YouTube creator Chris Stuckmann making his directorial debut with Shelby Oaks
By Meg Dowell
YouTube creator Chris Stuckmann's first feature film Shelby Oaks is making its world premire this Saturday at Fantasia Festival.
Variety reports the project, acquired by Neon, is a horror film in the style of a documentary and found footage crossover. The indie studio recently released Osgood Perkins’ horror film Longlegs in theaters, which opened as a record debut for Neon.
Stuckmann is a filmmaker and expert critic who posts widely-viewed YouTube videos critiquing movie, TV, video games and more. His most popular video, a review of Prometheus, has 4 million total views to date. His channel has 2 million subscribers as of this writing. He also published a book titled The Film Buff's Bucket List: The 50 Movies of the 2000s to See Before You Die.
Shelby Oaks was made possible by a 2022 Kickstarter fundraiser that raised $1.3 million from nearly 15,000 supporters. According to Variety, it is the most funded horror film in the history of the platform. Neon plans to release the film in theaters in the U.S. following its July 2024 festival debut, with more info on worldwide releases to come.
Stuckmann announced the news of the distributor on his channel on Monday, saying: "It's hard to communicate just how monumental this is for an independent film. Not just because of indie film in general but indie film right now in the state of the industry."
"It's a very strange time for filmmakers right now trying to break into the industry," he continued. "Which is why I'm so grateful that a company like Neon has acquired worldwide rights to Shelby Oaks."
The film focuses on a woman searching for her sister, who disappeared in the middle of taping an investigative series and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
Shelby Oaks stars Camille Sullivan, Brendan Sexton III, and Sarah Durn, and was produced by Aaron B. Koontz, Ashleigh Snead, and Cameron Burns for Paper Street Pictures.
The 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival takes place from July 18 to August 4 exclusively in person.