Film Review: SHELBY OAKS (2024): A Creepy Fusion of Found Footage Thrills with Intense Jump Scares
Shelby Oaks Review
Shelby Oaks (2024) Film Review, a movie directed by Chris Stuckmann, written by Sam Liz and Chris Stuckmann and starring Sarah Durn, Mason Heidger, Joe Quinn, Mariah Burks, Rebecca DeMarco, C.L. Simpson, Camille Sullivan, Sloane Burkett, Caisey Cole, Anthony Baldasare, Eric Francis Melaragni, Lauren Ashley Berry, Lori Palminteri, Michael Beach and Keith David.
Filmmaker Chris Stuckmann’s terrifying new found footage horror movie, Shelby Oaks, has an intriguing structure that keeps the pace of the film moving along steadily. Focusing on a group of young paranormal investigators who have disappeared, the opening footage shows a terrified young woman named Riley (Sarah Durn). She doesn’t seem to have anything but regrets about the current predicament she’s in. Her sister, Mia (Camille Sullivan) becomes the star of the movie, but the film’s early scenes resonate with viewers because of Durn’s intense performance as a woman frightened beyond a reasonable doubt.
Most people who would go see Shelby Oaks would have seen The Blair Witch Project from 1999 which was the ultimate and definitive found footage horror movie. This new picture borrows heavily from that 1999 picture although Stuckmann’s film handily includes a creepy run down facility that sheds light on what’s going on in the plot as well as some psychopathic characters, one of whom shoots himself in the head at a key interval in the movie. Stuckmann seems to have a list of every creepy topic ever covered by a movie about a demonic force and he checks off each bullet point as he goes along scene by scene.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, veteran actor Keith David pops up and lends his reliable and believable presence to the story line, helping make the premise more frightening and setting the stage for the startling revelations which come towards the end of the movie. There’s a vicious dog that goes near Mia as she gets closer to her discovery of just, exactly, what happened to Riley. A very odd older woman enters the equation which will lead Mia to the answers she may wish she never sought out to find.
Towards the end, a baby factors into all this. Without giving too much away, Stuckmann is able to make the movie effective without spoon-feeding every single aspect of the plot to the viewer. In fact, the take away from the film becomes even more scary if one doesn’t have every piece of the puzzle the movie proposes to the audience at one’s disposal. There’s certainly a significant backstory as Mia consoled Riley when they were younger for a very precise reason and the movie plays out with some effective jump scares and fake, but authentic feeling, found footage that is just creepy enough to sneak under the audience’s skin and stay there for the duration of the movie.
Shelby Oaks is set in Ohio which makes for the perfect place to set a bone-chilling story such as this one. It’s probably not worth mentioning anyone else in the cast because every role in this film is played strictly by the numbers as a key character tries to tell Mia she’s bitten off more than she could chew and needs psychological help. Mia yearns to find her sister and the plot resolves itself accordingly and it even goes the extra mile to make sure it leaves the door wide open for a sequel just in case the filmmakers feel like revisiting this plot to scare another audience again.
While the small town setting adds enough eerie scariness to the story, the performances by the two lead actresses are right where they need to be to maintain the viewer’s interest in the story line. Sarah Durn and Camille Sullivan complement each other in terms of the way they create their characters and develop them. Durn shows up at one point looking totally distraught and beaten up by her unfortunate predicament and the actress handles the delicate nature of her scenes very well near the end of the picture. Sullivan is the driving force of the plot for much of the movie, though, and she digs deep inside her character’s goals and intention to salvage the sisterly bond that convinces her that her quest for the truth is necessary.
Shelby Oaks works under the principle that less is more in terms of unveiling every single aspect of the story it showcases. And, that’s OK. By hinting at the twisted nature of the plot developments rather than probing them more deeply, this film manages to become a bit more scary in the end. At the conclusion of the movie, the viewer will get some answers, but Stuckmann is probably saving all of them for a sequel just in case this movie takes off and it could one day thanks to the solid performances and creepiness factor of the concluding sequences of the picture. It’s worth taking a look at this one, especially if you’re a found footage horror movie fan.
Rating: 7/10
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