A woman’s desperate search for her long-lost sister falls into obsession upon realizing that the imaginary demon from their childhood may have been real.
Chuck says:
Director Chris Stuckmann had me in the palm of his hand with the first act of his horror film “Shelby Oaks.” Taking a page from “The Blair Witch Project,” this found-footage feature got off to a promising start, the filmmaker creating a genuine feeling of dread with its tale of a mysterious abduction told documentary style. I settled in willing to be manipulated and scared out of my socks.
Inexplicably, Stuckmann abandons this approach after an extended prologue and adopts a more traditional narrative to the film’s detriment. Even more disappointing is that a genuinely inspired conceit is allowed to rot on the vine, thanks to the director’s adherence to horror film conventions, the many tropes on display ultimately negating the original ideas at the story’s core.
The set-up is familiar but rendered effectively. It’s 2008 and a group of four Ohio teens, Peter (Anthony Badasare), Laura (Caisey Cole), David (Eric Francis Melaragni) and Riley (Sarah Durn) are the hosts of the YouTube channel, “Paranormal Paranoids.” The quartet, video camera in hand, visit a variety of haunted locales, stumbling across poltergeists and spirits with alarming regularity. Most of their viewers are skeptical of their findings, so when they go missing after visiting an abandoned prison in the ghost town of Shelby Oaks, nearly everyone thinks it’s a publicity stunt.
Unfortunately, weeks go by and ultimately the bodies of Peter, Laura and David are found, each having been brutally murdered. The mystery surrounding what became of Riley becomes a cause celebre, many fans of the channel weighing in with their own theories after pouring over the last known footage featuring the amateur ghost hunters. Nothing comes of any of it and twelve years pass. And while the fervor dies down, Riley’s sister Mia (Camille Sullivan) never gives up hope. Ultimately, she gets some of the answers she seeks when one day a raving madman, Wilson Miles (Charlie Talbert), shows up on her doorstep to give her a videotape, before blowing his brains out.
It’s here that the film starts to jump the tracks. The faux documentary recounting Riley and her friends’ experiences is expertly done, Stuckmann using the typical approach and tools of the genre to create an extended sequence that’s truly unnerving. Yet, this is abandoned once Mia is given the new revelatory videotape, the movie turning into a standard Nancy Drew-like mystery.
Unfortunately, Sullivan is not a strong enough actress to carry the film, her choices obvious, her deliberate approach sapping the spontaneity and tension out of far too many scenes. She’s done no favors by Stuckmann, whose tepid pace compounds the tedium. While he does a reasonably good job of building tension, he repeatedly fails to stick the landing, many scenes petering out, their urgency drained as these moments go on too long.
This is unfortunate as the entity behind Riley’s disappearance is an inspired creation. The personification of rot and decay, he is a living pestilence that leaches the life out of all he encounters. His presence, conveyed by ever-encroaching swathes of black mold and weighted shadows, create an unnerving, claustrophobic sense of inescapable death. Yet, the how and why this is occurring is only alluded to, Stuckmann and Liz instead leaning into a “Hereditary”-like conclusion that’s far from satisfying.
Elements cribbed from “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Omen,” and “Midsommar” pop up as well, all of which contribute a feeling of narrative laziness. In the end, “Shelby” is like the longshot at the horse track that breaks your heart. It gets off to a fast start, providing a bit of initial hope, only to fade spectacularly in the final stretch.
2 Stars
