OUTSIDE NOISE – Horror Short

An overwhelmed woman listens to a sleep ambience app to unwind before bed, but when the sounds eerily begin to blend with reality, she suspects it has conjured something frightening into her room.

 

While Horror Ghouls are taking a short break (we’ll be back with new reviews on March 10th) we’re still going on with the Horror Short Sundays. This time we’re taking a look at Outside Noise. A creepy horror short where a woman trying to sleep by using ambient noise/ASMR sounds, ends up inviting something other than sleep…

 

OUTSIDE NOISE - Horror Short

 

Director: Ethan Evans
Writer: Jess Bartlett, Ethan Evans
Country & year: UK, 2024
Actors: Bobby Rainsbury, Rowan Polonski
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt28477105/

 

 

 

 

DISFIGURA – Horror Short

Enter a world of 1950s suspense as forward-thinking housewife Anya reels from the strange new behaviors of her beloved husband, and the terrifying truth behind the word Disfigura.

 

While Horror Ghouls are taking a short break (we’ll be back with new reviews on March 10th) we’re still going on with the Horror Short Sundays. This time we’re taking a trip back to the 1950’s in Disfigura. A fun homage to the typical 50’s era!

 

TO HELL WITH YOU - Horror Short

 

Director: Toni Blando, Jake Bradbury
Writer: Toni Blando
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Kevin Brooks, Lex Cappiello, Sasha Feldman, Doug Jones, Capra Lockridge, Alex Tien
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt32918838/

 

 

 

 

TO HELL WITH YOU – Horror Short

A stubborn demon and a tenacious angel quarrel about the fate of a young man’s soul after a botched exorcism.

 

Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we’re taking a look at To Hell With You. A fun horror short about a possessed young man getting his brains blown out by a priest during a botched exorcism, and the demon who possessed him and an angel are now quarreling about where his soul belongs!

 

TO HELL WITH YOU - Horror Short

 

Director: Jason Sheedy
Writer: Jason Sheedy
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Andrew Bourne, Brett Brooks, Zachary Brown, Claire Christie, Matthew Patrick Noonan, Erin Ownbey
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt33050382/

 

 

 

 

Strange Harvest (2024)

MécanixMr. Shiny is a serial killer in California’s Inland Empire who has committed several grisly murders during a period of over three decades. What actually happened during these periods are relayed by detectives Joe Kirby and Lexi Taylor during interviews for a documentary about this case. It all started in 1993, when a young woman was found dismembered in the San Bernadino National Forest, and around the same time an elderly man in a retirement facility was bludgeoned and stabbed to death. That wasn’t all, as the third victim was a young boy that has been abducted and later found murdered in a bog, with his liver removed. At the time, these murders didn’t seem to carry any connections at all, but this was just the start of Mr. Shiny’s horrible murder sprees, with seemingly totally random victims and no clear motive at all. As people are interviewed and the detectives continue telling their stories, it becomes clear that Mr. Shiny was indeed a serial killer like no other.

 

Strange Harvest is a mockumentary horror film from 2024, written, directed, produced and edited by Stuart Ortiz (one of the directors of Grave Encounters from 2011). Ortiz got the idea for this horror mockumentary after seeing how the Netflix miniseries Tiger King got a lot of popularity, and he wanted to make something that had the traditional true crime story elements mixed with inspirations from for example the Zodiac Killer and H.P. Lovecraft. Ortiz went for as much realism as possible in making this look like an actual true crime documentary, and he really nailed it. Aside from small things like how certain photos and scenes of corpses would not have been shown in an actual documentary, it looks very real. The time periods, the old photos, crime scenes, the people interviewed and everything just looks so authentic, to even such small details as those red eyes on 90’s photos. If someone channel-surfing on TV accidentally put this on, I wouldn’t be surprised for a second if they thought they’d put on an actual true crime documentary.

 

Some of the murder scenes and details are surprisingly gruesome, with such a thick layer of realism over it that it’s hard to not feel at least a little bit disturbed. Mr. Shiny himself is always perfectly mysterious and creepy, wearing a slightly silly mask that kind of looks like a malformed Shy Guy from Super Mario. His motives are for the most part very obscured, and despite getting a few hints throughout he remains a very cryptic villain whose goals can only be guessed at. Even the detectives are at a loss for understanding his whys and wherefores. Is it something Satanic? Is he collecting souls for the devil? Trying to conjure Yog-Sothoth? Does he want to open a portal so the Dark Overlords of the Universe may enter our world? Who knows. We only learn that he truly is a madman who squirms at nothing in order to achieve his goals, whatever they are or whatever he may believe they are. And that makes him even more terrifying, as nothing is more dangerous and horrible than a person who is willing to do the most atrocious acts because of things they believe in. The ending, despite being somewhat ambiguous (did that really happen or was it all just one coincidence after another, mixed in with a crazy man’s beliefs?) I think it fits really well with the rest of the film.

