Personally, people have been way too hard on this movie for a directorial debut. You’d think people were expecting Shelby Oaks to be the first horror movie to win Best Picture in 35 years with how they’ve hammered it. Is this movie perfect? No. Does it have pacing flaws and doesn’t quite dive all the way into what it’s trying to do? Yes. But I’d be a liar if I said this movie didn’t have an atmosphere and tension that scared the shit out of me in the second act going into the ending. I wish it had a little bit longer of a run time to flesh some of the details out, but for a first effort by Stuckmann, you have to be happy with him getting to put a film on the big screen that he wanted to make. That also had the sign off of Mike Flanagan.
It didn’t bother me as much as others that this film went from a mockumentary to a narrative (with like one small portion of found footage that is just clearly to add backstory). I guess people expected the whole thing to be one or the other? All in all, the acting was solid in my opinion. That was not a problem to me at all. They did a great job with the roles and the flaws in the film that I pointed out did not have to do with the cast that’s for sure. The demon is hidden in many shots where if you catch it, it will send chills down your spine. I liked the hell hounds because we don’t get to see them in grounded films like this very often. I was scared shitless when she first entered the home of the old lady and you didn’t know what was to come. I’d say you probably could have even had more scares in that sequence, but that part had the audience worried in my theatre.
The ending was very abrupt, but it’s something Chris will learn from. On a big screen like this, unlike a fan film or short film, you’ll need to deliver a stronger ending than leaving some up to interpretation and the unshown aftermath of the baby being left alive. He went for shock factor and half delivered with Riley trying to kill the demon baby and the hell hounds killing her off in a gruesome way. I’m excited to see what he can do next after taking the critique and good with the bad in this film to give us another movie from the mind of one of our favorite YouTube film critics!
The Cinema Speakeasy Theatre Room 
Leave a comment