I’m currently focused on creating elevated genre for the US market — movies and TV shows that make audiences think and feel.
I’m one half of NOBODY MOVE with Chicago-native (and Austin Script Competition winner) David Singer. Together, we create sci-fi comedies that are equal parts smart and silly. I also work with fellow Aussie (and AWG Monte Miller award-winner) Philip Tarl Denson on darker sci-fi and horror scripts.
I got my start writing and directing drama and comedy, making my feature debut with Play It Safe in 2015. I followed this up with my work on Clayton Jacobson's Brothers' Nest, which Rolling Stone reported "could (and should) be the sleeper hit of" SXSW 2018, and my pilot script The Trouble With Unicorns, which was a finalist in the 2019 Austin Film Festival's Script Competition.
Since then I’ve contributed to numerous high-concept productions — including projects in development for Village Roadshow and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, numerous Screen Australia and Film Victoria funded productions, and in rooms alongside acclaimed writers like Marieke Hardy, John Collee, Kirsty Fisher, and Grant Scicluna.
Check out my slate below, and you can get in touch with me at chris.pahlow@gmail.com or via this form —
elevated genre in development
Rats in the Walls
feature-length horror
credits written for the screen by (with Philip Tarl Denson)
script sample september 2023 email me to request script
When a grieving widower inherits his ancestral home, he’s forced to confront the secret rituals of his accursed family. Rats in the Walls is a subversive reimagining of HP Lovecraft's short story that explores privilege, intergenerational trauma, and how failing to interrogate the past can devastate your future.
Time Management
half-hour TV sci-fi/comedy
credits creator, writer, producer (all with David Singer)
script sample october 2022 read the pilot / view the pitch
2026: The giant ORCA corporation sends an ambitious middle-manager back in time for a top secret mission. But it’s not to kill Hitler — they're sending Joe back a measly three years to complete “administrative” work. And while he’s in the past shredding documents and purchasing chicken farms, he sees his old life clearly for the first time — including the marriage his old self is about to ruin. Joe decides to grab the future he thinks he deserves, even if that means drugging, kidnapping, and taking the place of the other Joe to do it.
Transmission
half-hour audio horror/drama
credits creator & writer (all with Philip Tarl Denson & David Singer)
A seemingly idyllic couple is left marooned on their remote island retreat when a mysterious fog envelopes the mainland. They begin to question how well they really know each other as they listen to terrifying radio bulletins from their home city & the fog marches towards them.
Heavy Machinery
feature-length sci-fi
credits written by (with David Singer)
In the not-too-distant future, an Artificial Superintelligence has all but eradicated humanity. As the robotic drills approach the earth’s core, the few remaining human slaves that maintain the equipment are suddenly informed that the team with the lowest productivity will be “reassigned”. The different teams go to war with each other, desperate to maintain their feeble hold on life, and what starts out as sabotage quickly turns into bloody combat. Will they be the ones who wipe out humanity once and for all with their vicious civil war, or can they band together to spit in the unseen eye of their oppressor?
NPR Radical
feature-length black comedy
credits written by (with David Singer)
White “NPR radical” Ryan Carrow has joined the good fight. But when a rally demanding the removal of a Confederate statue descends into violence, he ends up zip-tied in the back of an unmarked van. Proto-fascism collides with bureaucratic incompetence as the authorities decide he’s a mysterious terrorist and shuttle him from black site to black site, until he’s unsure if he’s in Azerbaijan or Sacramento. Confronted by real radicals and real violence for the first time in his life, how will his big-PTA-energy stand up against waterboarding? And when push comes to shove, will he beg to be released back to the suburbs, or will he join the real freedom fighters?
Ones and Zeros
feature-length sci-fi dramedy
credits written by (with David Singer)
Professor Amy Pezzati has found a way to save humanity. And her funding’s just been cut. As society approaches collapse, her incredibly complex one-to-one simulation of the earth and everything on it has provided numerous pathways for solving humanity’s many problems. And, to her surprise, her virtual avatar has managed to find love, connection, and happiness in a world made of 1s and 0s in a way that had always eluded her IRL. With only a matter of days before the money is gone and the simulation evaporates forever, Amy has to confront what gives life meaning and what she’s actually trying to save.
Fear of the Unknown
feature-length horror
credits writer
A failed magician finds friendship and validation in a club for illusionists. But as this insular group becomes an echo chamber of frustration, it’s hard to know what’s more terrifying — the potential existence of supernatural forces, or the growing callousness and entitlement of the people trying to summon them.