The internet loves a mystery, especially when it feels half-finished, like an artifact that shouldn't have been found. That's the sensation Neon is chasing with its newly revealed viral site for Chris Stuckmann's Shelby Oaks—a horror film already primed for urban legend status.
The site looks stripped down, like it was abandoned mid-build. You enter a password—lookingforpara7—and you're dumped into a one-minute reel of grainy security footage stitched together with no explanation. No names, no titles, no context. Just flickers of unease, the sense that something vital is hiding between the frames.
It's a fitting tease for Stuckmann's debut feature, which first screened at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival before showing again at FrightFest, and now gears up for a October 3, 2025 theatrical release through Neon.
The Setup
Shelby Oaks isn't just another lost-sister horror yarn. Stuckmann builds his story around Riley Brennan, the vanished star of a YouTube ghost-hunting series called Paranormal Paranoids. The show went dark back in 2008 when Riley and her co-hosts disappeared near the deserted town of Shelby Oaks, Ohio. Conspiracies have swirled ever since, but the film follows Mia (Camille Sullivan)—Riley's sister—who finally agrees to tell the story to a documentary crew. Naturally, her attempt at closure rips open older wounds.
The Trailer & The Tone
The official trailer, already online, frames Shelby Oaks with a cold, washed-out palette and documentary-style framing. Quick cuts jump between shaky cam footage and stark, wide interiors. The visual strategy isn't reinventing horror, but it does something subtler—it positions the audience in the blurred space between found-footage authenticity and polished studio production.
That same ambiguity is carried into the viral site. It doesn't try to “wow” you with graphics or puzzles. It just sits there, unsettling in its emptiness, the kind of place you keep clicking around because maybe—just maybe—there's something hidden deeper.
Stuckmann's Leap
For anyone who followed Chris Stuckmann during his YouTube critic years, Shelby Oaks feels like a culmination. He's spent years dissecting the tricks and tropes of horror films, and here he's finally putting theory into practice. Writing with Sam Liz and producing alongside Cameron Burns, Aaron B. Koontz, and Ashleigh Snead, he's stepping into the same arena he once critiqued. The risk: audiences expect him to know better. The reward: if he pulls it off, he earns credibility most critics never manage.
Cast & Industry Weight
The film doesn't lean on marquee names, but the lineup is sturdy: Michael Beach, Keith David, Sarah Durn, Brendan Sexton III, and Camille Sullivan. It's the kind of ensemble you'd expect for a mid-budget horror with festival credibility—recognizable faces, not distracting stars. Neon's handling of the release is also telling: a slow-burn rollout instead of a streaming dump. They clearly think this one can build momentum in theaters.
What the Website Signals
So what's the real function of this viral site? Marketing, yes. But also tone-setting. Horror thrives on implication, and Neon knows the less you explain, the deeper the itch. Fans are already theorizing about Riley Brennan's fate, combing the static for hidden messages. Whether there's more buried in the code or not, the site has done its job—it's extended the film's mystery into real life.
Key Notes on Shelby Oaks' Viral Rollout
- The website is minimalist but eerie — a password gate leads to one minute of security footage, suggesting more secrets could be hidden inside.
- Confirmed festival stops matter — first at Fantasia 2024, then FrightFest, giving the film a horror-community pedigree before its wide release.
- Release is locked — Neon will debut Shelby Oaks in select U.S. theaters on October 3, 2025, no streaming shortcut in sight.
- The trailer leans on realism — a cold, semi-documentary look blurs the line between found footage and traditional narrative.
- Stuckmann's reputation is on trial — as a former critic, his debut comes with unusual expectations: he's judged not just as a filmmaker, but as someone who should know horror inside out.
Neon's viral stunt is small, but effective—it proves you don't need a sprawling ARG to plant seeds of paranoia. Sometimes a locked door and a flicker of tape are enough.
Will Shelby Oaks live up to the buildup? We'll find out in theaters this fall. In the meantime—have you clicked through the site yet? Did you spot anything the rest of us missed?
