Shelby Oaks (2025)
Directed by: Chris Stuckmann
Premise: A woman (Camille Sullivan) searches for her sister (Sarah Durn) who disappeared while investigating paranormal activity.
What Works: Horror films can sometimes get by with sufficient scares and atmosphere and Shelby Oaks has those qualities in abundance. This story is fundamentally a mystery in which Mia searches for Riley, her younger sister who has gone missing while ghost hunting. It’s a compelling conceit enhanced by a pseudo-documentary opening that gives the premise some credibility and effectively sets the tone. After a shocking discovery yields a clue, Mia traces her sister’s path which takes her into some spooky locations. The haunted house set pieces are effectively staged. The lighting is low and creepy but in a way that allows the viewer to follow the action. Much of the set design has a grimy and organic visual texture. Sound is also used quite well and especially silence. The filmmakers create aural voids that, along with the darkness, inspire dread.
What Doesn’t: Shelby Oaks feels incomplete. The film’s concept is not presented in full. Shelby Oaks begins as a pseudo-documentary in the style of The Blair Witch Project and Deadstream. It then switches to be a straightforward dramatic film but with pseudo-documentary elements as in Cannibal Holocaust and Sinister. The documentarians are absent from the movie. We don’t know who these documentary filmmakers are or their relationship to Mia. They are documenting the search for Riley and it’s odd that they are cut out of the story especially in the last portion of the film. Shelby Oaks’ unfinished quality becomes a serious handicap in the ending. The story just stops. The ending isn’t mysterious or ambiguous and the narrative does not come to a satisfying or meaningful conclusion.
Bottom Line: Shelby Oaks is made with a lot of craftsmanship and it is successfully spooky. It’s also a bit of a let down with an incomplete story that squanders the film’s potential.
Episode: #1070 (October 26, 2025)