Shelby Oaks (2024)

Somewhere around the midpoint, Shelby Oaks stops being one movie and becomes another, and the first one was better. The opening plays like a true-crime documentary: twelve years after the Paranormal Paranoids, a crew of amateur ghost hunters, vanished at an abandoned prison, Riley’s older sister Mia still insists Riley is alive. Then a stranger shows up at Mia’s house, a tape he was carrying sends her back toward Shelby Oaks, and the movie trades its scrappy found-footage feel for standard horror. Camille Sullivan is terrific as Mia, grief and stubbornness in one face, and Chris Stuckmann builds a doomy, eerie mood. But the plot gets murkier the deeper it goes, and the finale rushes past its own explanations. Critics split at 55%, and audiences gave it a C+. It made $8.1 million worldwide on a reported $1 million to $1.4 million budget. A 4.3 because a great first half can’t save a muddled second. $4,506 says you watch one ghost-hunting video after this and switch it off before they open the first door.

What works: Camille Sullivan is excellent as Mia, and the documentary-style first half has a creepy, homemade feel.

What doesn’t: Once it drops the found-footage style, the mystery turns familiar and the rushed finale barely makes sense.

Who it’s for: Horror fans who love found footage and don’t mind a second half that comes apart.