AF Episode 5: "The Doll"

 

SciFi Pulse Reviews Abnormal Fixation Episode 5: "The Doll"

 SciFi Pulse's Raissa Devereux reviews tomorrow's episode of Abnormal Fixation, "The Doll:"

"Abnormal Fixation, Episode 5: “The Doll” paid off the world-building and character development ...John Kenneth Muir used the titular doll as one of several Chekhov’s guns. In the process, he gave viewers a master class on narrative economy, as he set up the season finale. Muir maintained the tonal tightrope walk. The payoffs were all necessarily tragic, even when the context was comic Additionally, Muir deftly juxtaposed Alyssa and Dr. Carol Carroll. Both women understood Season better than she understood herself.

As for Alyssa, I really appreciated how Muir used her as meta-commentary on film financing. I find I’m as invested in Alyssa’s creative journey as I am in the subjects of her documentary.

All the regulars were excellent. They did a great job of conveying fatigue with the ruts their characters were were in. They walked the razor thin line with viewers between sympathy and exasperation.

The standout, however, was Leslie Cossor as Dr. Carol Carroll. She combined delightful physical choices with wonderful comic timing...

AF: Meet Dr. Carol Carroll (Leslie Cossor)

This week on Abnormal Fixation, the final new member of Elvis's unusual entourage is introduced.  

In "The Doll," you get to meet Dr. Carol Carroll, couples therapist and licensed exorcist. 

That description suggests, appropriately, that Dr. Carol will fit right in with the others on the team with Season and Elvis.

In real life, Dr. Carol Caroll is played by the incredible Leslie Cossor, an accomplished actor and comedian. 

Leslie arrived on set for AF and instantly brought her character vividly to life, right down to some incredible ad libs, which remain in the final cut of the episode. I know I speak for everyone in the cast when I say we  love working with Leslie. She brings a unique and playful energy to her role, which keeps us all on our toes.

Leslie was also part of the cast of Enter the House Between in 2023, playing Eris, the half-human/half-lar offspring of Theresa. 

Leslie has also worked locally, regionally, off Broadway and with Cirque Du Soleil’s “Quidam.” Leslie specializes in voice in movement with her work heavily based on elements found in Fitz-Maurice and Linklater voice work, Laban, Bartenieff, and Alexander movement techniques. She lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and children.

Tomorrow, get ready to meet Dr. Carol Carroll!

50 Years Ago: Doctor Who: "The Ark in Space"

The fourth actor to portray the famous time traveling "Doctor," Tom Baker followed on directly from the Jon Pertwee years, a span wherein -- for a substantial stretch of time -- the renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey was trapped on 20th century Earth, unable to explore the universe.

That travel ban had been lifted previous to Baker's arrival (following the anniversary celebration, "The Three Doctors), but "The Ark in Space" represents the fourth Doctor's first foray away from terra firma; and a harrowing one at that.

Can you believe it's been fifty years since this serial ended its BBC run (February 15, 1975)?

"The Ark in Space" is also an early and prominent example of producer Philip Hinchcliffe's new template for the long-lived series, one that involved a dramatic shift towards more overt horror territory.  

Indeed, seasons 12 through 15 of Doctor Who --which still represents a kind of golden age for the classic series -- presented one outer space  horror-themed serial after another, with titles such as "Terror of the Zygons," "Planet of Evil," "The Pyramids of Mars," "The Brain of Morbius," "The Seeds of Doom," "The Masque of Mandragora," "The Hand of Fear, "The Face of Evil," "The Talons of Weng-Chiang," "The Horror of Fang Rock," and "Image of the Fendahl."  

In these tales, the universe itself seemed to take on a new, distinctly mysterious and dark aura.  There was a strong Lovecraftian angle to the series at this juncture, as monstrous gods (Sutekh), species (The Fendahl), and personalities (Morbius) threatened to arise from centuries-long slumber, or even from entrapment in the ice (Krynoid) to threaten mankind and the universe at large.

"The Ark in Space" expertly sets that terrifying tone for this new concentration on horror, and does so from the inaugural shot; a point-of-view perspective shot that reveals some kind of green-slime-covered monster attacking a sleeping human inside a suspended-animation chamber.  

Aboard the T.A.R.D.I.S., Doctor and his two companions, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) set down near the site of the attack, on a seemingly abandoned "artificial satellite," the space station called Nerva.  

The station is an example of "30th century construction," and the time/space travelers quickly discover that Nerva is also a "cryogenic repository" warehousing the survivors of the human race.  These poor souls have been asleep for some 5,000 years, following solar flares which devastated the surface of Earth.

