YouTuber Chris Stuckmann's directorial debut, Shelby Oaks, gets a fresh trailer

Chris Stuckmann is trying the impossible. One of YouTube’s most popular film reviewers, Stuckmann is breaking out of the algorithm and making a play for theaters with his long-delayed directorial debut, Shelby Oaks. But where movie theaters won’t censor the word “death” (YouTube’s algorithm prefers “unalive”), it comes with its own complications and headaches. In 2021, Stuckmann launched a Kickstarter for the film, and Shelby Oaks became one of the most successful campaigns in the platform’s history. Stuckmann finished principal photography in 2022, but the SAG-AFTRA strikes delayed post-production until 2024, when the movie premiered. We even reviewed it and gave it a C-. Neon then bought the movie, injected more money for reshoots and effects, and delayed the film by another year. This year, the production hired new cast members for reshoots, and a new editor recut the movie. We assume Neon did all this to improve the film’s standing on The A.V. Club, and we’ll find out soon because, supposedly, the movie is complete, and a new cut is arriving in theaters this October.