"Last week's Elm Street-cribbing sequel Black Phone 2 was a sign of a franchise already running out of steam while this week, low-budget disappointment Shelby Oaks tries and fails to start a new one, a scrappy attempt to conjure the clammy fear of The Blair Witch Project, a film that has so far proved impossible to replicate."
"But there is no amount of late-stage patchwork that can hide what still feels awkwardly unfinished, a cheaply cobbled together head-scratcher that really doesn't feel ready for a wide theatrical release. This weekend, expect refunds Black Phone 2 review hit horror sequel lumbers toward Elm Street Given Stuckmann's background, it is no surprise that he's more comfortable with capturing the online world, and it's in the opening stretch that the film works slightly better,"
"It's the debut of the YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann, who premiered his Kickstarter-funded feature at last year's genre-led Fantasia festival, attracting the attention of Neon, a company who had just achieved surprise success with the serial killer horror Longlegs. In an unusual move, they gave Stuckmann extra budget to refine, and reportedly add more gore, before they packaged it up, with another trademark drip-feed marketing campaign, as this year's must-see film for Halloween."
Shelby Oaks is the feature debut of YouTube critic Chris Stuckmann, expanded after a Fantasia festival premiere when Neon provided extra budget and reportedly added gore. The film tries to evoke Blair Witch-style dread through a late-2000s mockumentary approach about online investigators searching for a missing member of the Paranormal Paranoids. Performances, including Camille Sullivan as an obsessed sister, often feel overwrought. Late-stage patchwork and reshoots leave the movie feeling cheaply assembled and unfinished. The release struggles to justify wide theatrical play, with expectations of audience dissatisfaction and comparisons favoring other horror options like Sinners on IMAX.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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