Courtney Howard // Film Critic
SHELBY OAKS
Rated R, 1 hour and 31 minutes
Directed by: Chris Stuckmann
Starring: Camille Sullivan, Sarah Durn, Robin Bartlett, Caisey Cole, Anthony Baldasare, Eric Francis Melaragni, Lauren Ashley Berry, Brendan Sexton III
YouTube-Film-Critic-turned-Filmmaker Chris Stuckmann’s premise for his directorial debut SHELBY OAKS certainly is catchy: A woman desperately searches for her younger sister 12 years after her disappearance when a new clue as to her whereabouts is shockingly uncovered. After all, it’s the elevator pitch that got this financed through various film producers and hundreds of Kickstarter donors. A mashup of found footage, mockumentary and straight-forward narrative, his first feature is fiendishly frightening, containing nerve-jangling and popcorn jostling scares. It achieves the goal of making us terrified of what’s hiding in the dark, lurking around the corner, hiding in the deep black recesses of the frame.
In 2008, the cast of the popular YouTube show “Paranormal Paranoids,” encountered their final paranormal investigation when their trail when cold. Peter (Anthony Baldasare), David (Eric Francis Melaragni), Laura (Caisey Cole) and program host Riley (Sarah Durn) were investigating the haunting of Shelby Oaks, a decaying ghost town amusement park that time forgot. While staying in a nearby cabin, Peter, David and Laura were ruthlessly murdered. However, Riley vanished without a trace. No blood. No body. Fruitless police investigations followed. Public scrutiny labelling it a hoax also occurred. And so did the never-ending grief for Riley’s concerned, caring sister Mia (Camille Sullivan).
Mia’s life was turned upside down in the years following those tragic events. She and her husband (Brendan Sexton III) were unable to have kids and, though they remained married, the anxiety over it further drove them apart. Yet just as a documentary crew wraps up visiting Mia’s home, a stranger rings the doorbell, delivers an old tape and shoots himself. As Mia discovers, much to her hubby’s chagrin, that tape contains hidden clues as to where Riley might still be. It also signals to her sister that something – a malevolent, demonic force they encountered in their youth – is involved. Armed with only courage, wit and sisterly senses, Mia sets out to find Riley.
Stuckmann, working from a story also by Sam Liz, indeed makes rookie mistakes, which are glaring, but forgivable. Some of the lore isn’t fully fleshed out. The first act is an exposition dump, setting up the backstory where trusting his audience to piece together context clues within the edited program videos would’ve sufficed. He then struggles again transitioning from the opening found footage gimmick to the mockumentary style, ultimately settling on a traditional form of telling the story from Act 2 onward. While it’s interesting how these styles feed into each other, it can’t shake the feeling that, behind the scenes, Stuckmann couldn’t come to a creative decision, going whole hog with either his found footage or mockumentary concept.
Though Stuckmann doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, nor subvert any genre tropes, he does give his tale plenty of emotional investment and eerie, creepy atmospheric pull – a feat for even seasoned filmmakers. Narratively, through Mia’s (albeit slight) marital relationship dynamic, and aesthetically, through Christopher Hare’s dank, moss-covered production design and Andrew Scott Baird’s low-light cinematography, he and his craftsman connect physical decay to the metaphorical rot grief brings and how fear immobilizes and festers. The cracks in the glass windows symbolize cracks in the sisters’ sanity and their split.
We’re in for the nightmarish mystery angle, but the poignancy of the sisterly bond is tangibly injected into Mia’s character-driven actions. She puts herself in the line of danger time and time over, whether it be wandering into a derelict prison in the middle of the night, or entering the moldy Petri dish of a home of a lonely woodsy woman (Robin Bartlett, whose character actor presence elevates the material she’s tasked to deliver) also in the middle of the night. Sullivan’s performance is filled with pathos, open-hearted vulnerability and strength, instilling her with gobs of rooting interest.
With an ending that will leave audience’s mouths agog, SHELBY OAKS is perfectly suited for a scare or two this spooky season.
Grade: 3.5 out of 5
SHELBY OAKS opens in theaters on October 24.
