A Conversation with Chris Stuckmann (SHELBY OAKS)
Shelby Oaks marks the feature directorial debut of Chris Stuckmann, the YouTube film critic whose YouTube channel has amassed over 2 million subscribers. The film, which became the highest-funded horror film in Kickstarter history with nearly $1.4 million raised, including my own $20, follows Mia (Camille Sullivan) as she searches for her sister Riley (Sarah Durn), who disappeared twelve years ago while filming a paranormal investigation show.
We follow Mia as she discovers that the imaginary demon from their childhood may have been real all along. Executive produced by horror master Mike Flanagan and distributed by NEON, Shelby Oaks is a deeply personal project for Stuckmann, one that explores themes of childhood trauma and faith while also serving as the culmination of a life’s work to release a feature film. The film demonstrates remarkable craft and announces Stuckmann as a new fresh voice in the horror landscape while also challenging audience expectations all the while delivering genuine scares.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Hammer to Nail: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I have been a major fan of your reviews since back in 2015 and I donated to the Kickstarter. To see this dream come true for you has been so inspiring to me as someone who also wants to be a horror filmmaker. The opening 17 minutes is really so special. I love how you handle this tonal switch. The changing aspect ratio, the frame expanding, the credits beginning as we see the moment again, this time from your lens. What was important to you in depicting this suicide moment and was this the first thing you wrote when you were crafting the script?
Chris Stuckmann: Thank you so much. I think for me, the first light bulb moment with this came when I was watching a lot of true crime documentaries. I was thinking to myself about the the dramatic depictions of the things the characters are talking about. I was always like, we’re okay with the dramatizations when we’re watching this. Why can’t we have a movie that begins as sort of a true crime doc. A movie that has cameras the characters are aware of, and then becomes a movie where the characters are not aware of the cameras, where the cameras don’t exist.
What would have to happen for someone who is shooting a documentary to suddenly have to completely reset their vision and stop filming? Something as serious and awful as what occurs on that porch, I think, is the thing that would have to jar a documentarian out of their vision. But it also jars the audience into being like, “Whoa, okay, we’re in this now. What is happening?” I feel like that’s the type of excitement that I would see in a movie that would make me lean forward and be like, okay, this is an interesting approach I haven’t really seen before.
HTN: Definitely a very unique moment and it definitely jarred me into the film. The sequence at the 36-minute mark between husband and wife, where Camille tries to explain everything. What could have just been a moment of mere exposition is really elevated by how true the emotions ring here. So what was your thinking going into that sequence?
CS: Oh, thank you. That means a lot to me because that scene was important. She has to explain things, but for me, it was about visual storytelling. On the left side of the frame, you’ve got Mia with all of her evidence. On the right side of the frame, you’ve got Robert (Brendan Sexton III). There’s baby supplies in the background. There’s a crib in the center of the frame that does not have a baby in it, but it’s filled with Mia’s evidence.
A still from SHELBY OAKS
It’s kind of presenting in a wide shot why their marriage is at odds, because one of them wants one thing and one of them wants something else. They both wanted the same thing. They’ve always wanted a family. They tried. But now because of this rift that’s occurred with this disappearance, the things they both wanted are now coming to fruition. They’re now being honest and open about how they feel. When he exits the frame, my hope is that people are like, “Oh, man, she’s just completely alone now. She’s got nobody helping her out. Nobody’s on her side.” She’s got to do all this herself.
HTN: It’s a really great moment. And the moment in the woods with the old woman played brilliantly by Robin Bartlett is terrifying, entertaining, and just so much fun. The audience is always on edge regarding the danger of this woman, but you never question why Camille would risk her life and go in there, because by that point in the movie, you’re fully sold on her emotional journey. I love how once the twist hits and we get into the attic, you fill the background with all kinds of creepy things that I really picked up on my second watch. So first, I’d like to hear about crafting that twist moment with the book, the score, the quick cuts—it’s really so striking. And then I’d love to hear about what was important to you in that first encounter between Camille and her sister?
CS: We took about a thousand photographs for that photo album. There are a lot of things that are not in the movie because they were just too much. It was about visual storytelling, first and foremost. Can we communicate what’s been happening in a very quick window of time, just through pictures, just through images?
Then there was also this other layer that I found disturbing. Most of us, if we keep a photo album, we put our happiest memories in it. The notion that Norma, this old woman, would keep a photo album and fill it with those photos kind of lets you into her brain a little bit. Why are these her cherished moments? She really cares about this thing a lot. I think that’s really disturbing. I wanted to find a way to communicate that, because I think that the scariest things, even in the real world, are things that are just right there in front of us. People who are just like, “Well, this is normal. This is how we live.” And it’s like, That’s really messed up that you feel that way haha.
