Anthony Baldasare, Brendan Sexton III, Caisey Cole, Camille Sullivan, Charlie Talbert, Chris Stuckmann, Eric Francis Melaragni, Fantasia International Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, film festivals, horror, Keith David, movies, Ohio, reviews, Sarah Durn, Shelby Oaks
October 21, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Chris Stuckmann
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2020, in Ohio primarily in the fictional city of Shelby Oaks, the horror film “Shelby Oaks” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A woman searches for her younger adult sister (a YouTube paranormal investigator), who went missing in 2008, and finds sinister things along the way.
Culture Audience: “Shelby Oaks” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of supernatural horror movies that can create intriguing suspense, even if the story re-uses familiar elements from other horror movies.
“Shelby Oaks” is an adequate horror movie that falls short of being great because of its derivative story and weak ending. The movie’s mystery (about the search for a missing woman) is more suspenseful than scary. Camille Sullivan’s performance elevates the movie.
Directed by Chris Stuckmann (who co-wrote the “Shelby Oaks” screenplay with Sam Liz), “Shelby Oaks” had its world premiere at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at the 2025 edition of Fantastic Fest. “Shelby Oaks” is the feature-film directorial debut of Stuckmann, who made his name in the entertainment industry as a film critic on YouTube. The movie’s primary story takes place in 2020, in Ohio (where “Shelby Oaks” was filmed on location), with many of the story’s pivotal moments taking place in the fictional city of Shelby Oaks.
“Shelby Oaks” mixes the narrative formats of “found footage,” mockumentary and “real time” footage, in a mostly seamless way. The movie begins in “found footage” style, by showing the last-known video of Riley Brennan (played by Sarah Durn), a young paranormal investigator who hosted a YouTube channel called Paranormal Paranoids. Riley (who lived in the fictional Darke County in Ohio) has been missing since 2008.
The “found footage” (which Riley filmed herself) shows her sitting in her bedroom, looking terrified, and saying, “I’m so scared.” There’s a faint sound of howling canines in the background. Riley seems unsure of what to do next. Then, she slowly gets up and walks out the door. As she opens the door, the howling sound grows even louder. This was the last time that Riley was seen alive before she went missing.
The movie then switches to the mockumentary format, by showing that a film crew is doing a documentary about the mysterious disappearance of Riley and the three members of the Paranormal Paranoids production crew: Peter Bailey (played by Anthony Baldasare), Laura Tucker (played by Caisey Cole) and David Reynolds (played by Eric Francis Melaragni), who all went missing around the same time as Riley. The documentary crew is shown doing various interviews with people, but the main interviewee is Riley’s older sister Mia Brennan Walker (played by Sullivan), who has been tirelessly searching for Riley.
Mia firmly states Riley was never a hoaxter and seemed to have psychic abilities ever since Riley was a child. Riley kept a dream sketchbook, where she would illustrate her very vivid dreams. Mia also says that she and Riley had a happy childhood, except for Riley saying that she had a disturbing vision when she was 13. Riley would not go into details. Although many people have assumed that Riley and her Paranormal Paranoids crew are dead, Mia has not given up hope.
During an interview for the documentary, Mia mentions that before Riley disappeared, Mia and her husband Robert (played by Brendan Sexton III) were trying to start a family. But after Riley went missing, they abandoned those plans. Robert declined to be interviewed for the documentary, but he is seen in the background and in conversations with Mia when the documentary film crew isn’t filming them.
One day, after an interview session with the documentary crew, a man knocks on the door of the house where Mia and Robert live. The documentary crew members are still in the house and are just about to pack up their equipment and leave. Mia opens the door, and the man (who is a stranger to Mia), says to Mia: “She finally let me go.” The man then takes out a gun, shoots himself in the head, and dies in front of a horrified Mia.
Mia sees that the man is holding a mini DV cassette tape in his right hand. The tape is labeled “Shelby Oaks.” Mia takes the tape and doesn’t tell police about it when there’s an investigation. Mia finds out from lead detective Alan Burke (played by Keith David) that the dead man was 39-year-old Wilson Miles (played by Charlie Talbert), who was incarcerated for assault at Shelby Oaks Correctional Facility. Shelby Oaks is an abandoned town on the outskirts of Darke County.
The correctional facility and an amusement park were the last places that remained open before Shelby Oaks became a “ghost town,” with shuttered businesses and residents who moved out in droves. The downward spiral of Shelby Oaks began when the amusement park closed in the late 1990s due to a fire. Coincidence or not, the last paranormal investigation that Riley did was at the now-abandoned Shelby Oaks Correctional Facility. Archival video footage shows that Riley felt an extremely cold presence inside the prison. She “freaked out” and didn’t want to go back.
Mia plays the tape that Wilson was holding when he died. “Shelby Oaks” is mostly about how Mia decides to obsessively investigate on her own after seeing what’s on the tape. Her investigation predictably leads her to Shelby Oaks. This investigation is more interesting than the movie’s predictable jump scares. “Shelby Oaks” has elements that are very reminiscent of 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project” movie, but it’s a more polished-looking movie than the scrappy-looking “The Blair Witch Project.”
The supernatural visuals and the supporting actor performances in “Shelby Oaks” are sufficient, but the characters are somewhat generic. The main reason viewers will want to continue watching the movie is to find out the answer to the mystery. When that answer comes, it’s a bit underwhelming and not very surprising, but it is still presented in an effective way until the movie’s clumsy and abrupt ending. “Shelby Oaks” isn’t terrible and is worth a watch if you’re looking for a mildly scary, somewhat gory horror movie with a fairly standard story arc.
Neon will release “Shelby Oaks” in U.S. cinemas on October 24, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on October 20, 2025.