Film critic turned filmmaker Chris Stuckman has shown us his debut film, with this being one of my most anticipated films of the year. I was quite anxious when I settled into my seat and the lights dimmed. However I'm happy to report that Shelby Oaks is a thrilling and tense horror story that will leave you shaken. Shelby Oaks follows Mia (Camille Sullivan), trying to solve the mystery of how her younger sister Riley (Sarah Durn) and her friends disappeared while exploring the abandoned town of Shelby Oaks for their paranormal YouTube channel the Paranormal Paranoids. After one of the best openings I've seen from a horror film all year, Mia finds some new evidence fueling her belief that Riley is alive and goes down a hellish trail to prove it.
Shelby Oaks is not your typical found footage film, I even second guess calling it a found footage film because it goes against the grain for such an established and already diverse sub-genre. The film often shifts the perspective from handheld found footage, to documentary filmmaking about Riley and her friends to traditional narrative filmmaking. It's strange yet isn't the whiplash you might expect, it's a smooth and calculated cocktail of Lake Mungo, The Blair Witch Project and Hereditary. These influences pushed into territory where it at times feels like a real missing persons case in the early 2000s people would be tuning into every week to hear the latest development on, a type of motif in found footage and mockumentary films I love.
What I feel Shelby Oaks does best is the buildup of tensity and dread, I'd go as far as to say that this movie IS dread. The pacing of the film doesn't feel drawn out and tiring yet there's shots where you wait in anticipation for what could possibly happen. My heart wouldn't stop pounding through the entire one hour and forty two minutes of runtime. The tensity in the air through most of the film can be cut with a knife. The films cinematography and editing also adds to the dread, with the sinking feeling that something sinister is just out of frame or lurking in the shadows and you're stuck wondering when or if you'll see it. It's a palpable type of fear that I've always admired, and it's on full display here.
Another fantastic piece of Shelby Oaks is Camille Sullivans performance as Mia. She's a fierce force of nature unwavering in her opinion that her sister Riley is alive somewhere, and she goes through hell to try and prove it. Her tensity is authentic and scary real, her restlessness throughout the film is felt to the highest power and her embodiment of the character is a standout and one that'll be hard to top for the rest of the year. On that same note Sarah Durn as Riley takes the character into some dark and intense places, and she uses every second of her time on screen hoping that she gets found. The films narrative is shrouded in mystery with Mia following a dark trail that gets more disturbing the more it unravels. The story takes its time with giving answers, and it does so without making you feel the runtime. Theres moments in the film that you can feel a collective "oh shit" whisper amongst the audience. While I do feel like some of the third act could've used a little expanding upon, and the last 20 or so pages of the script probably could've used another pass it still delivers a creepy narrative with a haunting ending.
Overall, Shelby Oaks is a eerie, creepy and phenomenally strong debut feature from Stuckman. It's something that I feel is comparable in narrative to last year's film Longlegs, which I'm sure may polarize audiences, however I urge horror fans to see this one in a theater with as many people as possible. This film delivers on all fronts, atmosphere, jumpscares, tensity and a handful of gore, Shelby Oaks is another hit for NEON.
Shelby Oaks hits theaters on October 24th, 2025. Will you be seeing it?
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