James Burkholder on Composing ‘Shelby Oaks, Newton Brothers Collaboration, & Horror Genre Inspirations (Fantastic Fest 2025)
Shelby Oaks is certainly shaking up things for 2025’s horror movie roster as the tale envisioned by critic Chris Stuckmann is heading to theaters very soon. In time for the Halloween season, Stuckmann’s story follows a wife’s desperate investigation into her sister’s disappearance, which leads her into the realm of the supernatural.
With such a concept, fans can expect some very intense sequences with demonic threats, but this film takes on a musically mystifying twist. I recently got to speak with James Burkholder, a musical artist and disciple of the Newton Brothers about how he composed the music behind Shelby Oaks.
As Burkholder worked with the Newton Brothers in recent times, the artist explained what was the most important lesson he learned from them. “In terms of a movie, like Shelby Oaks especially, is when not to play music, when to be silent and when to lay out and let the filmmaking speak for itself,” Burkholder noted. “With a horror movie, if there’s too much music, we call that ‘leading a witness’. It can really take the audience out of it.”
Burkholder also recalled what was unique about composing for Shelby Oaks given the film’s development process. Given how it was affected by the strikes and more, Burkholder actually came up with new musical compositions for the film.
“What’s really interesting about Shelby Oaks is that we came on and started working on it almost three years ago now,” Burkholder explained. “When Neon came in, we got to do some reshoots and re-edits and stuff like that. I would say [it’s] an interesting experience getting to come back and revisit some of the music and re-score some new scenes.”
Shelby Oaks is also unique in that it utilizes multiple perspectives during its transition from being a found footage film to a third person-centric movie. Burkholder described the musical differences during that transition in format. “There’s kind of a different sonic palette, I would say for those two sections,” Burkholder said. “There’s sounds that you hear in one section that you don’t hear again and vice versa. There’s new sounds that come along once we shift worlds.”
Burkholder also went more in-depth into the practical process he had when composing certain scenes, from Mia’s conversational moments to the build-up leading into those fast-paced chase sequences. “There really are those dread building moments that are so important. Music is such a powerful tool and knowing when to do that is really important.”
“Collaborating with Chris on that was really fun, to get into the minutia and really granular with where we wanted that dread to be. In terms of the chase sequences, that’s just getting to bring out the big drums and stuff like that.”
Burkholder utilized many different instruments when it came to designing the brooding tracks of Shelby Oaks. However, there was one unusual instrument he used that was even a surprise to him.
“There’s one kind of pivotal scene in the movie where the tambourine weirdly makes a really big appearance in it,” Burkholder said. “It was one of those things where I was working on it and there’s a lot of strings and there’s vocals and chanting. Then, I brought the tambourine in and it brought this creepy folkiness to it.”
Shelby Oaks releases in theaters on October 24.
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Christopher Gallardo is a freelance entertainment writer and critic. While not running The Reel Roller, Chris can be found writing reviews and breakdowns on all things films and TV. Outside of entertainment writing, he’s currently taking classes for a Bachelor’s of Science with a minor in Digital Media & Journalism. Plus, he loves Percy Jackson, animated films and shows, and Fallout! Follow Christopher on Instagram & X.