After more than 10 years in the making, popular film YouTuber Chris Stuckmann’s debut feature “Shelby Oaks” crashes without making a sound, faltering from poor visual effects, uneven writing and a lack of true tension.

Having lost her younger sister and popular paranormal Youtuber, Riley (Sarah Durn), to a unexplainable, horrific incident, Mia (Camille Sullivan) begins to spiral out of control after the suicide of a mysterious man leaves her with a set of new clues to the true whereabouts of her long-lost sister. While sifting through a crumbling marriage and small-town mystery, Mia must decide if Riley’s disappearance was a simple kidnapping, or a far darker situation.

Whether its the RackaRacka brother’s two most recent films “Talk to Me” and “Bring Her Back,” or Rudy Mancuso’s Prime Video, romcom hit “Música,” YouTubers-turned-directors have become a rising trend in recent years, many of them having made or currently working on fantastic, creative projects. And it hurts to say that Stuckmann’s “Shelby Oaks” couldn’t live up to these other films.

The supernatural horror flick, inspired by the real YouTube channel “Paranormal Paranoids,” opens with an enthralling, well-edited and creative opening act. The film seamlessly switches between documentary-stylings to narrative building easily, never feeling jarring until the film’s second half. The film also manages to tie together the slow build-up of the documentary-moments with a standout credits crawl, filled with spraying blood, screams and slow-motion carnage. It’s such a well-crafted sequence that it’s unfortunate the rest of the film couldn’t live up to this, as its remaining runtime is nothing short of disappointing. What begins as an interesting concept, taking on an archaic YouTube channel and turning it into a full-feature film, slowly devolves into generic, demonic slop, lacking any ounce of creativity in its storytelling. Ever since “Hereditary” blew up the indie horror scene in 2018 with its cult-like practices, every other has continued to play catch up seven years later, including “Shelby Oaks.”

While Sullivan and Durn both turn in strong performances, it’s only just enough to keep the film from completely falling apart, failing to uplift it beyond mediocre.

Whether it’s the editing, screenplay or character development, the horror romp begins to decay once it becomes a narrative-led film. Filled to the brim with awkward cuts and strange transition choices, it’s not hard to be completely taken out of the film by its slapdash final cut. This was a movie that was being worked on all the way until release date, and it shows.

When the editing isn’t distracting enough, then “Shelby Oak”’s constant usage of poor CGI will do the job just fine. Whether its building exteriors created solely with visual effects or laugh-out-loud “demon dogs,” the films’ reliance on dodgy CGI completely spoils the film, ruining every ounce of tension that it’s built, which isn’t that much in the first place. Alongside the CGI, the screenplay is also distractingly simple. The film’s take on cults and demons is as generic as they come, yet the script believes it’s smarter than it really is, even with its clunky dialogue found throughout.

It’s also because of the cumbersome screenplay that the story never builds an emotional connection between Mia, Riley and the audience. Nothing about their story ever strikes an emotional cord, forcing the audience to experience a rather boring tale in a disconnected way.

Stuckmann’s debut film begins triumphantly with an unnerving blend of documentary filmmaking and narrative storytelling, only to trip, tumble and fall flat in its final execution, lacking any sense of nuance or fear.

“Shelby Oaks” released Oct. 24 and is in theaters now.