Chris Stuckmann

Christopher Michael Stuckmann (born April 15, 1988) is an American YouTuber, filmmaker, author, and film critic. Stuckmann has over 2 million subscribers and over 791 million views on the platform as of December 2025. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, he is an approved critic and a member of the Critics Choice Association. In mid-2021, it was announced that Stuckmann had signed to write and direct his full feature debut Shelby Oaks with Paper Street Pictures and producer Aaron B. Koontz.

Early life Stuckmann was born in Boston Heights, Ohio, growing up with two older sisters. Stuckmann is partly of German descent. He took an interest in film criticism from a young age, writing brief reviews of films as early as age fourteen. His primary inspiration among professional film critics was Roger Ebert, particularly the television-program Siskel & Ebert & the Movies which Ebert co-hosted with Gene Siskel. He writes that by watching these reviews, he "discovered the idea of a debate on a film, but a respectful one".

Stuckmann cites his experience watching Signs in theaters as a child as his primary inspiration for becoming a filmmaker. Filmmakers Stuckmann has cited as having heavily influenced him include George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan, and Christopher Nolan. Throughout high school, Stuckmann wrote and directed numerous homemade movies and short films with friends and family.

Career Beginnings and YouTube success He began publishing YouTube reviews of current films in his twenties and published his first film review in 2009. His reviews initially began under a short-form series titled Quick Movie Reviews. When he started this series, there was only a small group of other video bloggers reviewing films on YouTube. He has also expanded into reviewing television shows, anime, and video games.

He published his first book, The Film Buff's Bucket List: The 50 Movies of the 2000s to See Before You Die, in 2016. In April 2018, Stuckmann published his second book titled Anime-Impact: The Movies and Shows that changed the World of Japanese Animation.

Stuckmann has become among the most popular film critics on the website, having a following of over 2.03 million subscribers as of December 2025. Stewart Fletcher of Moviepilot ranked Stuckmann's YouTube channel as the number one channel that movie fans should subscribe to, citing Stuckmann's passionate and coherently written reviews as the reason.

In a 2021 YouTube video titled "Moving Forward...", Stuckmann announced that he would be minimizing film reviews and would stop criticizing "bad" films. He would focus instead on analyzing, discussing, and guiding others on filmmaking. Stuckmann gave two reasons for this shift: first, he stated that he thought of himself as primarily a filmmaker, and wanted to shift focus to his film projects. Second, due to his popularity - which Stuckmann credits to being one of the first movie reviewers on YouTube in the early days of the platform - he was given the opportunity to be more involved in the production of films. He cited that seeing the effort and time that goes into the film production changed his perspective: "I no longer feel comfortable talking negatively about film. Meeting filmmakers, talking to them at festivals, going on to their sets, seeing how much work goes into even your average not-so-great movie; I just don't feel like doing that anymore. I don't want to talk negatively about filmmakers. I don't want to trash filmmakers. It would be strange for me to be making movies and also [trashing] filmmakers. Also, there's plenty of that on [YouTube] already."

Film projects

On July 6, 2021, it was announced that Stuckmann had recently signed with Gotham Group with multiple horror-scripts in the works. His full-length directorial debut, the horror-film Shelby Oaks, was planned to enter principal photography in late 2021 in Stuckmann's native Ohio.

The Kickstarter, which was launched in March 2022, quickly became the most-funded horror film on the site mere weeks after launch, while also surpassing the film's initial $250,000 goal. The final fundraising campaign ended on March 27, with $1,390,845 raised. In May 2024, Mike Flanagan, Trevor Macy, and Melinda Nishioka were revealed to be executive producers on the film, under their production company Intrepid Pictures. Shelby Oaks had its world premiere at the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival on July 20, 2024. In June 2024, Stuckmann signed with The Gersh Agency, for representation in film, including Shelby Oaks.

In July 2024, Neon acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film, later scheduling it for a theatrical release on October 24, 2025.

Personal life Stuckmann has been married to his wife Samantha Elizabeth since 2014. He is also a former Jehovah's Witness and in January 2021 he uploaded a video in which he detailed his negative experiences with the religion, and how he eventually left the faith in his early twenties to pursue filmmaking. In the same video, he also publicly came out as pansexual. On November 21, 2021, Stuckmann announced that Liz had given birth to twin boys on July 7, 2021.

Filmography Feature films Year Title Director Screenwriter Producer Film Editor Notes 2003 Phenomenon Field Home features 2005 The Woods 2024 Shelby Oaks Directorial debut

Short films Year Title Director Screenwriter Producer Film Editor 2013 Julia 2017 Auditorium 6 2019 Notes from Melanie Penance

YouTube + Year Title Role Notes 2011–present Chris Stuckmann's Movie Reviews Presenter Main role 2013–2020 Chris Stuckmann's Hilariocity Reviews 2013 Stuckmann's 1st Annual Halloween Special Co-presenter Also director 2014 Movie Trivia Schmoedown Participant Three episodes Awesome Halloween Guilty Pleasures Co-presenter Also known as Stuckmann's 2nd Annual Halloween Special 2015 Nostalgia Critic Guest Three episodes Screen Junkies Movie Fights Co-presenter Seven episodes Scary Movie Binge! Also known as Stuckmann's 3rd Annual Halloween Special 2016 AMC Jedi Council Guest Episode: "Will There Be An Episode 8 Trailer Before Rogue One?" Stuckmann's 4th Annual Halloween Special Co-presenter Also director 2017 Anime AbandonGuest Episode: "Kite The Movie" I Hate Everything: The Search for the Worst Episode: "The (NOT DREAMWORKS) Collection – 9 Movies!" Midnight Screenings Episode: "A Christmas Story Live!" 2018 Sardonicast Two episodes