 

Strange Harvest is a really good mockumentary horror film, and one you definitely should not miss!

 

Strange Harvest Strange Harvest

 

Writer and director: Stuart Ortiz
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Peter Zizzo, Terri Apple, Andy Lauer, Matthew Peschio, Allen Marsh, Jessee J. Clarkson
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33400719/

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

Iron Lung (2026)

Iron LungWe’re in the distant future where an incident called the Quiet Rapture has caused all star systems and planets to vanish, leaving only some space stations with a few surviving humans left. An imprisoned man named Simon has been tasked with testing and piloting the SM-13 submarine, which has been nicknamed Iron Lung. He needs to explore an ocean of a moon named AT-5, and this is no ordinary ocean: it’s made of blood! With the promise of being freed once he completes this mission, he reluctantly does what he’s told. In the claustrophobic confines of the submarine, Simon can only see outside with a crude camera, and communication is done only through a radio. Once he’s down there in the ocean of blood, the submarine’s detectors indicate that there’s something moving outside. Simon uses the camera and captures what looks to be a skeleton on the ocean floor. The officials want him to capture a sample of it, but it appears that the skeleton is not the only thing at the bottom of the blood ocean. And he also discovers that he’s not the first pilot being sent down there…

 

Iron Lung is a sci-fi horror film written and directed, and also self-funded, by Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier in his feature directorial debut. It also stars Fischbach himself in the leading role, and it is based on a horror video game from 2022 by the same name which was made by David Szymanski. The development for the film began in the start of 2023, and it was shot at Troublemaker Studios. During the production, Fischbach stated that the film would contain the most fake blood of any horror film thus far, even surpassing 2013 Evil Dead‘s 50,000 US gallons (190,000 L). Iron Lung has 80,000 gallons (300,000 L). Yikes! Fischbach even had to go to hospital during the filming as he’d gotten too much of that fake blood in his eyes (ouch).

 

When Iron Lung was done and ready for release, it was only supposed to be shown in some independent US theaters. Fischbach encouraged his fans to request the movie from their theaters, and ohhhh boy, did that spread like wildfire! From an initial planned release to only 60 independent US theaters, it ended up being shown in 4,161 theaters internationally. And that’s how we Horror Ghouls also got to see it at the big screen here in Norway on January 30th, all thanks to Markiplier’s dedicated fans!

 

Now, I’m going to admit a little sin here: I didn’t know who Markiplier/Fischbach was prior to watching this film. I pretty much went in totally blind for this one, other than knowing it was made by a very famous YouTuber and based on a horror game from 2022. And while we are rather often at the big screen, this was probably the busiest opening we’ve experienced since we watched Oppenheimer back in 2023. Sure, it wasn’t as crazy-busy as the Barbenheimer-insanity that went on back then, but it was still the busiest day at the cinema in a long time. In fact, it was so busy that the theater had (for some inexplicable reason) managed to overbook two of the seats, causing an unfortunate couple having to leave. Goddamn… (I really hope those two were compensated for the theater’s big blunder).

 

Iron Lung

 

Sitting there in the most cramped cinema in a long while, it didn’t take long until I got the feeling of déjà vu once the movie had started. Wait…this looks familiar? And then it clicked: I had seen a walkthrough of that game before. I often watch horror game walkthroughs on YouTube (mostly indie games) and I recognized this one immediately despite that it obviously had buried itself deep within my brain somewhere. Which speaks volumes about how detailed and true to the game the set design here is. This immediately set the mood for me as well, as I knew more or less what to expect from here on. What you get here, is a slow dive (pun intended) into a slow-burn chamber drama lovecraftian sci-fi horror. Much of the horror is of the subtle kind, with an ever-growing feeling of total helplessness and how insignificant humanity is in the scope of bigger, unknown things. Which is basically cosmic horror in a nutshell. Did Fischbach hit the nail on the head with this movie adaptation? My personal opinion of that is definitely a yes. At least it scratched my cosmic horror itch well and good.

