Entertainment

R-Rated Supernatural Thriller Hides Its Dark Truth In The Tapes

By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

2024’s Shelby Oaks is a unique watch because it effortlessly integrates found-footage filmmaking into a more traditional storytelling framework. Much of the first act plays out like a true crime documentary, establishing the mystery and the characters navigating it. Then the perspective shifts to the footage the documentary is about, and suddenly we’re in a straight-up supernatural thriller. While I’m a huge fan of found footage and analog horror, I can’t recall another film that switches filming styles depending on the scene, which makes Shelby Oaks, as far as I can tell (but please correct me if I’m wrong), a sample size of one.

Granted, I haven’t seen every found-footage film ever released, and I have my blind spots like everybody else, but my main takeaway was that Shelby Oaks earns serious points for its camera work and the layered storytelling built around it. While the ending was a bit predictable for my tastes, everything leading up to it was solid, and I’m glad I sat down with this one because it’s incredibly fluid in its delivery, allowing its mystery to unravel naturally.

From YouTubing To Doom Snooping

Shelby Oaks starts out like a documentary, introducing us to Mia Brennan-Walker (Camille Sullivan). Mia’s younger sister, Riley (Sara Durn), disappeared 12 years earlier while working on a project for her YouTube series, The Paranormal Paranoids. While investigating a prison, three of Riley’s collaborators, Laura (Caisey Cole), David (Eric Francis Melaragni), and Peter (Anthony Baldasara), also disappear. Their bodies are eventually recovered, horrifically mutilated. The only lead police have is one of the group’s two recovered video cameras, which contains footage of Riley during what many assume were her final moments.

This entire opening sequence blends documentary and found-footage filmmaking while establishing Shelby Oaks’ central conflict: Mia believes Riley is still alive, everybody else thinks the YouTube channel was an elaborate hoax, and her husband Robert (Brendan Sexton III) is ready to leave her because her obsession with the case has consumed her life after years without answers.

That all changes when a man later identified as Wilson Miles arrives at Mia’s doorstep carrying a tape labeled “Shelby Oaks,” the town where Riley was last investigating. After handing over the tape, Wilson tells Mia, “She finally let me go,” before blowing his head off on her front porch. It’s a horrific sequence that comes completely out of nowhere, but it’s enough to convince Mia that whoever “she” is may have imprisoned Riley as well.

While examining the tape and some of Riley’s personal effects, Mia comes to the horrifying conclusion that Riley had been stalked by a demon ever since suffering night terrors as a child, and that those experiences likely fueled her fascination with the paranormal in the first place. Her amateur sleuthing sends her down a twisted path involving demonic hellhounds, incubi, and the revelation that Riley, and possibly Wilson, were caught up in something much larger involving forces she doesn’t begin to understand until she discovers what, who, and where Wilson escaped from.

This Could Totally Become A Franchise

Everything about Shelby Oaks is expertly crafted, but I’m most impressed by how effortlessly it shifts between filming styles. It almost feels like the camera zooms out from the initial source of terror, giving us a more conventional supernatural mystery centered on Mia and her investigation. She repeatedly combs through the recovered footage for clues, but those investigation scenes aren’t presented as found footage themselves. That approach lets you experience Riley’s terror firsthand before stepping back to piece everything together alongside Mia.

Once I got to the big third-act reveal, I was a little underwhelmed because my immediate reaction was, “Oh yeah, that makes sense,” and then… that was it. Sometimes that’s just how movies go, and I’m not too upset about it because Shelby Oaks takes enough creative swings to make the entire experience worthwhile.

What I’m more interested in seeing, though, is a prequel that unpacks what else is on those tapes. Shelby Oaks ends in a way that hints at a sequel, though it works perfectly well as a standalone film. A prequel, however, would be next level. My thinking is that the tape Mia receives from Wilson is just one of many recorded during the 12 years Riley was missing. A found-footage compilation built around those tapes could make for some incredible worldbuilding that pushes Shelby Oaks into franchise territory, and that’s something I’d absolutely like to see.

I’m just spitballing here, however, and right now all we have is Shelby Oaks. Overall, I was impressed with the filmmaking and the buildup leading into the third act. I’ll admit I was a little underwhelmed by the conclusion, but I’ve also seen a ton of movies like this, so maybe I’m just being a tad cynical. I’d definitely recommend it to my horror-loving friends.