Shelby Oaks follows Mia Brennan (Camille Sullivan), as she tries to find out what happened to her sister Riley (Sarah Durn), after she disappeared while filming an episode on ghost towns for her YouTube channel, Paranormal Paranoids. Not just Riley either: co-hosts Laura, Peter, and David (Caisey Cole, Anthony Baldasare, and Eric Francis Melaragni) also disappear, although their bodies - and one of the two tapes filmed while in ghost town Shelby Oaks - are eventually found.
That information - given to us via a documentary being filmed about the disappearance - is given to us during an extended cold open. It's actually a bit surprising when the title card comes up: At that point we are so invested in the story - though we do get one hell of a tonal switch just before the opening credits start up - that the fact that what we have seen is just set up is honestly shocking.
I went into this movie fairly blind - I did not watch a single trailer for this movie before seeing it and only had the vaguest notion of the plot. I mostly saw it on the promise of director Chris Stuckmann, a YouTube reviewer I have watched for years and who made one of the best videos about horror about a decade ago: The Problem with Horror Movies Today. He goes into great detail about what works and doesn't work for horror. Because of that video, I was excited to see him attempt a horror film to see how well he followed up on this video since he very clearly understood what makes a great horror film.
And I am happy to say that Stuckmann nails it. While not a perfect movie by any means, it is a damn good one for a first effort, and it does show that Stuckmann understands what makes one work. The tonal consistency is amazing and after that shift to end the cold open, the movie never stops going. Granted, the movie is 91 minutes long, so it cannot afford to waste much time, but even factoring that in, this movie is judicious in how it moves the story forward.
From a found tape, to research on a character introduced to the narrative suddenly and violently, to Mia's increasingly frantic attempts to figure out what truly happened to Riley - none of it feels forced. There are some 'horror movie decisions' that I wish had been avoided - namely Mia choosing to do some of her investigations in the middle of the night - but overall, everything just works in a way that shows that care was put into both the direction and the screenplay (which was also written by Stuckmann).
It also helps that the performances are strong across the board. Sullivan has the bulk of the work, performance-wise, and never hits a false note even as her character makes questionable decisions. Even aside from her, we get a great cameo from Keith David, and Sarah Durn plays the missing Riley perfectly - you see the variance in her natural vs YouTube selves. While I won't spoil anything about her character, Robin Bartlett also gives an effective performance in her brief appearance.
Again, this is a good movie. I hope it is successful and I would highly recommend it! Despite how much I have revealed in this review, it really only touches a small part of the movie and going in as blind as possible is advice I happily give.
8 out of 10
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