Shelby Oaks

Who Took Riley Brennan?

Shelby Oaks is what legendary film critic Roger Ebert used to call an identikit movie. It’s assembled from the spare parts of other, better films.

Start with a tablespoon of Barbarian, add a few teaspoons of Paranormal Activity, and throw in a dash of Hereditary. A tasty treat? Unfortunately not. It adds up to a forgettable experience that’s inferior to all three of the aforementioned films.

Mia (Camille Sullivan) is obsessed with finding her missing sister, Riley (Sarah Durn). Several years ago, Riley was the leader of a YouTube ghost hunting group, the Paranormal Paranoids, who hoped to earn fame by investigating haunted places.

Desperate to improve their obscure channel’s popularity, the group journeys to the ghost town of Shelby Oaks. They are never seen alive again. Members of the group are later found brutally murdered inside an empty house.

Riley is never located. Most people assume that she’s dead, but Mia can’t accept that. She’s determined to find her sister at all costs.

After gaining possession of a mysterious tape that depicts the slaughter of the group members and the supposed identity of their killer, Mia journeys to Shelby Oaks by herself to find out the truth about her sister’s fate.

She has memories of a mysterious supernatural entity that tormented her and Riley when they were kids. After making it to the ghost town, she finds a weird old lady, a creepy basement, and demonic cult symbols. There’s something very familiar about all this.

There are several points that will probably frighten people who aren’t familiar with the movies that Shelby Oaks is copying. If you’re a genre novice, this movie is creepy enough to scare you. I’ll give it that much credit. For me, it’s so derivative that it took me out of the story.

Camille Sullivan helps by delivering a heartfelt portrayal of Mia. It’s easy to feel her desperation, rage, and deep sense of loss. This is a performance that deserved a better movie.

The film is helmed by first-time director Chris Stuckmann. Shelby Oaks starts off as a documentary-style found footage movie about the disappearances but then shifts to a conventionally shot film. It is “presented” by Mike Flanagan, who gets an executive producer credit.

“Executive producer” is typically little more than an honorary title. I doubt Flanagan had much direct involvement with the production. He and Stuckmann are friends, so that explains why he lent his name to the film.

Stuckmann shows some promise as a director, but he leans too heavily on the movies that likely inspired him. It would be nice to see him come up with a creative, unique idea for his second feature.

Shelby Oaks might have redeemed itself with a great ending, but sadly that’s when this movie is at its weakest. This is one of the least satisfying conclusions I’ve seen in recent memory. It’s an abrupt and anticlimactic finale that seems to be setting up a sequel that I will have zero interest in watching if it gets made.