 Now, the "entire human race" awaits "a trumpet blast," to wake up, start over again, and re-populate the healed planet.

In an early portion of the first episode, the Doctor delivers a stirring speech about mankind and the species' possibilities, and his words bear repeating:

 "What an inventive, invincible species! It's only been a few million years since they crawled up out of the mud and learned to walk. Puny, defenseless bipeds. They've survived flood, famine and plague. They've survived cosmic wars and holocausts. And now, here they are, out among the stars, waiting to begin a new life. Ready to out-sit eternity. They're indomitable.  Indomitable."

However, those future pioneers of Earth now have a big problem.  An alien race called the Wirrn that the Doctor likens to "galactic wood worms" has infested the station.

The Wirrn swarm once lived in the Andromeda Galaxy but their "Old Lands" were seized by space faring human beings, and the giant bugs have been looking for a new home ever since.  Not to mention revenge. Again, consider how the discussion of "Old Lands" and the resurrection/return of an ancient evil resonates with the Lovecraft template.

The Wirrn plan to utilize the sleeping human race on Nerva as their primary food source, and more.  When they digest life forms, the Wirrn also absorb the knowledge of all such life, and so plan to become a "technological species" within one generation.

As his wont, the Doctor has once more stumbled into an inter-species battle for survival, and must pick a side for which to fight.  Given his history, and the affirmative quotation regarding mankind above, it's not too difficult to guess where his loyalties fall.   

But one delightful element of  "The Ark in Space" is that it isn't simply a serial about man vs. alien, or the Doctor racing to the rescue; much like the proverbial Time Traveler negotiating the breach between the Eloi and the Morlock.

On the contrary, this Doctor Who serial comments on an intriguing trend in the 20th century workplace that began in the 1970s and probably reached its peak in the mid-1990s.  

In this tale by Robert Holmes, the future humans in suspended animation are all workers with very specific assignments.  They are specialists, able to perform with great talent their assigned duties, and only their assigned duties.  They are advanced technologically, quite bright, and yet also rigid.   One woman named Vira (Wendy Williams) is a physician; the man named Noah is a leader, and so on.  

But beyond their specialties, these examples of future man are lost; diffident and vulnerable. 

In real life, the debate was whether or not workers would be more productive simply doing one task, or multi-tasking.  In the Recession of the early-to-mid 1990s, the trend towards specialization largely faded out and multi-tasking -- the performance of multiple tasks by one person -- carried the day.   With layoffs and an epidemic of "down-sizing" (a new term in the 1990s) workers had to prove their flexibility and worth to companies looking to cut and slash.

"The Ark in Space" debates this issue, in the process considering every shade of each argument.  Vira is designated a physician, but when Noah, the team leader, is absorbed by the Wirrn, she must step up to the plate and take command.  It is not her nature, and it's not her "job description," but fate has made these arrangements for her. She will either grow...or fail.  And if she fails, the human race fails.

The Wirrn represent a strong contrast to the trend of specialization in the work place: they gain knowledge easily, through biological absorption and can pick up new talents, skills, and data without re-education or any personal learning whatsoever.

They need only to...consume talented individuals to grow and fatten and prosper.  Because they are an insect culture, the Wirrn are also a hive mind.  And another word for that, of course, is "corporate entity."

So make any comparisons you wish there, between business executives and parasitic insects.  They are the "users" of the workers, who end up on top by "absorbing" the talents of those they exploit.

The more closely one studies "The Ark in Space," the more fully this debate about specialization in the human animal bubbles through to the surface.

In Part Four of the serial, for instance, Sarah Jane Smith -- a reporter by trade -- leaves her comfort zone behind in more ways than one by transporting an electronic cable through an egregiously tight vent shaft.

Like Vira, who becomes a sturdy and dependable commanding officer, Sarah adapts to the needs of the environment instead of sticking to one particular skill set.  Rather than specialize herself into oblivion, she grows and changes.  Again, this is gazed upon as an extemely valuable trait.

Yet there's a yang to this yin, as well.

An engineer named Rogan ultimately saves the day by releasing the docking clamps on a space shuttle containing the Wirrn.  Before he does so, Rogan tellingly informs the Doctor "This is my job," with the emphasis on the descriptor "my."  He meets his destiny by fulfilling the task he was trained to do.  He considers that task an oath, as we can see from his self-sacrifice.  

Similarly, Noah retains enough of his humanity to also fulfill his training...as a leader.  In this case, he saves the humans by deceiving the Wirrn into space; to the outside hull of the station.  