 

Iron Lung is a passion project through and through, and Fischbach is indeed a very decent actor. Which was a must in a chamber drama movie like this, where everything relies mostly on the shoulders of one actor. The set design looks great and exactly like the game as I already mentioned, and the effects used in this film are overall really solid. There is only one issue, and that is the movie’s runtime. It’s just too dang long. I’m not saying that a runtime of 2 hours wouldn’t necessarily work for a movie like this, but it does unfortunately become too repetitive at times and it was hard not to feel that it could have done much better with a shorter runtime. Despite some issues with the pacing and overly long runtime, I thought it managed to keep a creepy atmosphere and dense, claustrophobic vibe throughout. And those 80,000 gallons of blood? Well, they’ve been put to good use in a totally bonkers finale which really amps up everything to a hundred and eleven!

 

Iron Lung is without a doubt a movie that will be perceived with mixed feelings, as it’s not exactly a mainstream movie by any means. If you liked the game, I think there’s a pretty fair chance you’ll also like this movie. Despite some mixed reception (yes, it’s not a movie for everyone) it’s still been a huge success so far with a box office of $21 million after the opening weekend, against a budget of $3 million. Fischbach/Markiplier has proven that he’s both a good filmmaker and actor, so let’s hope the success will spark some ideas for future films to be made!

 

Iron Lung

 

Writer and director: Mark Fischbach
Country & year: USA, 2026
Actors:  Mark Fischbach, Caroline Kaplan, Troy Baker, Elsie Lovelock, Elle LaMont, Dave Pettitt, Isaac McKee, Asher Wagh, Kazuki Jalal, Alanah Pearce, Seán McLoughlin, David Szymanski
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27564844/

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

SWEET MOLLY – Horror Short Film

At 16, Molly, born and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) cult, makes a chilling discovery through her ability to astral project, leading to a life-altering event.

 

It’s Horror Short Sunday again, and this time we’re taking a look at Sweet Molly. A truly disturbing horror short based on something that happens in real life. The director worked with two former FLDS members when writing the script for this short.

 

SWEET MOLLY - Horror Short Film

 

Director: J.C. McNaughton
Writer: J.C. McNaughton
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Rebekah Kennedy, Thomas Crawford, Jennifer A. Goodman, Nick Mathews, Kelsey Edwards
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt21254952/

 

 

 

 

Mécanix (2003)

MécanixWhat would you get if you took a piece from Begotten, mixed it with a little bit of Tetsuo: the Iron Man and sprinkled it with some bits and pieces of Mad God and Švenkmajer? Well, something like this would definitely be the result. Mécanix from 2003 is an avant-garde horror film directed by Rémy M. Larochelle, co-written with Mélissa Hébert. And just like Begotten, you most likely wouldn’t really have a clue what the fuck is actually going on unless you read the description first.

 

Mécanix presents its twisted story in something akin to a fairytale, where we’re introduced to what appears to be a post-apocalyptic world. In this world, the few remaining humans are forced into slavery by monsters, who seem to only fear one thing: the embryo of the universe, the origin of everything. The embryo is hidden within the last freeborn man, and it is the only hope humankind has to break free from the mechanic monstrous world they’re enslaved by. And yes, the world is filled with monsters of all kinds that often seem to have some kind of mechanism attached to them. Kind of like mechanic beasts where they’re part robot, and part rotting animal/creature. While most of these creatures look like something that belongs somewhere in the darkest corners of Hell itself, others are actually rather cute.

 

Visually, the movie is mesmerizing from start to finish, despite some of the scenes being repetitive and sometimes dragging on for longer than necessary. It’s getting its hooks in you purely by the oddness and surrealism, with a lot of different techniques used. It’s mixing stop-motion animation with live action, and everything is just so surreal, otherworldly and bizarre. The entire movie is done with a sepia-colored filter over it, which suits the visuals perfectly and adds an uncanny and almost filthy look to it. The soundtrack is often just as experimental as the film, fitting well with all the absurdities shown on screen.

 

Mécanix is a treat for anyone who loves surreal avant-garde horror movies filled with bizarre stop-motion effects and a constant what-the-fuck-is-going-on-here feeling. Too bad the director didn’t make more movies after this, as it would have been interesting to see what other nightmarish insanity he could’ve put on the screen. Who needs drugs to trip when you’ve got movies like these.

 

The movie was released by Unearthed Films, and can be found on several streaming sites including Tubi.

