Chris Stuckmann Explains Shelby Oaks’ Shocking Finale — The Incubus, the Photo Album, and the Twist You Missed
Shelby Oaks is a horror film directed by Chris Stuckmann that follows Mia as she investigates the disappearance of her sister Riley and uncovers a decades-long supernatural threat tied to childhood trauma and sexual violence. The movie centers on an incubus, a family under its influence, and a series of revelations shown through a photo album and a final, ambiguous ending.
Shelby Oaks and the Incubus
The film opens with a group of young YouTubers called the Paranormal Paranoids, led by Riley Brennan, investigating an abandoned amusement park. They vanish, and their disappearance becomes an online phenomenon. Ten years later, Riley’s sister Mia returns to investigate and finds that an incubus — a male demon historically associated with sexual assault — has stalked both sisters since childhood.
Chris Stuckmann designed the creature to feel like a persistent, unhealed wound. To achieve that look, he sketched early concepts and collaborated with concept artist Carlos Huante. Practical effects work was led by Emmy-winning designer Jason Hamer, and stuntman Derek Mears wore the creature suit during filming. The incubus in the story is shown as both predator and manipulator, using a family under its thrall to capture Riley and attempt to impregnate her.
Stuckmann on the creature: “It needs to feel like a wound that never healed.”
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That scene with the photo album
Near the film’s end, Mia finds Riley and a baby in the basement of an older woman named Norma. Before Mia reaches them, she discovers a photo album that documents Riley’s life after her disappearance. The album contains images that indicate Riley was forced to marry Norma’s troubled son, that she was pregnant, and that multiple miscarriages occurred — the photos are presented almost as a silent slideshow.
Stuckmann said the photo album was the clearest way to relay those events without exposition. He noted that the production shot many images and later pared them down. As he put it: “like 1,000 photos,” many of which were cut because of their graphic nature.
The director also pointed to the added discomfort of a family photo album being used to catalogue trauma rather than happy memories. “The thing that disturbs me the most about it is: Most families who have a photo album, it’s of their happiest, most cherished memories,” he said. “If you look at this photo album, and imagine that this woman is doing that, putting her happiest, most cherished memories in this photo album, and then you look at what she’s putting in it, that’s really fucked-up.”
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Shelby Oaks’ ending, explained
Mia ultimately finds Riley and the baby and rescues them during a ritual in Norma’s house; Norma then sacrifices herself. After they return home, the initial sense of safety collapses. Riley, still traumatized, attempts to kill the baby and tells Mia the infant is evil. In the struggle, Riley falls from a window and dies.
At that moment the incubus reveals itself and places its hand on Mia’s shoulder, making clear that Mia, not Riley, had been the creature’s ultimate target. The film closes on an uncertain note: it is not explicitly shown what will happen next, although the story implies the incubus’ influence and the baby’s existence will continue to complicate Mia’s life.
Stuckmann has framed the movie as a metaphor for how unresolved childhood trauma can persist and worsen if left unaddressed. He said, “We all experience things in our youth that stay with us.” He further described the broken window imagery as a long-term wound: “If something happens that creates a rift in us at a young age in our lives, if we never try to fix it, if we never try to look for help, if we never tell someone about it, it will grow and it will spiderweb, and it will shatter us. It will eventually eat us alive.”
The director also summed up the film’s trade-offs: “Sometimes, to get something you want, you have to sacrifice something you have.” He added: “Every single character in this movie goes through that in some way. The Paranormal Paranoids want fame; they get it. Mia wanted a family. She eventually gets one, but she sacrifices her sister in the process.”
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Shelby Oaks is in theaters now.