Uniquely, Noah has not only fulfilled his compact with the humans, he has also, in a very strange way "led" the Wirrn as well.  Right off a cliff, so-to-speak. It's illuminating to consider that the humans and the Wirrns are both, at times in this four-part serial, led by one man: Noah.  This means, I suppose that once a leader, always a leader, regardless of the species one commands.  Once more, the idea being explored in "The Ark in Space" is training or career preparation as nothing less than destiny.  

"The Ark in Space" diagrams the debate between specialization and multi-tasking quite fully, without ever lecturing or becoming pedantic.  The end point seems to be not that one approach is worlds better than the other, but only that flexibility and expertise are the keys to survival in any Darwinian struggle for survival.  The humans (and the Doctor) do adapt, and fight back against the Wirrn.  The same cannot be said for the bugs.

The Wirrn continue to live by their biological life cycle (eat, absorb, lay eggs, then start again) and in the end that's simply not enough to make them the dominant species. Possessed of a corporate mentality, they cannot, apparently, resist from following Noah (their metaphorical CEO, I suppose...), into disaster. There must be learning and adaptation for survival, this serial implies.

In terms of context, "The Ark in Space" is also fascinating because it reveals Dr. Who, along with Space:1999 (also premiering in 1975) at the spearhead of the movement to re-define space adventuring in darker, more grotesque terms than in previous TV efforts.  

In the late 1960s, Star Trek had beautifully and colorfully presented the idea of the United Nations in Space, with Cold War enemies such as the Klingons and the Federation, and each unaligned planet representing an island across a cosmic ocean, to either join the Federation, or team up with the enemy.  By the late 1970s, the paradigm shifted.  Space, in 1999 and the Hinchcliffe years of Who, no longer existed simply as an extended metaphor for East/West relations here on Earth.  

And at the end of the decade, of course, Ridley Scott's brilliant film Alien (1979) took the concept of outer space horror about as far as it could possibly go, with the riveting, gorgeously visualized tale of a "perfect" (and perfectly hostile) alien parasite.

If one were to gaze at episodes of Space:1999 such as "Dragon's Domain" (with an alien octopus inhabiting a derelict space ship...) and "End of Eternity" (featuring a malevolent alien kicked out an airlock, when there's no way to kill him), as well as "The Ark in Space," which posits a parasite co-opting human bodies for the furtherance of its life-cycle, the "seeds" of Alien are quite evident.   

Today, one scene in "Ark in Space" forecasts Alien especially closely.  Sarah Jane goes into that tight vent shaft, wearing a head-set "two-way radio," while in another chamber crewmen monitor her progress going from "juncture" to "juncture."  

At one point, Sarah encounters the Wirrn, but they are (safely) on the other side of a vent grille.  In Alien, of course, Captain Dallas goes into the Nostromo's air duct, also wearing such a head set, and is monitored closely by Lambert and Parker, moving from "junction" to "junction."  He comes to a much unhappier end, than Sarah-Jane. 

The point of this comparison is not to declare in any way, shape or form that Alien ripped off this TV show or that TV show, only that there was clearly something in the water in the 1970s, so-to-speak, moving space adventure in the direction of more dark, paranoid, chaotic imaginings.  

Perhaps it was the Energy Crisis that made all the difference: a global race for resources during a period of scarcity and market manipulation.  In many of these dramas, from "The Ark in Space" to "Dragon's Domain" to Alien, it is man himself who becomes the ultimate resource for otherworldly beings; to be used up, and rather maliciously so.

"The Ark in Space" sets the dark, ominous tone for much of Tom Baker's early tenure on Doctor Who, and so there's a chilling, unsettling atmosphere to the entire enterprise.  In this story, man is dislodged from his home on Earth and sleeping in the ultimate "dark" -- outer space itself.  And worse, there really are hungry monsters under the bed, just waiting to get him. 

"The Ark in Space" exploits this universal fear well, despite a not-very convincing Wirrn monster costume, and succeeds in being suspenseful largely because it is well-written and well-performed.  The Doctor goes on at length about the idea of being "digested" and "absorbed" by the Wirrn, and his colorful descriptions are more than enough to give those with a strong imagination a lingering case of the creeps.

By 1975, Doctor Who had been around for more than a decade.  

But "The Ark in Space" is worth highlighting because it nearly feels like a pilot for a new series; a purposeful and efficacious re-direction of Who from its more action-oriented, earthbound, James-Bond-like Pertwee phase towards more ominous imaginings about outer space, and man's possible future role in that mysterious and unsafe realm.

