In case you were wondering what was going on with Chris Stuckmann’s “Shelby Oaks,” well, nothing good, or maybe some good if your idea of a positive update was reshoots, re-edits and doubling the budget.
Last month, IndieWire reported that the crowdfunded horror flick from YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Stuckmann wrapped reshoots in early March. They swore it was a better film than the mediocre cut I saw last July. I’m willing to give this one another shot.
Then again, the newly released trailer looks almost identical to the version I saw back in 2024. There’s nothing in it that suggests any real improvement or a shift in the narrative. That said, it’s only a trailer—I’ll reserve final judgment until I revisit the film this fall.
The found-footage film, tackling a team of internet ghost hunters probing the disappearance of their friend, was born on Kickstarter, where it raised $1.4M, and got a boost from executive producer Mike Flanagan, world-premiered at Montreal’s Fantasia Fest last year. Stuckmann’s supernatural mystery opened to mixed reviews.
Since then, Neon quietly injected undisclosed funds to “ramp up the gore and violence.” The budget almost “doubled” thanks to the additional photography.
“We were able to go back into the movie at a couple key points and really punch up some particularly bloody elements,” Stuckmann mentioned in a fundraising video. “I can’t even express how unprecedented that is for an independent filmmaker.”
Producer Aaron Koontz of Paper Street Pictures adds: “When Neon read the script … they noticed that there were scenes we didn’t film and moments we had to tone down because we couldn’t quite pull them off with the budget.” Their question? “Would you have wanted to do that if you could?”
They brought in editor Brett W. Bachman (“Companion”) for a “fresh edit and polish,” and added new footage that reshaped the original narrative. Creature actor Derek Mears (Jason Voorhees) joined in an undisclosed role. All of this was cooked up in about a week.
At this point, “Shelby Oaks” is long overdue — once teased for 2023, then 2024, now finally landing on October 3, maybe those who reviewed it last August will have to give the newly “improved” cut a second look, but I’m not holding my breath in excitement that it’ll be a markedly better film.