Late to the Party: Reviews for films I didn't catch in theatres - Shelby Oaks
- Carla Davis
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
I love found footage. One of my favorite horror movies of all time is The Blair Witch Project, which I saw when it was in its limited theatrical release. It was only playing in one theater in the Orlando area at the time, a cool little art film house called Enzian, and I had to buy my ticket two days in advance because it kept selling out.
So, when the buzz around Shelby Oaks started buzzing, I fully intended to see it in a theatre when it opened in October of last year. Now, October is a super-busy time for me (as it probably is for most horror fans), and sadly, Shelby Oaks didn’t hang around for very long. So, when it came to Hulu last week, I finally got to see it.
It’s clear The Blair Witch Project influenced the filmmakers, Chris Stuckmann and Samantha Elizabeth. Shelby Oaks is an independent film, and it was crowd funded through Kickstarter, ultimately raising $650,000. After premiering at Fantasia in 2024, Mike Flanagan himself stepped up as Executive Producer. Flanagan is, of course, the horror genius behind The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass series on Netflix, as well as films such as Oculus, Doctor Sleep, and Hush. He also is currently working on a series based on Stephen King's debut novel Carrie.
What's the plot of Shelby Oaks?
Shelby Oaks is about a paranormal investigative group called the Paranormal Paranoids. All four members, including the host Riley, go missing while investigating Shelby Oaks, a ghost town. At some point, the bodies of three are found, with only Riley missing. Also discovered is film footage that shows her, and in the footage she appears terrified.
12 years later, Riley’s sister Mia is determined to find her, and agrees to an interview with a documentary crew. Eventually, Mia ends up going to Shelby Oaks (which includes an abandoned amusement park), and encounters the people who took Riley.
In the interest of presenting this review with NO spoilers, that’s all you are going to get from me as far as the plot is concerned…though you can watch the trailer at the end of this article if you need to know more. Suffice it to say: If you really enjoy old-school style found footage (as I do), you should enjoy Shelby Oaks.
The atmosphere in the ghost town is appropriately creepy, and who doesn’t love film footage of a creepy old abandoned amusement park?
The cast is uniformly good, with Camille Sullivan as Mia the standout. She conveys terror, grief, and frustration beautifully through her facial expressions, and I was rooting for her all the way. Shelby Oaks also includes some actors with solid horror credentials, including Keith David (The Thing), and David Mears (The Hills Have Eyes 2).
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