I cannot believe how lucky I was to see this horror movie
way ahead of its release time
it’s one of the most anticipated horror movies within the horror community
and I was able to watch it at Fright Fest on Friday
my name is Ricky I love horror movies
and this is Shelby Oaks
so Shelby Oaks is the directorial debut by Chris Stuckman
I’ve been watching Chris Stuckman on YouTube for years
he’s an excellent film critic
and he loves horror movies
I was really looking forward to possibly sitting down with him
and having a chat with him about Shelby Oaks
but unfortunately he wasn’t there
but he did introduce the movie
so there is very little I can tell you in regards to the plot of this film
because this film isn’t coming out till next year
um Chris Stuckman himself
has asked everybody to give as little away in regards to this film
and I would like to honour that
but essentially this is a movie about the family
of the people who went missing from the original Shelby Oaks
trying to find out what happened to them
one thing I didn’t know about Shelby Oaks
is this is actually produced by none other than Mike Flanagan
of all the films at Fright Fest
this is the film I was most excited for
and while this isn’t a bad film
it isn’t what I was expecting
and it did fall a little flat
now when we left the cinema
we spoke to a bunch of people about this film
and a few of them said that they really liked it
so I think that Shelby Oaks will hit with some people
and will miss with some other people
the film itself is very early 2 inspired
I think it’s not really an all out horror film
I would liken it more to a um
psychological thriller
but it did remind me somewhat of movies like The Ring and the grudge
and there’s no doubt in my mind that Chris Stuckman is an excellent filmmaker
because this is an excellently made film
it looks nice it sounds nice
but the film itself was quite overproduced
what I mean by that is there is a lot of score throughout this movie
and it all seemed really quite dramatic
now I know that people really like score all over their films
but for me personally I like the atmosphere of the film itself to come through
and when you use too much score
that kinda gets in the way of the atmosphere for me
I was also confused about what this film wanted to be
now again
I can’t get into what I mean by that
but I personally thought it was gonna be one thing and go down one route
and I feel like if it did stick with that one idea
it could have been a really good film
because the acting in this film is great
the direction in this film is great
the cinematography in this film is great
and for a independent horror film uh
made on quite a small budget
with regards to modern day horror budgets
this is an excellent piece of filmmaking
without a doubt
and you have to applaud Chris Stuckman for what he’s done with this film
and I guess a lot of my criticisms
if you could call them that
come from what I expected from this film
I liked many aspects of this film
I did and it kept me interested all the way through
that’s not the problem it’s not an uninteresting film
and again for a directorial debut
it’s fucking solid but for me personally
it just falls a bit flat in a few aspects
I think that Chris Stuckman
is gonna go on to do really good things within horror
and I applaud him for making this film
it’s not easy making a film
and he’s done a very very good job
it just wasn’t what I was expecting and it just fell flat in some parts