Shelby Oaks (15)

Twelve long, painful years have passed since the disappearance of Riley Brennan, host of the Paranormal Paranoids, from a house in the town of Shelby Oaks in the dead of night. Documentary filmmaker Janet interviews Riley's older sister, Mia Brennan-Walker, who is still obsessed with finding her sibling. Against the advice of her husband Robert, Mia reignites the search for Riley and the shadowy history of Shelby Oaks reveals a sinister connection to her turbulent childhood.

LondonNet Film Review

Shelby Oaks (15) Film Review from LondonNet

The Blair Witch Project popularised found footage horror in 1999 and generated copious headlines about audience members fainting or feeling nauseous. That nightmarish expedition into the Appalachian Mountains spawned countless imitators and writer-director Chris Stuckmann’s feature debut leaps on to the rickety bandwagon. Shelby Oaks melds found footage, documentary-style interviews and a conventional third person narrative to explore the grim fates of a four-strong team of paranormal investigators, who share their exploits on a YouTube channel…

Initially financed through a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign, which raised almost 1.4 million dollars, and bolstered by additional budget from the film’s distributor for reshoots and more on-screen gore, Stuckmann’s picture leaks tension at an alarming rate in a messy and disjointed closing act which loudly references Barbarian and Rosemary’s Baby. The nervy, handheld faux-reality of four internet sleuths exploring an abandoned town in Darke County, Ohio, is the most compelling aspect of Shelby Oaks and the intentionally imperfect and grainy footage achieves one satisfying if wholly predictable jump scare.

Once the film’s heroine begins running around spooky locations in the dead of night, armed just with a handheld torch that inevitably loses power at a critical moment, it’s hard to muster heartfelt concern for the character’s wellbeing in the midst of demonic madness. Narrative dives into the occult are disappointingly predictable, paired with a pack of hell hounds that can’t be taught new tricks.

Twelve long, painful years have passed since the disappearance of Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn), host of the Paranormal Paranoids, from a house in the town of Shelby Oaks in the dead of night. Found footage of Riley’s last known whereabouts show her leaving her bedroom and disappearing into a hallway as wolves howl in unison. Her ghost-hunting partners in crime, David Reynolds (Eric Francis Melaragni), Laura Tucker (Caisey Cole) and Peter Bailey (Anthony Baldasare), are found murdered inside the house. Riley’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Documentary filmmaker Janet (Emily Bennett) interviews Riley’s older sister, Mia Brennan-Walker (Camille Sullivan), who is still obsessed with finding her sibling. Interest in the case is reignited when a strange man (Charlie Talbert) turns up on Mia’s doorstep holding a blood-smeared camcorder cassette. Against the advice of her husband Robert (Brendan Sexton III), Mia reignites the search for Riley and the shadowy history of Shelby Oaks reveals a sinister connection to a turbulent childhood.

Shelby Oaks won’t be inducing any sleepless nights this Halloween. Stuckmann’s script trades in familiar backwoods folklore and Sexton III’s concerned spouse could be divorced entirely from the plot. Sullivan delivers a solid lead performance and trembles convincingly on screen but her crusading older sister shows such reckless disregard for personal safety that her escalating misery is entirely self-inflicted.

– Kim Hu