Key Insights

• Film Background: Chris Stuckmann’s film Shelby Oaks is a mystery horror project that gained significant funding on Kickstarter.
• Release Dates: The film is set to premiere in US theaters on October 24 and in the UK on October 31.
• Production Team: The film features a strong production team including Mike Flanagan as an executive producer.
• Critical Reception: Early reviews indicate mixed responses, with some critics expressing skepticism about its quality.

Four years have gone by since Chris Stuckmann, a movie critic and author with a channel on YouTube that has over 2 million subscribers, signed a deal with Paper Street Pictures to write and direct the mystery horror film Shelby Oaks. Three years ago, the project became the most-funded horror film project in Kickstarter history, with its crowdfunding campaign pulling in over $1 million. (The initial goal was $250,000.) Filming took place in the Cleveland, Ohio area back in 2022, genre regular Mike Flanagan came on board as an executive producer last year, and Neon not only picked up the distribution rights, they also dropped more money into the budget for reshoots that included adding more “gore and violence.” Now, Shelby Oaks is finally set to reach theatres in the US on October 24 and October 31st in the UK, and with those dates swiftly approaching, a new poster has dropped online… and this is a special one, because if you zoom in close enough, you’ll see the names of the 14,720 people who contributed to the Kickstart campaign! The poster can be seen at the bottom of this article.

Combining documentary, found footage, and traditional film styles, Shelby Oaks centers on Mia’s frantic search for her sister Riley, after Riley ominously disappeared in the last tape of a group of paranormal investigators called the Paranormal Paranoids. As Mia’s obsession grows, she begins to suspect that the imaginary demon from Riley’s childhood may have been real. The project has been inspired by, and accompanied by, a long-lead online marketing campaign around the subject. The film stars Camille Sullivan (Hunter Hunter), Keith David (The Thing), Brendan Sexton III (Session 9), Michael Beach (If Beale Street Could Talk), Robin Bartlett (Shutter Island), Charlie Talbert (The Big Short), Emily Bennett (Alone With You) and Sarah Durn (Where the Crawdads Sing).

Stuckmann is producing Shelby Oaks with Aaron B. Koontz, Ashleigh Snead, and Cameron Burns of Paper Street. Adam F. Goldberg, Paul Holbrook, Sean E. DeMott, and Tony Killough are also executive producing, with Shawn Talley, Alex Euting, and Farrell Rose co-producing. Mike Flanagan executive produced the film alongside Trevor Macy and Melinda Nishioka through their company Intrepid Pictures. They joined the project to provide guidance and input during the post-production process.

JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the chance to watch the movie a while back and gave it a 5/10 review, concluding, “…it’s far from the brilliant debut one might expect, given that Neon is giving it a major release it doesn’t really deserve…” But he saw the movie before the reshoots happened, so maybe those have helped it out.

I don’t have a high level of interest in this movie, but it is very cool that they paid tribute to all of the Kickstarter contributors with this poster: