Posted on: October 21st, 2025

After more than a decade of analysing films on YouTube, Chris Stuckmann has taken the leap behind the camera with his debut feature, Shelby Oaks – a found-footage horror that embraces many of the genre’s familiar trappings but isn’t afraid to twist them in clever, surprising, and utterly unnerving ways. Set in Ohio and produced by Paper Street Pictures, the film unspools like a fever dream comprising myriad old VHS tapes and forgotten memories, blurring the line between documentary and real-life nightmare.

The film opens with the mysterious disappearance, twelve years ago, of a group of paranormal investigators called the ‘Paranormal Paranoids.’ Now, Mia Brennan (Camille Sullivan — Hunter Hunter, The Unseen) starts investigating her missing sister Riley, the group’s lead investigator, after a deeply unsettling visit to her doorstep. Long-buried childhood fears quickly resurface, pulling Mia into a sinister rabbit hole that gradually reveals the truth behind her sister’s disappearance and the fate of the “Paranormal Paranoids.”

Stuckmann’s film, with Mike Flanagan serving as executive producer, takes cues from the unsettling realism of Lake Mungo and the procedural paranoia of Ringu whilst Sullivan’s performance really gives the film its much-needed authentic pulse. As the boundaries between found footage, faux documentary, and traditional storytelling are blended together, she grounds the horror in raw emotion. Watching her navigate the shifting formats – from shaky camcorders to polished widescreen shots – is to witness an actor completely at ease with disorientation.

Ahead of the film’s release this Friday, SCREAM sat down with Sullivan to discuss what drew her to such an emotionally taxing role, the challenge of maintaining authenticity in fear amidst constantly morphing footage styles, and how it felt to collaborate with a first-time filmmaker with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the genre.

Words: Howard Gorman