Shelby Oaks
Directed by Chris StuckmannA woman's obsessive search for her missing sister leads her into a terrifying mystery at the hands of an unknown evil.
Shelby Oaks Ratings & Reviews
- Austin Burke25 October 2025Shelby Oaks features more than a few interesting stylistic choices in the beginning, blending unique filmmaking techniques together to create a compelling first act. The haunting imagery showcased throughout delivers in an unsettling way, and the cinematography is rock solid. Unfortunately, the script doesn’t deliver on the ideas initially presented, and the third act fails to bring it all together. Some of the decision-making (from Mia specifically) is odd, and there just isn’t enough depth to land the plane smoothly… Love seeing this film get made regardless, and I’m rooting for its success.
- Timeless Cinema26 October 2025A weak story, with a decent mystery & some well presented horror. The pivot from story driven to character driven narratives slows the pacing. Resulting in a 2nd half that isn't compelling enough following the buildup & intrigue. A tepid experience overall.
- Magnus Carlbaum16 March 2026Well this was a major disappointment. Disjointed, boring and what's worst for a horror movie; not scary.
- gforce246 March 2026This was a horrible boring so-called horror movie I was bored.
- Paul Walsh3 March 2026I love found footage films. I love supernatural horror. And I was really looking forard to this film. I was mostly disappointed, however. The scares are rote and predictable, and the movie does nothing to engage the viewer in any way that has not been worn to death in previous movies.
- shadow24422 November 2025happy for Chris. this is def. better than some of the recent Horror Films. But still nowhere close from the oldschool Horror Movies. i havent found what i'm looking for since 30 years. and probably never will again.
- vangh130 October 2025So as I always try to do, I stumbled into this blind. I'd never heard anything about it, so I went in with zero preconceived notions. Formally this movie is really well made. There's some pretty shots, some really interesting editing, and the mix of and slightly new take on mockumentary and found footage styles played really well. But the script I can't praise quite as much. At a high level it relies a little too much on usual fare, and on a deeper level I have no idea what this movie is supposed to mean. Both literally and metaphorically I don't understand anything. I don't know why Riley was the chosen victim or why she needed to be stalked for years and years. I don't know what the demon or anything else is made to represent. I feel like there's no clear meaning or theme, which would be less of a problem if at least the events of the movie were really tight and amazing, but they're not. Big up's for the major Alan Wake vibes tho.
- Scott Thomas24 January 2026I really wanted to like this film and I was even one of the backers. For a first try writing and directing it was okay. Not great, not bad, but okay.
- cherrygrove.16 January 2026A cliche’d mess. Laughably bad at times, I had high(ish) hopes going into this. Shocked that Flanagan and Neon attached their names to this. Far fetched to call this a horror movie.
- Doc Worm30 December 2025Yes-this is a generic and derivative horror movie. However the first act, found footage style, as familiar as it is, is pretty enjoyable and I found myself hooked with where it was going. The second half sags immensely. The third act delivers on everything it sets up- but it’s everything you’ve seen before. I was not stuckmanized.
- KGM SOSA22 December 2025Shelby Oaks was one I’d been quietly hyped for. I first discovered it a few months back while watching The Conjuring 4 in cinemas, the teaser played before the film & immediately caught my attention. I found it peculiar because I hadn’t heard of it before & didn’t feel like it had big budget studio marketing around it, it looked amazing & I wrote it into my notes to google later, that rabbit hole made the movie even more interesting. Turns out this is a low-budget indie horror film from YouTuber Chris Stuckmann, entirely crowdfunded by fans who simply wanted to see the idea exist. The reported budget was just under $1 million, which is tiny in film terms & yet it went on to earn around $6.5 million at the box office. This proves that Hollywood can’t gatekeep the film industry & small indie passion projects can still shine if the idea is strong enough, That alone is awesome. Story-wise, the film follows a woman obsessively searching for her sister, who disappeared 12 years earlier after her friends were found dead. The sister had been part of a paranormal investigation internet show, as the story unfolds, her disappearance appears connected to disturbing demonic phenomena that plagued her childhood. Strange events stack up as the mystery deepens. I’d normally break this down further, but the story is fairly complex & more importantly, I don’t want to spoil it. I’m actively rooting for this films success. One thing I really appreciated is how the film uses found footage without being trapped by it. Found footage is my favourite horror subgenre, I can watch an entire movie in that format no problem, but I also know it’s divisive. Shelby Oaks strikes a smart balance: it incorporates found footage elements early on to establish tone, mystery & backstory, then transitions into traditional cinematic style. The found footage itself is split between mockumentary segments & raw cam footage reminiscent of Paranormal Activity, it’s handled tastefully. My rating lands at a 7/10 — Good / Enjoyable / Worth watching once or twice. I wanted to give it an 8, but I didn’t want to appear biased although as I’m writing this I feel it truly is an 8/10. There are areas where it could’ve pushed a little further. Personally, I would’ve liked to see more of the creature, though I know I’m often in the minority there. Many people prefer leaving things to the imagination, this is the exact reason The Blair Witch Project is so critically acclaimed. That’s fair, but I’d also like consistency from those critics; if you praise Blair Witch for hiding the creature, don’t turn around & fault Shelby Oaks for doing something similar. Overall, this is a fantastic independent horror film that absolutely maximised its limited budget. Every dollar feels stretched & purposeful, the passion behind the project is obvious. For a crowdfunded indie feature, this is genuinely impressive work. It’s a 7.5/10 in spirit, but since IMDb only allows full stars, I’m confidently landing on a 7/10. But don’t be surprised if I edit this down the line to an 8 as I think giving it a 7 may eat at me until I change it to an 8 lol.
