Chris Stuckmann has found his calling as he makes headway in Hollywood. The new horror thriller, Shelby Oaks, is a product of his efforts to transition from movie critic to director, as Stuckmann delivers a pulpy, atmospheric, and eerie film that checks all the right boxes for every horror fan out there.
The film has been rated fresh at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 critics’ reviews. For a nascent director who is still testing the waters, it is an impressive score indeed, and one that makes the audience hopeful about Stuckmann’s future in the genre.
YouTuber Chris Stuckmann Beats Conjuring 4 With Horror Debut
In a year that is already chock full of horrors, both real and cinematic, some movies still manage to surprise the audience and leave them asking for more. Shelby Oaks happens to be one of those movies that fell through the cracks and landed at just the right moment and found the right audience upon debut.
In his debut feature, Chris Stuckmann, formerly a film critic on YouTube, has done what most horror auteurs have failed to accomplish this year. Shelby Oaks has surpassed projects like Michael Chaves’ The Conjuring: Last Rites
Alison Foreman from IndieWire hailed the film, citing its artistic merit:
Shelby Oaks was obviously written by a critic, one with a near-legendary knowledge of the pop culture archives, and it’s directed with a palpable confidence that could lead to better things.
German Lussier of Gizmodo has equally great things to say about the film:
This is a horror film for and by the YouTube generation: one that’s inspired by many horror films of the past, with little regard for when or how to borrow from them. As long as it’s cool and scary. Which Shelby Oaks is.
Other reviews are also positive, with Polygon stating: “Shelby Oaks is a worthy meditation on what happens when early internet culture comes face-to-face with modern-day horror.”
Daily Dead claims: “The film is really creepy and keeps you hooked until the end.”
Mashable declares: Shelby Oaks is a big, bold swing… It marks the emergence of a horror filmmaker worth keeping an eye on.”
Collider states: “Shelby Oaks is a horror procedural that tries to be anything but routine… some of the film’s atypical flourishes score higher than others, it succeeds as a substantially creepy genre experiment with scares and soul.”
Flickering Myth claims: “One of the best horror debuts. In a love letter to found footage movies, the film shines when it proves grief and drama are scarier than a monster sitting in the corner.”
With such glowing reviews and stellar score on Rotten Tomatoes, one thing’s for sure: Chris Stuckmann will now have a reputation to live up to with his next project.
Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks Revives the Found Footage Genre
Chris Stuckmann has chosen a comfortably well-placed time in the evolutionary arc of horror in Hollywood to revive the old found footage genre. In Stuckmann’s debut movie, Shelby Oaks, takes the theme and soars with it, rediscovering the simple joys and thrills of shaky camcorders and old, grainy videos.
But Stuckmann evolves and goes even beyond that. Unlike films like Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project, which leave much to the imagination of fans, Shelby Oaks oscillates between found footage and faux documentary videos that help fill in the gaps for the former, before fully transitioning into a film directed in the traditional narrative structure.
Below is a table with all the necessary details on the supernatural horror:
Are you a fan of the found footage horror trope in Hollywood? Which is your favorite found footage film of all time? Let us know in the comments.
Shelby Oaks will launch in theaters on October 24, 2025.
