Shelby Oaks (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Chris StuckmannRelease Date(s)
2025 (January 6, 2026)Studio(s)
Paper Street Pictures/Intrepid Pictures/Neon (Decal Releasing)- Film/Program Grade: C-
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A+
- Extras Grade: A
Review
It’s never a good sign when you turn off a movie like Shelby Oaks midway through to hunt down another movie featuring an actor you didn’t know about because you have a feeling they might be great (but are being wasted in the movie you first found them in). That’s how it went here watching Camille Sullivan, who plays the Shelby Oaks’s second main character Mia, sister to the main character in spirit, Riley. The better movie in question is Hunter Hunter (available digitally on Kanopy and if you have a library card and a Smart TV/Firestick/Roku and don’t have Kanopy, you’re leaving money on the table as a film fan, trust me). Hunter Hunter is pretty incredible. It’s tense, tight and tidy storytelling, really well acted by everyone involved and it’s, boy-oh-boy, dark as f*&k. Do check it out. Bet you didn’t think you’d be getting a movie review inside a different movie review; welcome back to Doogan’s Views on The Bits.
Shelby Oaks on the other hand, is... fine. It’s not hate-able. It tries. It’s a genre mashup, which can and should be a good thing, but in the hands of YouTube movie influencer turned filmmaker Chris Stuckmann, sadly it isn’t. It’s an “eyes bigger than stomach” thing because Stuckmann’s not a bad storyteller, per se, and thanks to a talented crew and more than competent cinematographer in Andrew Baird (there are a few shots in this that made me wish this was a better movie). Shelby Oaks is watchable overall but forgettable because it tries to do too much with too little.
Simply put, Shelby Oaks, is about a crew of Youtubers focused on the paranormal, led by Mia’s sister Riley, who disappear one day under mysterious circumstances exploring a ghost town in Ohio called, you got it, Shelby Oaks. 12 years later, a documentary crew is making a story about it. The first seventeen minutes of the film is that documentary, which leads into a hard moment that breaks the movie into a standard character-focused movie that pulls thematics, characters and moments from every creepy movie made in the last 20 years with some 70s classics thrown in. The bait and switch where you’re feeling like you’re watching a Blair Witch or Lake Mungo clone and then get dropped into an A24 or Blumhouse flick is what fails so hard. I think Stuckmann thought that would be cheered by the audience, but it becomes a weakness, especially when you finish watching and start thinking about the film and how the story is told. It just doesn’t hold up, which is sad because it’s well enough made that you want it to be good. If the movie just picked one or two themes to explore—seriously even just one—it may have been a real showcase for Stuckmann and his crew’s talents.
Shelby Oaks is presented in 1080p from a high-quality video source. It looks great and there are a few cinematic moments here and there that stood out, helped by the high-quality transfer. Audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio and sounds very very good. Stuckmann has studied his horror movie sound theory and the sound field tries to make up for what the storytelling lacks. Alas. Unsurprisingly, this is a relatively packed special edition coming from someone who has spent some time reviewing movies on disc with hopes of one day making his own. There’s an informative Commentary with Stuckmann, a six-part making of that starts from the beginning and works its way through the filmmaking process. Mostly positive in nature, but a few hurdles here and there. There’s a selection of the Youtube videos from the fake channel called Paranormal Paranoids, including the infamous “last one”. An uncensored Crime Scene Gallery, seen blurred out in the film, a selection of TV Spots, Trailer and a hidden Easter Egg (look out for the “positivity” of making your own movie). It’s a good supportive set from a talented filmmaker who I hope gets a second chance and maybe gets more eyes on his script before moving forward. Or better still, maybe he gets together with a really talented writer to make something a bit more focused. If he does that, maybe we’ll see what he can really do.
- Todd Doogan