 

Mécanix Mécanix

 

Director: Rémy M. Larochelle
Writers: Mélissa Hébert, Rémy M. Larochelle
Country & year: Canada, 2003
Actors: Stéphane Bilodeau, Julie-Anne Côté, Philippe Chabot
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427580/

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

28 Years Later: The Bone TempleWe’re off to Emerald City, I mean the Bone Temple, to meet the Great Wizard, I mean Old Nick, the Great Satan of Oz, I mean UK. Oh, well …

 

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a direct continuation of the previous one, where Spike (Alfie Williams) has now been captured by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connel) and his small cute gang of Teletubbies, or chavs, for a better term. Welcom’ to Brittn, ya fockin’ cont! As we got more of the impression that Spike got saved by these bizarre individuals, in a quick scene that broke the internet six months ago, we learn that this Jimmy lad recruits young stray broken teens to join his cult-mission to torture and kill people in the name of Old Nick (Satan). Because, like Jimmy says:

 

 Old Nick released his demons onto the world of man.
And the world of man failed before the demons.

 

Jimmy has created his own demented theology to excuse his extreme sociopathic way of life, but to put it plain and simple: his inverted cross that he got from his crazy-priest/preacher dad right before he was killed 28 years ago is not just an innocent rebellious statement. He’s evil through and through and the classic Charles Manson/dictator-type that gleefully watches his members doing the torture and killing work. The Jimmy Saville-looking wigs they wear as a form of a badge, which also matches the hairstyle of their cult-leader, only puts the rotten cherry on top. Yes, his hair is actually not a wig (!)

 

Against Spike’s will, he has to prove himself to Lord Jimmy in the old British way by a knife-fighting death-combat, against one of the Jimmys. And watching this scene without context, one would assume that this was just some regular youth activities somewhere in Glasgow on a Tuesday evening. Americans have their guns, but you should never, ever underestimate a chav with a sharp knife. Spike hits an artillery that causes a gory mess. Lord Jimmy laughs and grins ear-to-ear. Spike is now a part of the Jimmys and, of course, very reluctant and terrified joins their murderous coming-of-rage odyssey around rural Britain as they invade homes and skin people alive in barns. How they can just walk and dance around like they owned the world while others still walk on minefields, is a fair question to ask. Alfie bonds with one of the two girls in the gang, Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), the only one who has developed empathy and isn’t completely brainwashed.

 

Then we have our mysterious Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) who lives peacefully alone in his small underground bunker next to his impressive lifeswork, the Bone Temple memorial. Approx 5,500 fake skulls and 150,000 bones were made to construct it. It would be just way too easy to just CGI the whole thing, but big kudos for making it the old school way. Dr. Kelson is still picking up fresh bodies to add to his temple, and has a side-project by observing an alpha zombie which he calls Samson. He’s a giant who rips people’s heads off, Predator-style, and eats brains straight from the skull. Hardcore. Dr. Kelson spits morphine darts to drug him out so he can dig into his subconsciousness and maybe see if there still is any humanity left in him. And good luck with that. Jimmy Crystal spots Kelson at a perfect timing, where he’s all smeared in red’ish lodine as he always is, and having a close interaction with the alpha by the Bone Temple. Because he believes he’s finally found his big idol and his father, Old Nick, and, well…haha, this should be interesting.

 

I’m not familiar with Nia DaCosta’s directing work prior to this, and I had no idea what to expect from her passing the torch after Danny Boyle. DaCosta does some really heavy lifting here, where it was pretty much already clear by judging the awesome trailers that they didn’t just choose some random work-for-hire director. Her directing approach is more traditional than the experimental style we saw in the previous where we have more dialogue-driven scenes than action. And although I —personally— enjoyed 28 Years Later a bit more, this is a rock-solid entry in the expanding and eccentric world building of the franchise that still keeps its feet on a grounded level. But calling this torture porn is a far stretch. It’s not even close. Yes, there are some gruesome moments here, but the film doesn’t show too much. Thus, I was a little disappointed by the I don’t have a ticket-scene, which felt a bit rushed. The effects are all practical though, as far as I noticed, and it’s nice to see stunt actors in real flames, which is a rare sight nowadays. That said, the action is very minimal. The zombies/infected are barely on screen, where the focus primarily lies on the psychological aspects between Jimmy and Old Nick, I mean Dr. Kelson. It’s still the good vs evil where the humans are the real monsters. This is more of an intense thriller/drama with some exploitation-elements.

