On the basis of Shelby Oaks, critic-turned-filmmaker Chris Stuckmann has seen a lot of horror movies, and he jams bits and pieces of every last one of them into his feature debut.
Not since James Wan’s original The Conjuring has a thriller so wantonly regurgitated tired tropes for scares, and unfortunately, the fledgling director exhibits neither the skill nor imagination to enliven his hodgepodge of old-hat devices. Save for a single sterling jolt, his compendium of clichés is a case study in knowing a genre’s tricks but doing absolutely nothing of interest with them.
Shelby Oaks, which hits theaters Oct. 24, begins as a found-footage affair concerning the YouTube series “Paranormal Paranoids” and, in particular, it’s most notable cast member Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn), who along with

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