Aaron B. Koontz is an American producer, writer and director. He is the founder and CEO of Paper Street Pictures, a film production company in Austin, Texas.[1] He is also a producer behind The Pale Door, the Scare Package franchise, and Shelby Oaks, from YouTuberChris Stuckmann.
Early life and education
Koontz was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. As a child, he shot home movies and wrote numerous short stories.[2]
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 2022, he produced five films, with the first was The Requin, starring Alicia Silverstone, followed by Revealer,[8] for which he also wrote the comic book tie-in with Vault Comics.[9]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,[10] and Snow Valley.[11]
Koontz directed, produced and co-wrote Scare Package 2: Rad Chad's Revenge, the sequel to Scare Package. The film premiered at Fright Fest in August, before streaming exclusively on Shudder in December,[12] which was called a "superior and superbly silly sequel" by MovieWeb.[13]
In 2024, he produced The Bunker and Shelby Oaks. Koontz launched a Kickstarter for Shelby Oaks with Chris Stuckmann,[17] which went on to break the record as the most funded horror kickstarter of all-time,[18] and then began filming in May and June in and around Ohio.[19] In May 2024, Mike Flanagan, Trevor Macy and Melinda Nishioka were revealed to be executive producers on Shelby Oaks, under their production company Intrepid Pictures.[20]
In late 2020, it was announced that Koontz had formed a new genre consulting firm, Blood Oath, with various other industry veterans.[21]
Koontz has said that he hoped to make a third Scare Package film with Shudder.[22][23]
