NEON dropped their trailer today for Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks, and it says a lot about how studios choose to market their films. First of all, I DO NOT recommend watching this trailer, since having seen the film, I can say that it reveals way too much. However, if you want to know why it reveals too much (with some spoilers), watch the trailer and continue reading.
When Shelby Oaks had its premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival, it was being described as a found footage horror film. Indeed, the first act of the film makes to appear like it is just that. However, an event happens at the end of the first act, which shifts the film into a standard narrative plot. This is something I liked about Shelby Oaks, and it was, in fact, something that critics were told not to reveal while reviewing the film, as this e-mail shows:
Apparently, the marketing people at NEON didn’t get the memo, since the trailer for Shelby Oaks kicks off at the moment in the film, where the plot switches from the faux-documentary format to a standard narrative. The trailer, in fact, has zero signs of the faux documentary opening for Shelby Oaks. I wish that NEON chose to maintain this illusion in their marketing, since the sudden switch ends up being a very big moment of the film.
Combined with the news that NEON paid for reshoots to add “more gore and violence,” Shelby Oaks might end up seeming like a completely different film for me when it comes out in October.
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