 

What makes this franchise still feel fresh in the year of 2026 is much thanks to the unpredictable writing of Alex Garland, and how he explores our primitive instincts. While the action has taken a morphine pill, the tension is stronger than ever. We have a very simple scene where Jimmy meets Old Nick, I mean Dr. Kelson, for the first time, sits and has a chat about life, death, religion and whatnot. It seems harmonic and peaceful at the surface while the sky is almost blue, yet you can feel the electricity where one never knows when all hell will blow up. And then we have the uncanny parallels to The Wizard of Oz, which turns up the smoke and mirrors all up to eleven in a scene that was certainly not on my bingo card. Pure post-apocalyptic Mad Max-level insanity. It’s pretty amazing how this particular scene just perfectly fits right in when on paper it shouldn’t. But there you have the genius writing of Garland. Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connel are the stars here, and they’re both intimidating in their own ways. While Fiennes is the veteran he is, who can just speak with body language and facial expressions, I hope O’Connel gets more great villain roles. We saw him last year as the Irish lead vampire in Sinners, and also as one of the sadistic kids in Eden Lake way back in 2008.

 

While the film in isolation has been a flop, the previous have earned well over its budget for both. And this being a middle-chapter of a trilogy, I surely hope we get the final piece as we still have the incomplete arc of Spike to fill. What happened to Spike’s dad is also an open question. Is he out in the wild and searching for him? What’s next for Samson? Are 28 Weeks Later (2007) completely retcon? Will Brittan ever be Great again? Who knows.

 

Until next time: Memento Mori.

 

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

 

Director: Nia DaCosta
Writer: Alex Garland
Country & year: UK/USA/Canada, 2026
Actors: Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Ralph Fiennes Connor Newall, Erin Kellyman, Maura Bird, Ghazi Al Ruffai, Robert Rhodes, Emma Laird, Sam Locke, Gareth Locke, Chi Lewis-Parry
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32141377/

 

Prequels:
– 28 Years Later (2025)
– 28 Weeks Later (2007)
– 28 Days Later (2002)

 

Tom Ghoul

 

 

 

THE SEEKER – Horror Short

Two sisters return to their childhood home and are drawn into a nightmarish realm where they’re hunted by a monstrous doppelgänger of their late father—forcing them to confront the buried trauma he left behind and a horrifying truth.

 

It is Horror Short Sunday again, and this time we’re taking a look at The Seeker. A creepy horror short where facing the truth of repressed trauma can be terrifying…

 

THE SEEKER - Horror Short

 

Director: Matt Sears
Writer: Matt Sears
Year: 2025
Actors: Kelsey Cooke, Emma O’Dwyer, David Houston
Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/film/the-seeker-1/

 

 

 

 

Shelby Oaks (2024)

Shelby OaksThe Paranormal Paranoids are a group of paranormal investigator YouTubers who consists of the following members: Riley Brennan, Laura Tucker, David Reynolds, and Peter Bailey. After they decide to investigate the ghost town of Shelby Oaks, they end up missing and lots of people believe it’s some kind of publicity stunt. Well…not so much. All of them are eventually found dead, with the exception of Riley, whose last moments being seen alive is from a recovered camera which shows footage of her in a terrified state. Of what or whom she’s afraid, we don’t know (yet). Fast forward to twelve years later, Mia (Riley’s older sister) still hasn’t given up hope. She is interviewed for a documentary, where she also talks about how Riley suffered from night terrors as a child, and believed something was watching her.

 

After the documentary crew packs up and leave, Mia suddenly gets a stranger at the door. The only thing this man says is she finally let me go before using a gun to blow his own brains out. This guy carried with him a mini-DV tape simply labeled Shelby Oaks (ooohhh…a clue!) and Mia decides to watch it. Not surprisingly, the tape reveals more of Riley’s moments prior to her disappearance, with some new locations to mark on Mia’s quest map, including an abandoned prison. Mia is determined to finally solve the mystery of her sister’s disappearance, and starts searching for more clues.

 

Shelby Oaks is a supernatural horror film from 2025, written and directed by Chris Stuckmann in his feature directorial debut. The start of it all began in early 2021, when Stuckmann released an early guerilla marketing campaign in the from of an online alternate reality video series which was named The Paranormal Paranoids, and it was published on a YouTube channel called JesstheParanoid. The channel featured several found-footage videos by this so-called paranormal research team who, we learn, allegedly went missing when investigating a ghost town named Shelby Oaks. It gained a certain interest online, where some people even believed the videos to be real. The Kickstarter for the film began on March 1, 2022, and already on March 21 it had gotten the most-funded horror film project on Kickstarter after raising $650.000. It ended up with approx. $1.4 million from 14,720 backers, which is kind of insanely good considering the goal had only been $250.000!

