NEON has released the first red band trailer for Shelby Oaks, and based on what we see here, the movie is shaping up to be a highly unsettling watch.
Produced by horror maestro Mike Flanagan (Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep), the paranormal mystery thriller marks the feature directorial debut of popular YouTube film critic-turned-filmmaker Chris Stuckmann. Shelby Oaks was met with a (mostly) positive reception when it screened at Fantasia and FrightFest last year (it's currently sitting at 81% on Rotten Tomatoes), and is set to release in theaters on October 3rd, 2025.
There's still quite a bit about the story that's being kept under wraps, but the movie follows a woman named Mia (Camille Sullivan), who becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her sister Riley, a paranormal investigator who vanished without a trace with her crew back in 2008. Mia's search leads her to the foreboding town of Shelby Oaks, where some seriously messed-up stuff appear to be going on.
Here's what Stuckmann said about Flanagan's involvement in the project to THR last year.
"I met Mike Flanagan about 10 years ago through email. I reviewed Oculus, his first big independent film, and nobody knew who he was at the time. He had a hard time finding distribution for it, but it was a big success for him. It was shot for $5 million and made $44 million. But when I reviewed it, I was like, 'You guys have got to go see this movie. It’s so cool, and this guy is going places.' So he reached out to me immediately and thanked me, and we just started a correspondence for years that began as just nerdy film shit. When his movie Before I Wake did not have U.S. distribution, he emailed me and was like, 'There’s a Blu-ray in Canada and Canada’s Region 1, so you should get it.' And I was like, 'Oh, cool. He knows how much I like physical media.'
So for probably three or four years, we would talk about stuff like that and the movies we liked. And, finally, similar to Koontz at Fantastic Fest, he just asked me, 'So are you working on anything?' And I said, 'Well, I’ve got this script that I’ve been toying with.' It was the first feature script I had ever written, and he read it and thought it was really good. So he gave me some notes, and then that evolved the relationship into one where we would share ideas. I would read some of his stuff, and he would read some of my stuff. It became this friendship that went from talking about Blu-rays to actually giving notes on each other’s work."
Check out the trailer below, and let us know what you think in the comments section.
According to the official synopsis: "As Mia uncovers new and disturbing leads related to Riley’s disappearance, she uncovers evidence of a hidden supernatural evil dating all the way back to her and Riley’s childhood.”
Shelby Oaks also stars Brendan Sexton III as Robert Brennan, Mia's husband; Michael Beach as Detective Burke; Robin Bartlett as Norma; Keith David as Morton Jacobson, a prison warden; Charlie Talbert as Wilson Miles; Emily Bennett as Janet; Rob Grant as Elijah; Lauren Ashley Berry as Jess; Sarah Durn as Riley Brennan, Mia's younger sister who went missing; Sloane Burkett as young Riley; Eric Francis Melaragni as David; Anthony Baldasare as Peter, and Caisey Cole as Laura.