Courtesy of PMP Entertainment & Universe Laser
Chris Stuckmann’s feature directorial debut, Shelby Oaks, has quickly become one of the most talked-about horror films of 2025. A supernatural mystery blending found footage, faux-documentary techniques, and traditional narrative filmmaking, it draws on a wide range of horror influences.
Some of those influences — like The Blair Witch Project — are immediately recognizable. But for those who look deeper, Shelby Oaks also draws inspiration from a pair of cult classics, including one of the defining J-horror films of the 21st century.
In a recent YouTube review, Stuckmann cited the 2005 Japanese horror film Noroi: The Curse as one of his “two biggest inspirations” for Shelby Oaks, the other being the Australian cult favorite Lake Mungo. Watch the two side by side — or even compare their trailers — and the parallels become immediately apparent. Yet Noroi isn’t just a key influence on Stuckmann’s filmmaking; it’s also one of the most unsettling horror films of the modern era.
Written and directed by Kōji Shiraishi, Noroi: The Curse unfolds as a faux-documentary created by Masafumi Kobayashi (Jin Muraki), a paranormal investigator chronicling strange events across Japan. His latest project — an exploration of a deadly curse rooted in ancient folklore — ends in his mysterious disappearance. What remains is his footage: a series of chilling encounters involving failed rituals, spectral visitations, unhinged conspiracy theorists, and the slow, methodical unraveling of reality.
Like Lake Mungo, Noroi maintains an unflinching documentary realism that heightens its terror — the same technique Stuckmann employs throughout the early passages of Shelby Oaks. Both films follow investigators drawn into supernatural mysteries that ultimately consume them. But Noroi goes further, anchoring its horror in Japanese spiritual tradition and an investigative persistence that feels almost suicidal in its intensity.
At its core, Noroi is about obsession — the relentless pursuit of truth even as the darkness closes in. Kobayashi’s fearlessness, his refusal to look away, becomes the audience’s burden. From the moment the film begins, it’s clear he’ll go wherever the mystery leads, no matter the cost. And if he’s not turning back, neither can we.
Shelby Oaks is now playing in theaters. Noroi: The Curse is streaming on Shudder.
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