 

While all of this sounds like nothing but peaches and sunshine, it most certainly didn’t proceed that way. Now, I have to admit I didn’t know about Chris Stuckmann prior to finding out about this movie, and that was after the Kickstarter campaign had ended…I won’t delve into all I’ve read about this, but from what I have gathered things started going a bit sour amongst the fans and backers after several delays, and many fans were disappointed with the change in Chris Stuckmann’s YouTube Channel. He’s become a rather famous YouTuber for reviewing movies, raising his popularity especially through his Hilariocity videos, but after going further into his film-making career he decided to stop critiquing movies…which was a big disappointment to many of his followers. In 2024 it was revealed that Mike Flanagan got onboard as executive producer, and the movie was bought by Neon which gave it some reshoots, and eventually the movie got a theatrical release in October 2025 (not here in Norway though, it wasn’t available on streaming here until 30th December).

 

Shelby Oaks

 

There’s no doubt that a lot of people had high hopes for this film. Maybe that’s to be expected, when it’s coming from a movie reviewer who seemed to be well aware of many of the tired and worn-out mistakes that a lot of horror movies could have easily avoided. Well…when viewing Shelby Oaks, it becomes apparent that there are many inspirations here. I could easily spot the influence from Lake Mungo and The Blair Witch Project for example. The performance from the lead actor who’s playing Mia (Camille Sullivan, also known from Hunter Hunter) carries a lot of the movie on her shoulders and she does well with what she’s got. While her performance is pretty good, there are some issues regarding her character which is by no means her fault, but rather that of the script. Like how she, for some inexplicable reason, stays covered in blood from the man who shot himself at her doorstep. She doesn’t even bother to wash it off even hours after it happened, and proceeds to watch the video tape instead while her husband apparently doesn’t give a shit about anything. Yeah, I know the husband is supposed to be kind of distanced from her and tired of her obsession with Riley’s disappearance and all, but essentially he’s nothing but a non-supportive character with no real function…Mia could as well have imagined his presence. She is also consistently going on what are obviously dangerous missions, like exploring an abandoned prison at night without even telling her husband or anyone else about it. There’s just something about both Mia, her husband and the characters overall that takes away from the realism, and that’s ruining a bit of what is supposed to be a very serious narrative. But hey…maybe I’m just overtly nitpicking here. I mean, it’s not like we haven’t already got a fair share of insanely stupid decisions made in horror movies by all kinds of characters…

 

For the most part Shelby Oaks looks decent enough, and there’s obviously some competence in the cinematography department, but unfortunately it never manages to elevate some of the scenes to a very effective level. Like in the abandoned prison, which is supposed to be a very creepy and atmospheric setup but ultimately felt kind of flat. The found-footage and mockumentary scenes work well enough though, and I didn’t mind the transition from mockumentary to traditional film. I just kind of missed actually feeling the dread or unease the movie obviously tried to go for. That being said: if anything, I have to say that I loved the old, rotten mold-house we get to see later in the film. The black mold creeping up the walls and festering all over the place makes you feel like it could’ve been some kind of instant-death location, and I really loved the ominous vibe of that place. There are some glimpses here and there where it’s like there’s a much better film just hiding beneath the surface, and the mold-house with the old lady is certainly one of those moments.

 

Shelby Oaks is, without a doubt, a movie that carries a lot of inspirations from (arguably better) movies on its sleeve. But it is by no means an awful movie or one without any redeeming qualities, despite coming off as quite generic. There are some scenes that carries a lot of atmosphere, the performances overall are pretty good, and visually it’s pretty fine. And while it was not what a lot of people expected from Stuckmann, I think it’s okay as a feature debut.

 

Shelby Oaks

 

Writer and director: Chris Stuckmann
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Sarah Durn, Camille Sullivan, Sloane Burkett, Brenna Sherman, Caisey Cole, Anthony Baldasare, Eric Francis Melaragni, Lauren Ashley Berry, Brendan Sexton III, Charlie Talbert, Robin Bartlett, Keith David
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt14999684/

 

Vanja Ghoul