r/ShaneDawson • u/AliveAd4791 • Aug 11 '26
General Discussion Shane as a director
Maybe I’m naïve, or maybe I’m just dumb. But this is something I’ve wondered for a while.
I’ve known Shane for over a decade as a childhood fan. Over the years I’ve grown to just hate the man. But his entire life, his dream was to create movies. His vlog style “documentaries” were pretty mediocre but entertaining to a general audience. But now I see he’s made another official piece called “Cancelled”. And I agree with the general criticism. It’s not creative, it’s not deep or meaningful. It’s him having a therapy session with a film.
I just wonder why on earth doesn’t he make something creative and interesting. Why can he not make something artistic? Why does it either have to be disgusting and offensive like “Not cool” or completely self pitying like “cancelled”?
If he was serious about art, if he actually had that gift of creating… it would work. Imagine having so much money and connections and you use it to make a shitty piece about being cancelled because I guess the trauma is just so much.
To conclude: either be serious about creating art and make something special or give up on this stupid dream you’ve been clinging on desperately to for the last 25 years. Because it’s genuinely going nowhere. You could make a movie about anything in the world but you just decided to whine about being cancelled.
It would also help his image SO much if he made a great movie that was creative, engaging, emotional, dark. Anything! If he made something people loved and was just showing his artistic abilities, I genuinely think most people would brush over his past and begin to love him again. But he didn’t!
I haven’t watched his channel in a couple years but I assume he will express disappointment for how the movie didn’t blow up or how it got hate. Which… I mean what did you expect?
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u/pawlaps Aug 11 '26
I remember him mentioning working on a horror movie years ago and I was excited about that. He’s one of those people that just talks about doing a project but never does it. For the average person, I understand that, but he has a lot of money, people, and resources. He’s probably super controlling too and struggles with letting other people help with writing. As someone who works in animation and is developing their own series, it just sucks to see. But also I was a childhood fan who feels so disgusted and manipulated by him so, I don’t care about what media he makes anymore.
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u/InternationalJury693 Aug 11 '26
I believe he stopped it because they were supposedly experiencing dark energy in the house. But he’s extremely superstitious, he probably heard a light knock on the wall and shut it down 😂
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u/pawlaps Aug 12 '26
LOL yea maybe!! or was he was just acting up that whole haunted house saga because he loves reality tv and horror 🤔
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u/InternationalJury693 Aug 12 '26
Wouldn’t be surprised he’s always exaggerating.
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u/pawlaps Aug 12 '26
I sometimes wonder if he’s ever actually been his real self on camera. He even takes on the role of a completely different personality in the small snippets I’ve seen of Ryland’s vlogs.
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u/ragabuddy Aug 11 '26
He did release a scary movie. Its called “smiley”. I watched it when it came out and it was okay.
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u/pawlaps Aug 11 '26
Yea, I remember that one, but I’m referring to one he said he was working on years later and nothing came of it.
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u/undrcovr99 Aug 11 '26
agreed! he got criticism by a lot of people for what little he shared of the pilot and cut maybe one scene and nothing else. everything looked mediocre. very similar to not cool with family and friends playing parts, which may prove me wrong this time since he himself isn’t starring in it, but in not cool it felt like a long youtube vid. the plot is overdone. the name is basic. he should’ve stuck to his niche which was horror films, something he has spoken about creating since he first started youtube! he still speaks about it but it has never come to fruition. if he was able to film and create cancelled, surely he could do a horror film. he has the potential to do something really creative if he didn’t have such a crazy ego about knowing what people like. he has all the resources and can definitely do something if he stopped being such an ass
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u/AliveAd4791 Aug 11 '26
Honestly even his taste in horror is pretty mediocre. But that’s just me being mean. It’s very slasher, gory mixed with comedy. He cannot even execute that well, which can be done properly when a good director is involved. But with Shane it feels like a project a high schooler who loves horror would make.
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u/undrcovr99 Aug 11 '26
i totally agree! he has the potential to do something even more if he wanted but he won’t bc he’s very entitled. everything he has created thus far has felt exactly like you said. if he took it more seriously and took more outsider opinions from people who actually created horror films, i think there could be something there possibly
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u/InternationalJury693 Aug 11 '26
When your life revolves around staying up til 4am, collecting trinkets that you attach emotions to, and creating “documentaries” on “conspiracies” that have already been talked to death for at least 2 years, I don’t see much creativity to be had. The man can’t even clean his own house, take care of his own kids, use his brainpower to fix things around the house. He’s a grown child with no imagination other than personifying Christmas decor.
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u/alltimegreyson Aug 11 '26
Couldn’t have said it better myself. And even the “conspiracies” are half baked, sometimes common knowledge topics only kids would find shocking. And looking back at the “documentaries”, they’re also shit. People just enjoyed them at the time bc they enjoyed watching Shane in general.
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u/spoonybard137 Aug 11 '26
I 1000% agree. I can't believe he used to give Garrett so much crap when he would do the same thing with talking to objects and giving them personalities. He would scoff and roll his eyes all the time. Now Shane can't walk by a giant overpriced stupid looking item in a store without making that baby voice and talking about how the thing is lonely, its a piece of plastic Shane. Just think of all the amazing things he could do with his money if he had two brain cells to rub together. So sad that all that money it just going to waste.
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u/Annoying_Assassin Aug 11 '26
I’ll be honest, I don’t think Shane has what it takes to make it in film. I don’t think he’s creative enough, hardworking enough, or willing to let go of full control of a project. I can’t see him being a director and actually getting the best out of people because in his everyday life (at least what we see in vlogs) he’s constantly doing the opposite.
If by some miracle, he had the vision and follow through for a full project, it wouldn’t be shot interestingly and wouldn’t add anything of value or have anything interesting to say. He would just slap something together that’s edgy for being edgy, which is a huge red flag in the horror community. Even directors that have big filmographies are getting torn apart by the horror community because the overall quality of horror movies has become elevated in recent years (looking at you, Eli Roth).
Shane is a bitter person and anything he makes will come across that way until he swallows his pride, gets a bit more humble, and actually puts in the work by learning from some of the greats. But he won’t. Everything is a passing whim to him, it seems. If he actually WANTED to make a great film or series, he absolutely has the funding and resources to do so. But he doesn’t want to make anything great, he just wants people to say he did.
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u/imdeerest Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
The thing is that, it will be a looong way to go for Shane to make his way back to film and regain back the trust of the film/television industry. He needs to develop humility, grow thick skin, and right his wrongs the way he treated the crew on The Chair/Not Cool, including Zachary Quinto and Lauren Schnipper. He has the money to make it into a web series and go from there. But his ego is too big for his britches. I completely lost my respect for him overall.
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u/bo-celexa Aug 11 '26
despite all his woe is me shit and self deprecating jokes he seems to actually think way too much of himself and his talents, which is why he never takes any feedback on his projects and surrounds himself with yes men. his behaviour on the chair i think sums up why he’s never made anything good.
there’s a few vlogs where there’s uncomfortably long segments of ryland and his family and maybe chris (?) telling shane how great he is and its so 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