Aaron B. Koontz

Aaron B. Koontz
Koontz in 2021
Born
Indianapolis, Indiana
CitizenshipAmerican
Occupations
  • Screenwriter
  • Director
  • Producer
Years active2014–present
Notable work

Aaron B. Koontz is an American producer, writer, and director. He is the founder and CEO of Paper Street Pictures, a film production company based in Austin, Texas.[1] He is also a producer for the Scare Package franchise, The Pale Door, Shelby Oaks, and the upcoming The Mandela Catalogue film, and serves as the creator and showrunner of the television series Revival.

Early life and education

Koontz was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. As a child, he shot home movies and wrote numerous short stories.[2]

After moving to Florida with his family he went on to attend Full Sail University, where he was a classmate of filmmakers Adam Wingard and E. L. Katz.[3] Koontz graduated in 2001 and worked as freelance crew on various film sets including Monster and studio films The Punisher and Out of Time.[4] Aaron was inducted into the Full Sail University Hall of Fame as part of its 15th annual induction class in early 2025.

Career

In 2003, Koontz took a nearly ten-year detour where he worked in video game production as a producer and QA tester-manager for companies like EA Sports, THQ and Zynga.[5] In 2012, Koontz left games to start the boutique genre production company Paper Street Pictures.[6] Through Paper Street, Koontz wrote and directed multiple short films including the award-winning Honor Student.[7] In 2014, Koontz was an executive producer of the SXSW hit Starry Eyes, and then in 2016, he co-wrote, produced and directed his first feature film, Camera Obscura, for NBC Universal. In 2019, Koontz lead the production team for the Shudder cult hit Scare Package, of which he also was the core story co-writer and director as well as the final segment director with Horror Hypothesis. In 2020, Aaron co-wrote, directed and produced The Pale Door, a horror-western he released with the help of executive producer Joe R. Lansdale. In 202, Koontz became a founding member of the genre consulting firm, Blood Oath, with various other industry veterans.[8]

In 2022, he produced five films, with the first was The Requin, starring Alicia Silverstone, followed by Revealer,[9] for which he also wrote the comic book tie-in with Vault Comics.[10] Old Man, starring Stephen Lang, came out in the fall, followed by Blood Relatives which premiered at Fantastic Fest, before releasing in select theaters on Thanksgiving week,[11] and Snow Valley.[12] Koontz directed, produced, and co-wrote Scare Package II: Rad Chad's Revenge, the sequel to Scare Package. The film premiered at Fright Fest in August, before streaming exclusively on Shudder in December,[13] which was called a "superior and superbly silly sequel" by MovieWeb.[14] Koontz has also expressed interest in producing a third Scare Package film with Shudder.[15][16]

In 2023, he led the production of Emily Hagins's Sorry About the Demon which premiered in January on Shudder. In March, he produced The Artifice Girl, starring Lance Henriksen, which garnered him an Indie Spirit Award Nomination. The film had its U.S. Premiere at SXSW. It previously won Best International Feature at Fantasia in Montreal and Trieste in Italy.[17] Also in 2023, he produced the Christmas creature feature A Creature Was Stirring starring Chrissy Metz[18] and the horror thriller Trim Season starring Alex Essoe.[19]

In 2024, he produced Shelby Oaks where Koontz launched a Kickstarter with Chris Stuckmann,[20] which went on to break the record as the most funded horror kickstarter of all time,[21] and then began filming in May and June in and around Ohio.[22] In May 2024, Mike Flanagan, Trevor Macy and Melinda Nishioka were revealed to be executive producers on Shelby Oaks. Later that year, Koontz sold the film to NEON who released it in theaters globally.[23] Koontz also created and served as the showrunner for the supernatural horror television series Revival, which premiered the following year in June 2025.[24]

In 2026, it was announced that Koontz was producing an adaptation of Alex Kister's YouTube series The Mandela Catalogue alongside Scott Stuber and Steven Spielberg for United Artists and Amblin, to be distributed by Amazon.[25]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
2017 Camera Obscura Yes Yes Yes
2019 Scare Package Yes Yes Yes
2020 The Pale Door Yes Yes Yes Also editor
2022 Scare Package II: Rad Chad's Revenge Yes Yes Yes

Executive producer

Year Title
2014 Starry Eyes
2020 15 Things You Didn't Know About Bigfoot
The Pizzagate Masacre

