and there, namely in the form of a few attempts at emulating local news reports, but nothing catastrophic. Overall, though, I was pretty impressed by this debut. Excited to see what else Chris has in him.

YouTuber Chris Stuckmann disappoints in his feature film debut with a widely derivative horror movie that is sunken by a weak screenplay and lack of originality.

O filme fica permitido na estética meio mockumentary, e quando a abandona, sobre com o ritmo, numa lentidão que promte muito e entrega nada, e ainda deixa várias pontas soltas. Este 2025 tá sendo um bom ano pro terror, mas curiosamente, os filmes lançados pro Halloween estão bem abaixo da média.