Shelby Oaks – Fantasia 2024
July 18 to August 4, 2024
FILM FESTIVAL
Fantasia 2024
Fantasia Film Festival
PROGRAMME
Selection
A woman refuses to give up hope looking for her missing YouTuber sister in Shelby Oaks. Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn) was the post of the popular ghost-hunting YouTube series Paranormal Paranoids. In 2008, Riley and her team went missing after investigating the ghost town of Shelby Oaks, Ohio, known for its supposedly haunted amusement park. 12 years later, a documentary crew (Emily Bennett and Rob Grant) follow Riley’s sister Mia (Camille Sullivan), who refuses to give up hope that her sister is alive.
Shelby Oaks Synopsis
Shelby Oaks is the feature film debut from YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Chris Stuckmann, funded by a Kickstarter campaign that raised over five times its goal and Executive Produced by Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Doctor Sleep). The faux documentary begins with Blair Witch-like titles detailing the nature of Riley Brennan’s disappearance. The film combines the grainy 2008 found footage of the final episode of Paranormal Paranoids, combined with modern documentary footage of the efforts of Riley’s sister Mia to find her.
My Thoughts on Shelby Oaks
Following in the footsteps of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, Chris Stuckmann cleverly subverts the found footage genre with his debut feature. I am unable to reveal too many specifics of the plot, but this film ends up being a huge achievement for a debut filmmaker. For much of its running time, Shelby Oaks is more procedural than scary, however, things get truly insane in the climax of the film and the ending of Shelby Oaks leaves one hell of a lasting impression.