- shirazesat6 December 2025New level of craziness: you leave a dead man's blood on your face for hours, and you decide to go to an abandoned prison by yourself in the dead of night. Not worried about infection? Not worried about falling down some rotten stairs with no-one to help? Then, for good luck, go to a deserted fairground, after having been chased by a hell hound. Anyway, well edited, and good acting, and scary. But so is driving on country lanes without lights on, or taking someone else's random pills. The choices made kill this movie.
- shogothx23 November 2025Delivers the scares. Entertaining to find directors sources of inspiration and there are many.
- Simon Knox3 December 2025Bit boring
- LivewireAdmin2 December 2025Can't believe Chris Stuckmann has a film in theaters! I was definitely a fan of his starting back in 2014 but I want to say I fell off at some point around 2019? I had fallen out of love with youtuber film reviews. I was surprised by the style shift about twenty minutes in, I was ready to settle in with what I thought was gonna be a "found footage" feature. The characters speaking directly to the screen in vlog format felt like Stuckmann in his element and would have made sense for his first feature. But as we shifted to a more traditionally shot film, it wasn't a jarring change and overall I would say he has a pretty good grasp of the horror genre. Nothing stood out to me as something uniquely Chris Stuckmann in regards to visuals or the writing but to be fair with only one feature film under his belt we still need to give him time to develop all that. The influences are strong, particularly M. Night Shyamalan which makes sense as Stuckmann has gone on record stating that he inspired him to get into filmmaking in the first place. I was impressed with the lead, Camille Sullivan. Her voice at times reminded me of Robin Wright and she might be one of the bravest horror protagonists in recent memory. Not in a million years would I put myself in some of the situations she put herself in. The film delivered some genuinely terrifying moments and a good amount of jump scares. The tension was not quite as strong as say James Wan but I was definitely bracing for the scare at some points. on the negative side I would say a lot of the ancillary characters are not fleshed out. It's definitely Mia's story and to a lesser extent, Riley's and with such a singular focus on one character the story didn't have anywhere else to cut to. Ending's are hard no matter who the writer is and this one definitely fell flat for me. Still, for the first outing as a creative, Stuckmann gives us some good scares and right in the middle of spooky season. I hope people go and see this one and that it will be the first of many films for Chris.
Shelby Oaks Trivia
Shelby Oaks was released on 2 October 2025.
Shelby Oaks was directed by Chris Stuckmann.
Shelby Oaks has a runtime of 90m.
Shelby Oaks was produced by Aaron B. Koontz, Cameron Burns, Chris Stuckmann, Ashleigh Snead.
A woman's obsessive search for her missing sister leads her into a terrifying mystery at the hands of an unknown evil.
The key characters in Shelby Oaks are Mia (Camille Sullivan), Riley (Sarah Durn), Robert (Brendan Sexton III).
Shelby Oaks is rated 15.
Shelby Oaks is a Horror, Thriller, Mystery film.
Shelby Oaks has an audience rating of 5.3 out of 10.
Shelby Oaks had a budget of US$1.4M.
Shelby Oaks has made US$2.4M at the box office.