Shelby Oaks (2025) Review
This weekend a new horror film from legendary YouTuber, Chris Stuckman titled Shelby Oaks drops in theaters. This is one that I was very excited for based on the premise of seeing a YouTube make a theatrically released film. The early reviews for it were largely very positive. I was very excited that Cinemark’s Secret Screening last night was Shelby Oaks. What did I think about the film? Was it any good? Let’s talk about it!
The Review
As previously mentioned, this is one that I was very excited for and it was on my list of most anticipated films of fall 2025. Walking out of the theater, two thoughts came to mind. First, this is going to be one of the most disappointing films of 2025. Second, this film shows that Chris Stuckman shows promising talent in a very flawed and frustrating film. With this film in particular it’s frustrating because I so badly wanted this film to succeed, I’m curious what it’s going to do at the box office. I think the film will be profitable because the film’s budget is about $2 million. I wish the overall quality of the film was as good as the filmmaking.
The big thing that stood out to me about the film was Stuckman’s directing abilities. He does a great job of creating this creepy and unsettling atmosphere that makes you scared. He uses a lot of the same techniques that Ozgood Perkins used for Longlegs from last year. What they both did really well was using a lot of background space to have our imagination fill in the gaps. He uses a lot of wide camera angles and shows all of the empty spaces. The audience is using our imagination to fill in the gaps and spot anything that’s weird and creepy. I feel this movie will benefit from rewatch so you can spot all of the creepy creatures that are in the background. Even after seeing the film one time, I noticed a lot of very cool and creepy creatures in the background that make you feel this sense of unease and dread throughout the film. The other cool thing that Stuckman does with this film is telling the movie in three different filmmaking techniques. Part of the film is told using normal camera techniques, mockumentary style, and found footage style. The film is constantly switching between these styles and it creates a film that feels unique. It’s taking generally familiar source material and amplifying it by using different filmmaking/camera techniques.
Another big strong point of the film was the performances. Our lead character is Camille Sullivan as Mia, I’m not familiar with her work at all. She does a really good job and she needs to do a good job because the film is built on her shoulders. She’s the character we’re following throughout the film. As you move into the back half of the film, there’s a lot of scenes where it’s just her. You buy into her character and her relationship with her missing sister through her performance. Sarah Durn as Riley plays the missing sister who is once again very good. Riley is the character that went missing and who Mia is trying to find. I don’t want to spoil too much but 90% of Riley’s screen time is via video camera in the found footage format. But we’re still able to buy into her performance and see the sisterly bond that these two have. I hope this movie allows for them to get more work because this film shows that they are very talented.
With all of that said, the most frustrating part of the film was the ending. Seeing this at Cinemark’s Secret Screening was rather interesting because both this film and The Mastermind which I saw at least week’s Cinemark screening. Because both of them sort of just ended and it felt like it came out of nowhere. They both just ended and I was like “that’s it?”. I think it’s so frustrating with Shelby Oaks’ ending because it felt like it was built up to something and there was still 20-30 minutes left in the film and then the credits start. It felt so sudden and I was very confused by the ending of the film. As soon as I got out, I was trying to find videos explaining the ending of the film. I couldn’t really find any because it was before a majority of people will see it. But I just wanted to see what other people interpretations of the ending was and just better understand it. I didn’t leave the film being satisfied with what we got, I left the film being frustrated. For the first 70% of the film I was thinking this is one of the best films of the year. I was really digging this film and was excited to see how it ended. Then our main character, Mia goes to this cabin and from that point on the film was losing me more and more. That was really the part that left me feeling the most frustrated. Whenever the ending doesn’t work it sort of sours your experience on the film as a whole.
I feel like over the last couple of years in horror films that the big twist reveals that’s going on ties into the supernatural side of horror. Longlegs did it last year, Together and Weapons both did it this year. Shelby Oaks does a version of it and I feel it’s a gimmick that’s feeling played out. I know that Stuckman was working on this film and filming it before any of those films came out. But that still doesn’t change the fact that the gimmick feels very played out and we’ve seen this film before. This film wasn’t trying to reinvent the genre or be the next horror masterpiece. But it was released during a time when supernatural horror twists have been a common thing over the last couple of years.
One final thing to discuss here but given that a good percentage of the film is told in this documentary style, it means that the film is breaking some basic screenwriting tools. There’s a lot of exposition that needs to go down in order for the audience to understand what happened and catch them up. There’s this rule when it comes to screenwriting of “show don’t tell”. Don’t lecture the audience about something, tell it through story and images to engage your audience more. Given that part of this is told like a documentary explaining what’s happened over the last 10 years, it kind of does have to break those screenwriting techniques. It does a better job of this in the back half of the film when it’s not doing the documentary style filmmaking. But in the first half, specifically the first act of the film there’s a lot of exposition and people talking.
Final Thoughts: As I’ve already mentioned Shelby Oaks was one of my most anticipated films of the fall. I was so excited to see somebody like Chris Stuckman make a theatrically released film. I left the film thinking that Stuckman proved that he has a lot of talent. He’s very talented when it comes to the camera work and building this unsettling atmosphere. However, when it comes to the script and the ending I thought the film dropped the ball and created an unsatisfying conclusion to a mystery that I was invested in. This is going to be one of the most disappointing movies of 2025 and maybe the most frustrating. I’m very curious to see what the conversation surrounding the film is going to be this weekend. I can see this film polarizing audiences and either loving it or being frustrated with it just like me.
The Score: 7.7/10 (C+)
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