Where to begin when it comes to Chris Stuckmann’s “Shelby Oaks”? I don’t think I’ll bother reviewing it until its release in the fall. I’m honestly surprised Neon bought it.
Stuckmann’s debut screened at Fantasia over the weekend, I was there and much like every screening at this festival, the crowd was overly enthusiastic and gushing. It’s a great genre festival, with a program filled with these little gems that might never be seen in theaters. A fun time was had by all, but critics seem to want none of it.
So far, we have negative reviews from Next Best Picture, Joblo, The AV Club and The Film Stage. Whereas, IndieWire (B-) and IGN are mixed on it. Meanwhile, Slash Film and Bloody Disgusting liked it quite a bit.
As mentioned, last week, Neon acquired the rights to “Shelby Oaks,” which is a found-footage horror film from Stuckmann, a former YouTube film critic. Stuckmann’s debut feature started out as a Kickstarter campaign in 2022 — he ended up raising close to $1.4M in less than a month, the most-funded horror film ever on the platform.
“Shelby Oaks” follows Mia, in total panic, searching for her sister Riley, who suddenly disappeared during the last taping of her investigative series, “Paranormal Paranoids.” She suspects paranormal forces might have been responsible for her sister’s sudden vanishing.
It’s already highly impressive enough that Stuckmann managed to make this film and, to top it all off, nab a distributor as well-known as Neon. Good for him. I was told that he didn’t even submit “Shelby Oaks” for TIFF’s Midnight Madness section, Fantasia was the goal all along. A fall release is being eyed for his film.