Do movie reviewers dream of loving movies?
As much as other forms of media captivate me— video games, music, or the few books I’ve actually finished —the bottom line is that I love movies. Film has been, in a worldly sense, my one constant. Before creating and publishing on this website five years ago, and even before writing for my high school newspaper, ten-year-old me was captivated by the dream of making movies. I grew up as part of the “iPad generation” (sorry); there was always a screen of some kind in front of me. With the rise of YouTube, I found myself watching a plethora of movie reviews, and my favorites were by Chris Stuckmann.
Stuckmann started his YouTuber-to-Filmmaker career, gaining a massive 2 million subscribers over the course of a decade and a half. Beginning as a Kickstarter campaign, Shelby Oaks was acquired by NEON, with Mike Flanagan, a well-known and respected creative figure in the horror genre, serving as an executive producer. Additionally, it received a limited theatrical release. This alone is an impressive achievement that should not go unnoticed. Seeing this in theaters was a full-circle moment for me and the millions who grew up with him.
I can remember the first movie that scared me, 1993’s Jurassic Park. The opening of that film shows workers trying to calm down a Velociraptor, and in the chaos, one of them gets eaten. We had a projector set up downstairs in the house where I grew up, with a DVD player attached to it. I was around six at the time, and this event must have traumatized me more than I like to admit because I never really found an interest in horror films. Or the spooky season of October, to be honest.
In part, this unappealing attitude towards a very popular genre could also have been due to my upbringing in a religious household. I’m sure knowing this about me, you can look back at my writing and think, ‘Oh yeah, this guy probably thinks someone walked on water 2,000 years ago.’ Stuckmann has spoken many times about the fact that he is now an ex-Jehovah’s Witness. Knowing this about him, you can clearly see the effect this has on his storytelling.
In a letter, founding father Thomas Jefferson famously stated there should be a “wall” between Church and State. He says, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions…” Though this idea may be accurate in politics, we creatives know it is nearly impossible to express ideas without putting even an ounce of our personal experiences into them.
Now, I can’t speak on the opinion of the man who penned the Declaration of Independence, but I really enjoyed Shelby Oaks. The directing felt very confident, and the leading actress who plays Mia, a woman searching for her lost sister, stood out. Her sister was part of a YouTube group called “The Paranormal Paranoids,” which investigated supernatural disturbances. The early parts of the film demonstrate this, utilizing the old YouTube design from around 2008, which was a clever and distinctive detail.
The one thing missing from Oaks was Stuckmann’s infamous catchphrase, “If you liked this, you can click right here and get Stuckmannized.” I felt this could have easily fit in the part where Mia is asking a retired prison warden about the horrific and brutal riot that he felt was pure evil and pushed him to be a day drinker. But hey, that’s just me.
This could be a typical review, blah blah blah, here’s the pros and cons, and a grade assigned. Seeing someone I’ve watched on YouTube for years have their name in the opening credits of a feature-length movie, in theaters, just affected my core. Sometimes, with the monotony that is life, you forget why you started. Maybe it’s your career, or school, or, in my case, this website.
Shelby Oaks helped me remember.
Among the theories on death, the seven-minute theory posits that neurons in the brain continue to fire for a short period after the heart stops beating. Scientists have come to the conclusion that this could be why, in our final minutes, “Your life flashes before your eyes.” In my “seven minutes”, attending the Thursday night preview of Jurassic World will be something I see. That was a few months over ten years ago, as of writing this, yet it is eternally ingrained in my DNA.
That experience was the catalyst for my passion for film as an art form, rather than a hobby. The feeling 12-year-old me got watching World was indistinguishable from leaving the theater watching Oaks. Horror is not my thing, as previously mentioned, but you could tell there was care behind every frame within the film. The movie primarily struggles with budgetary issues and its screenplay. Even with this, Stuckmann still managed to push through and deliver a solid debut as both writer and director. Similar to how seeing the T. rex majestically burst through the skeleton of a Spinosauras inspired me as a child, Stuckmann’s persistence inspires me as an adult.
Witnessing one of my biggest inspirations, “make it” with this theatrical release, has given me even more to reflect upon as we mark the fifth anniversary of this website. What I put into my writing all those years ago is very different from what I include now. I still love Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and I resent Star Wars: The Force Awakens. So, have I really changed that much, or do I continue to complain about the same things, just with elaborate language? Have I fallen into the cycle of rebooting my own opinions to be more superfluous than ever?
While making Oaks, and even before, Stuckmann cited some of his biggest inspirations as Signs and the original Indiana Jones trilogy. The latter is something we have in common. The stories of the fictional tenured professor of archaeology have inspired me since I was a boy. Several shots in this film are clearly influenced by the work of his favorite filmmakers. I do think Oaks has within it the ability to impact someone to light the flame towards movie-making.
To be Stuckmannized, or not to be Stuckmannized? That is the question. What does it mean for one to be Stuckmannized? I am aware that this word is nothing more than a silly pun for his name, but it can serve as a vessel for this discussion. In some way or another, we’ve all been Stuckmannized – We all dream.
The opening line of this piece alludes to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?—the Philip K. Dick novel that inspired Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Like the androids in the book, movie reviewers sometimes lose touch with the feeling that first made us human in the cinematic sense: the love of movies themselves.
Real-life archaeologist T.E. Lawerance once wrote, “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”
At its core, Shelby Oaks tells the story of a woman driven by love to find her sister, to prove she’s not crazy for chasing after what she knows to be true. What we want is out there, waiting for us to find it. What inspires your dreams? Akin to Mia’s journey in this film, what we know to be true is not only attainable but, through persistence, can make our dreams a reality. We all have the potential to become “dreamers of the day.”
When I was a kid, I thought about it for hours, days, even. “When I make movies, what will my production company be called?” I scribbled these names down on sheets of paper like a madman. The one I liked the most sounded unique and would stand out in a sentence. So far, I haven’t made movies, so I put that name to good use for a passion project called MooCow Entertainment. With this, I manage to remain persistent in pursuing my dreams.
As of October 29, 2025, I have been posting on here for five years, but I’ve been writing and having my work published for nearly a decade. During that time, I moved from my home state and then back to it, became a manager at a movie theater, earned an NCCA-accredited personal training certification, worked in the construction field, and am now attending college. I am a very different person from when I published my first article in 2018 in my high school newspaper, titled “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is Better Than Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
I am proud of the fact that I can still be inspired. I still dream. In the same way Jefferson saw separation as essential, I see no true divide between who I am and what I create. The reality of life is struggle. The joy of life is overcoming struggle. Through it all, I’ve learned one thing – the bottom line is that I love movies.
*Thank you for reading. This is still the way, yes, even before it was cool.*
MooCow Entertainment 