A found footage movie in 2025? Shelby Oaks attempts to elicit the same scares as those that came before it but it ends up missing the mark with a lackluster script and an evil entity that gets way too much screen time to be frightening.
Shelby Oaks Review
In 1999, The Blair Witch Project put the found footage genre on the map. Everyone was talking about it and being from the DC area, I knew the details that inspired it which made it slightly more “real” to me. Shaky camera footage, actors no-one could recognize, grainy footage combined with visuals that pierced the veil between them. Not many films in this format have even been able to touch the frenzy Blair Witch created. Chris Stuckmann hoped to changed that. Stuckmann has spent years talking about films on his YouTube channel. When his version of Shelby Oaks debuted at Fantasia, the reviews were less than great. But Neon and Mike Flanagan stepped in to put money towards reshoots and upping the scares. Flanagan knows horror but would he be enough to make this one pop?
Shelby Oaks is a Blair Witch Project cosplayer that bought their costume on the clearance rack at Spirit Halloween. The film starts with a premise that describes “Grave Encounters” followed by dialogue lifted directly from Blair Witch. It's almost as if it wants to be parody or at the very least willing to poke some fun at the ridiculousness of these types of movies. However, it's doing neither of us, attempting to be serious before veering off course, leaving behind the found footage formula for a standard satanic/religious horror. It's not all bad news. This movie does have some interesting cinematography, thanks to Andrew Scott Baird (Blood Relatives) and a segue that involves the always great Keith David so those are a plus.
The Paranormal Paranoids are a YouTube group of friends who go around filming content in haunted places like abandoned prisons, amusement parks, and towns. One day the group disappears, three dead bodies are found but their leader, Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn), remains missing. Years later, her sister Mia Walker-Brennan (Camille Sullivan) hasn't given up hope. She rewatches Riley's last moments, a video showing her playing guitar, looking directly at the camera essentially begging her sister to find her. One night a man rings Mia's doorbell, unalives himself in front of her while holding a tape marked Shelby Oaks. This is the missing tape that Mia hopes contains the clues she's been waiting 12 years for.
This film is part found footage, part traditional horror story, and a whole lot of baffling decisions. Mia's only character traits are that she is married, was unable to have a child, and her sister is missing. Despite her sister being part of a famous internet group, no one did their due diligence to find Riley. The authorities didn't comb over the groups' last video or even adequately search the area where they went missing. Because if they had, this movie would have been over before it ever started. But that's a horror movie for you, bad decisions are what move the plot forward. Then after the faux documentary that Mia is a subject of, she proceeds to go to Shelby Oaks… by herself. Her husband doesn't come, the documentary crew that is literally asking her questions about her sister doesn't care, and naturally she doesn't tell the police either.
None of the characters are particularly interesting, which means you don't care about them or their survival. A death or two would get a shrug from me. Even the guy offing himself barely registered. I was more concerned she didn't wash his blood off her face because that's nasty. I was somewhat interested in the mystery surrounding Riley's disappearance until the sister's plans to find her kept getting more ridiculous. How many red flags can one ignore? By the time the satanic “twist” occurred I was over the whole ordeal. There is a lack of scares and what's worse is that the monster is shown one too many times. Then there are the dogs, which I didn't hate but also part of the problem. The melodrama becomes hilarious which I'm sure is not what Stuckmann was going for.
Verdict
Ultimately, Shelby Oaks looks scary but it's not scary, at least not if you're watching it. If it's on in the background you might happen to look up and see something that could startle you. But if you're avidly watching it, like I was, you see everything coming from a mile away. Glowing eyes, menacing figure, demonic dogs, it's a basic religious/satanic story that would have been more intriguing had it stuck to the found footage and supernatural feeling it started with. But it is short, so if you're looking for a quick, “scary” movie for the season, Shelby Oaks is waiting for you.
Shelby Oaks is now playing in theaters. It is rated R for violent content/gore, suicide and language with a runtime of 91 minutes.
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