It’s always exciting when a film critic transitions to filmmaking. In a sense, audiences get to see if they can put their money where their mouth is. Critics live by their takes on the things they review, sometimes offering suggestions as to how a movie could be better. One of the most popular film critics on YouTube, Chris Stuckmann, is getting the chance to show the world just that: how capable a film critic can be when it comes to stepping into the shoes of a movie director.
Stuckmann’s jump to film comes in the form of Shelby Oaks, a festival favorite that already boasts a “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It follows a group of YouTubers that record their ventures into paranormal locations and haunted areas, led by host Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn). Their last shoot took them to the abandoned town of Shelby Oaks, Ohio. The group gets murdered by an unidentifiable man, all confirmed by a tape that was left behind at the scene. Riley’s fate is left undetermined, either taken by the man or murdered off-screen. Years later, Riley’s sister Mia (Camille Sullivan), discovers a second tape that suggests something far darker is behind the disappearance.
The latest trailer for Stuckmann’s film shows a curious blend of found footage and paranormal killer horror. It doesn’t feel like it’ll have a lot of space for humor or even daytime scenes, for that matter. Shadows, dark rooms, and large swaths of abyss-adjacent black seem to be the leading voices here. The bits of violence that are shown in the trailer point to a kind of crime scene realism that aims at generating a sense of intimacy for each kill.
Interestingly enough, these same observations can also describe last year’s horror hit Longlegs, the Osgood Perkins-directed paranormal serial killer movie that terrified audiences with true crime-like death scenes and a central mystery that promised something truly demonic was always hovering over the proceedings.
This is not a knock on Shelby Oaks. On the contrary, it makes the movie a part of something larger, perhaps the emergence of a new trend of horror filmmaking that looks to reframe violence as something uniquely ugly that can unsettle viewers at a deeper level. For instance, Longlegs does not entertain the over-the-top violence that characterized the slashers from the Eighties, Nineties, and early-Aughts. Perkins approached the aesthetics of death as something that looks like it would fit comfortably in a courtroom as an exhibit of a heinous crime. He pulled from movies like Seven and Silence of the Lambs in this regard.
Based on the trailer alone, Stuckmann seems to be taking from those same influences. They’re potent enough to generate a more complex sense of mystery as to the person or entity responsible for the killings in Shelby Oaks. Again, this helped Perkins generate a fair amount of buzz for Longlegs, most notably in terms of building the titular killer’s personality and inner corruption.
Longlegs had a very effective promotional campaign that included a website with news clippings of the killer’s crimes and a working phone number that netted callers a cryptic message from The Man Downstairs (one of the names Longlegs went by). Given Shelby Oaks’s use of found footage tools, a promotional website featuring clips of the ghost hunting crew going about their investigations would be a great way to build anticipation for the film’s October 3rd, 2025 release date. They have already proven to be great storytelling devices that not only promote the film but further immerse audiences in the movie’s world.
Shelby Oaks is already a hit with critics, most of which agree is genuinely creepy and unsettling. It faces steep competition from the likes of Zach Cregger’s Weapons, which already has its own faux website expanding on the mysteries surrounding the story. But it’s healthy competition. The kind that makes creators look at their terrifying ideas and ask themselves “how can I make this scarier.”
English (US) · 