For that first encounter between Mia and her sister, Mia is finding this person that she has known and hoped was alive for so long. There’s obviously this, “Oh, my God, I did it. Not the police, not my husband, me. I found you. I did what I was supposed to do. This is what I was meant to do. You’re here. Let’s go. I need to protect you.”
For Riley, though, she has lived a different reality for the past over a decade. There is a completely different set of goals that she has. When Mia is like, “The goal is for you to leave with me,” Riley is like, “Sorry, I’ve been living in this house for over ten years. I have a different goal. This thing that I’ve been fighting against is succeeding, and I need to make sure it doesn’t.” You don’t necessarily get that immediate reunion of perfect happiness. “Let’s go home and have a nice sit by the fire and enjoy a cup of hot cocoa.” That’s denied because the goals for both of them are different.
HTN: The prison is such an impressive location. I’d love to hear about finding it and what was important to you in searching for that space.
A still from SHELBY OAKS
CS: I shot a review for The Shawshank Redemption there in like 2017 or something. I reached out and I was like, “I love this place.” It’s about an hour and ten minute drive from my house. Getting to shoot in there was great. But then I maintained a friendship with the people who work there. Once I was set on the idea of shooting in what is essentially a ghost town, it became about what locations in Ohio can I utilize that I know I can get into, whether it’s the amusement park or the house at the end, to create the feeling of a ghost town.
I immediately was like, well, of course, this seven-story dilapidated prison that looks amazing without too much work having to be done to it. When I reached out about filming there, they were very excited to have me there. Like I said, I had maintained a friendship with them. I think that’s part of being an indie filmmaker. You get to know people around you in the place where you live. You maintain friendships, you maintain relationships. One of those days, you might pull that card and be like, “Hey, maybe I could shoot something there at your house, the place where you work or whatever.” You just have to use all your resources.
HTN: It’s really such a great space and almost serves as a character itself in the film. The film seems to ask whether imaginary demons from childhood may have actually been real. What interests you about that specific core concept, the idea that childhood fears would be valid?
CS: I think it probably comes from my background as a Jehovah’s Witness, being raised to believe that demons were real. If you touch The Exorcist tape at Blockbuster, a demon will follow you home. Things like that, where it was always kind of in the back of my mind.
But also, I think there is a sense that there are things that Mia and Riley believed as kids that are challenged in this movie. Mia believing that Riley was taken for a reason, and then realizing actually, this thing has always wanted me and Riley was just a bridge to get to me. It’s also this element of, I think the scariest thing that you could ever go through in life, that really does mess up your brain, is a crisis of faith or a challenge of something that you believed to be true, that you have built your life upon. Your future hopes are built upon this belief, whatever it is. Doesn’t have to be religion, it can just be a way of life, a belief system. You are shown something that makes you realize, maybe this isn’t the way that you’re supposed to be going. It’s a very difficult thing to recalibrate your whole approach to life.
I obviously went through that with my former faith as a kid. For me, at the end of this movie, when she screams the way she does, it is this full, guttural realization that every single choice that she made throughout her life was leading to this moment.
HTN: Speaking of those final moments, they’re sure to be burned into my skull for a long time. The makeup job on Riley is really just incredible. It’s so disturbing to see her caught in that position with the pillow. This obviously leads to an altercation resulting in her death and the demon seemingly finally taking over Mia. Ending on that scream really gives no space for hope as the audience just ends in a chokehold. What was important to you in depicting these final moments?
CS: I think that the hope is that there’s this feeling of the hand of fate has dealt its cards. This crack in the glass that started growing when she was little, when this thing first appeared outside of the window, continues to spiderweb throughout the movie and eventually weakens that window to the point where Riley can fall through it. The dog in the prison that tries to take a bite out of Mia, Terry and his arm rush out and stop him. Now at the end of the movie, the dogs get to finally eat. There’s this sense of, “Not Mia. Mia is the one. Go ahead. You’re hungry. Riley’s there.”
Even at the beginning of the movie, when Riley is first taken by Wilson, you hear the hellhounds howling outside of that window. There’s always this sense of a prevailing threat that is waiting for its meal, getting a chance to eat. There’s also this metaphor that I’ve had about childhood trauma and whether or not something that happens when you’re young can stay with you. If you don’t fix it, if you don’t repair it, it will keep festering. That wound will not heal and eventually spiderweb into something awful and eat you alive. I wanted to try to find a way to have tangible physical things that you could see in the film that worked as a horror device, but then also emotionally had some layers to it.
– Jack Schenker (@YUNGOCUPOTIS)
Post a Comment