Producer only

Year Title
2022 The Requin
Revealer
Old Man
Blood Relatives
2023 Sorry About the Demon
The Artifice Girl
Trim Season
A Creature Was Stirring
2024 Snow Valley
Shelby Oaks
The Bunker

Other credits

Television

Year Title Writer Executive
producer		 Notes
2024 Tales From the Void No Yes [26]
2025 Revival Yes Yes Creator and showrunner[24]

References

  1. ↑ "Best Pandemic Production House: Paper Street Pictures". www.austinchronicle.com.
  2. ↑ "Interview with Aaron B. Koontz (Scare Package)". Back Lot 605.
  3. ↑ Navarro, Meagan (July 7, 2021). "These Horror Filmmakers All Graduated from Full Sail University in Florida".
  4. ↑ Aaron B. Koontz IMDb
  5. ↑ "Aaron B. Koontz Video Game Credits and Biography". MobyGames.
  6. ↑ "Pandemic Production, One Year Later: Aaron B. Koontz, Co-founder, Paper Street Pictures". www.austinchronicle.com.
  7. ↑ "Honor Student || Featured Short Film".
  8. ↑ Grater, Tom (November 19, 2020). "Genre Film Consulting Firm Blood Oath Launches With Chamber Thriller 'Old Man' & Horror 'Slashman'". Archived from the original on August 8, 2022.
  9. ↑ Squires, John (May 16, 2022). "'Revealer' Trailer – Shudder and 'Hack/Slash' Creator Take You Back to 1987 This Summer". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on July 4, 2022.
  10. ↑ Johnston, Rich (May 19, 2022). "Vault Comics To Publish Tie-In Comic To Revealer Movie, From Shudder". Bleeding Cool News And Rumors. Archived from the original on June 29, 2022.
  11. ↑ Blood Relatives is a Bloody Good Vampire Flick that Deserves your Attention
  12. ↑ "Cooper Van Grootel, Tom Williamson, Barbara Crampton to Star in Brandon Murphy's 'Snow Valley' (Exclusive)". TheWrap. May 19, 2021. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023.
  13. ↑ Swope, Michelle (December 20, 2022). "'Scare Package II: Rad Chad's Revenge' Review – A Fun and Bloody Love Letter to the Horror Genre". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on February 23, 2023.
  14. ↑ Mahler, Matthew (December 22, 2022). "Scare Package 2 Review: Gross-Out Goofs and Scary Spoofs in Rad Chad's Revenge". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on February 23, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Exclusive: We're Getting A SCARE PACKAGE Sequel And Aaron B. Koontz Is Here To Tell Us About It". FANGORIA. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022.
  16. ↑ "'Scare Package II: Rad Chad's Revenge' Is Coming To Shudder [Trailer]". December 14, 2021. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022.
  17. ↑ "Fantasia Festival | The Artifice Girl". Fantasia International Film Festival. Archived from the original on November 29, 2022.
  18. ↑ Grobar, Matt (September 13, 2022). "Well Go USA Acquires Christmas Horror-Thriller 'A Creature Was Stirring' Starring 'This Is Us' Alum Chrissy Metz – First Look". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 23, 2023.
  19. ↑ Couch, Aaron (November 4, 2021). "Horror Thriller 'Trim Season' Sets Cast". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023.
  20. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (July 6, 2021). "YouTuber Chris Stuckmann To Make Horror Movie 'Shelby Oaks' About Missing Paranormal Investigators". Archived from the original on February 3, 2023.
  21. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (March 25, 2022). "Chris Stuckmann Horror Project 'Shelby Oaks' Flies Past $1M On Kickstarter, Studios Come Calling". Archived from the original on March 7, 2023.
  22. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (May 20, 2022). "Chris Stuckmann's Kickstarter Horror Record-Breaker 'Shelby Oaks' Begins Production, Reveals Cast – Cannes". Archived from the original on March 28, 2023.
  23. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (May 1, 2024). "Chris Stuckmann's Horror Movie 'Shelby Oaks' Adds Genre Specialist Mike Flanagan To Team". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
  24. 1 2 Hailu, Selome (September 18, 2024). "Syfy's Revival Comic Book Adaptation Sets Main Cast (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  25. ↑ https://deadline.com/2026/07/youtube-mandela-catalog-steven-spielberg-scott-stuber-1236973259/
  26. ↑ Earl, William (March 1, 2024). "'Tales From the Void,' a Series Adaptation of Reddit Horror Stories, to Debut in Fall on Screambox (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
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