Lots of fun ideas add up to an engaging but ultimately empty experience in this horror tale
This very low budget directorial debut opens with a faux documentary covering the cold case of a missing woman, Riley (Sarah Durn). Riley was the host of a ghost hunting YouTube show when she and her crew suddenly vanished twelve years ago. The segment ends abruptly, and Riley's sister, Mia (Camille Sullivan), steps in as the protagonist in a more traditional, non-mockumentary horror film.
Mia has just received a major piece of evidence in her sister’s disappearance, a missing tape from the last episode Riley and her team shot, labelled "Shelby Oaks". She now turns detective, following clues from the footage in the hope of uncovering what happened to her sister and whether it had anything to do with the eyes that would watch Riley through her bedroom window when she was a child.
There are plenty of great horror set-ups here, some original, some borrowed. Horror fans might be reminded of Ringu, Lake Mungo, Grave Encounters, The Blair Witch Project or Hereditary, just a few of the films Shelby Oaks recalls.
That’s part of the problem: it often feels like a patchwork of more effective horror films. This isn’t always a flaw, The Conjuring launched a franchise doing something similar, but whereas The Conjuring had slick direction and high production values, Shelby Oaks struggles under the weight of its own ambition and winds up feeling a little underbaked.
Fun and occasionally quite scary and intense, Camille Sullivan does a good job of propping up the script and Shelby Oaks makes for a decent seasonal watch, but it’s ultimately a forgettable, disposable affair.
