Shayne Armstrong and S.P.Krause are an award-winning Australian screenwriting partnership.
Their supernatural thriller THE DARKNESS, produced by Blumhouse Productions, opened on 1,600 screens across the United States and later ranked among Netflix’s most popular films. They also wrote the acclaimed crime thriller ACOLYTES (2008), starring Joel Edgerton, and the high-concept creature feature BAIT 3D (2012), with their drafts securing production financing. Bait went on to become Australia’s highest-grossing horror film internationally until TALK TO ME (2023).
Their most recent produced screenplay is DEEP WATER (2026), produced by Arclight Films, directed by Renny Harlin, and starring Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart. The film is scheduled for a May 2026 U.S. theatrical release on 2,500 screens.
Their latest project, HEADLESS, a horror-action feature for Altitude Films and producer Chris Brown (Sting, The Proposition), is currently in production.
Shark films remain a particular favourite of the duo; they also served as script editors on THE REEF 2: STALKED.
Current projects include THEO: A HAUNTING, a supernatural thriller for Kristian Moliere (The Babadook) and Sandra Yee Ling (Gretel & Hansel); and SUBMERGED, a horror thriller for producer Michael Robertson (Black Water, The Reef).
In addition to writing crime, thriller, and horror features, Armstrong and Krause have worked with some of the world’s leading producers of children’s animation and live-action television.
They are four-time nominees for the AWGIES, winning the John Hinde Award for Excellence in Sci-Fi Writing in both 2009 and 2013 – the only writers to have received the award twice.
Born and raised on the ironically named Darling Downs, their shared childhood – fuelled by Hammer Horror, Eerie comics, BBC sci-fi, and the visceral cinema of the 1970s – cemented a lifelong obsession with horror, crime, science fiction, and thrillers. Despite several near-death childhood mishaps, they insist they are entirely unscarred.
They continue to write new screenplays while all good souls are sleeping.