Sci Fi Pulse Reviews AF Episode 4: "The Trip" (and link to episode included!)

 Sci-Fi Pulse is out with a positive review of AF's fourth episode, which premieres today! 

Writing about "The Trip," critic Raissa Devereux notes: 

"...As for the comedy, viewers got two marvelous sequences. The first centered around Elvis’ car. The second took place at a B&B. Then, there’s a third sequence that I would classify as dramedy. That involved Mark’s metaphor for his relationship with Season..

...The entire cast remained top notch throughout. For their parts, John Kenneth Muir and Alicia Martin continued as a wonderful comedic double act. Additionally, Kathryn Muir and guest Kim Breeding-Mercer were obviously having fun with their deadpan performances. The standout, however, was Chris Martin, who had to walk a razor thin line...

...Abnormal Fixation, Episode 4: “The Trip” set up the final installments of the season perfectly."

Check out Episode 4 of Abnormal Fixation, "The Trip," below!"

50 Years Ago: The Stepford Wives (1975)

In The Stepford Wives (1975), Joanna Eberhart (Katharine Ross) and her family move from bustling New York to the sleepy Stepford Village in Connecticut. Joanna misses the hubbub of the city and wants to explore her interest in photography more fully. She finds that Stepford is a strange place, however. Specifically, all the women there are interested only in serving and obeying their husbands and keeping immaculate homes.

Joanna tries to set up a women’s lib group in town with her new friend, Bobby (Prentiss), but they find that there is no interest and no support. Meanwhile, Joanna’s husband, Walter (Masterson) has joined the town’s secretive Men’s Association, and the organization takes an unusual interest in her. Soon, Bobby mysteriously begins to act like all the other “Stepford wives,” and Joanna comes to realize that her turn is fast approaching. 

She sneaks into the Men’s Association to learn the town secret, and makes a terrifying discovery…

 

Husbands would rather be married to fuckable, compliant robot maids than real flesh-and-bod, independent-mind women.That’s the inescapable conclusion in The Stepford Wives, the fifty-year-old sci-fi/horror/comedy film based on the novel by Ira Levin of the same name. The movie is a scalding indictment of (some) men, and one that notes their inadequacies as fathers, husbands, and lovers at the same time it acknowledges that, in American society, they nonetheless possess all the levers of power.  One can rage against them, but in the end, the Men’s Association -- a loosely renamed Boys Club -- always wins. 

 

The description above may make The Stepford Wives sound shrill and serious, but the movie’s genius is that it is anything but shrill, and there are many funny moments. In fact, The Stepford Wives goes out of its way to establish how reasonable Joanna is, and how the things she wishes for herself are the very things that every man also wishes for himself: a chance to pursue happiness. The film uses humor to makes men look small and moronic for denying others the very things that they enjoy for themselves.

 

In Joanna’s case, she is fascinated by photography. That’s the thing that she feels make her a special and distinct individual. She wants to be remembered as an artist. But her husband Walter doesn’t want Joanna to pursue photography, preferring a clean house to a spouse who brings something intellectual or artistic to the table. “When are things going to sparkle around here?” he asks her pointedly, referring to the perfect, clean houses of Stepford. He’s quite clear in this. Her value as a wife is in keeping his home spotless.

 

The funny thing about this is that Walter has no apparent desire to see Joanna get paid for her toils at home, and this element of the debate about sex roles was actually a crucial issue of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when married women had precious little financial independence. They had to be married for twenty years, for example, to receive their husband’s Social Security benefits upon his death. And, since they worked entirely at home, they had no such benefits in their own name. Representative Bella Abzug fought this battle vociferously, and in 1974 delivered a speech about the fact that married women were working approximately 99 hours a week, but not being paid a red cent, and not receiving anything in terms of retirement security. In the famous delivery, she declared:

 

“If America’s housewives ever placed an embargo on dispensing their free labor, the pilot lights on gas ranges would go out all over the land, the washing machines and vacuum cleaners would fall silent, husbands would not be driven to suburban trains, children would not be fetched…and the nation would discover a whole new definition of crisis.” (Congressional Record: 120 Cong. Rec., 1759-61).

 

Once more, the point here concerns the levers of power, and the fact that men hold all the power in this society. There’s a beautiful speech by Joanna in The Stepford Wives that perfectly explains what she has to lose if replaced by a machine, a more perfect doppelgänger.

She imagines her counterpart and states. “She’ll cook and clean, but she won’t take pictures, and she won’t be me. She’ll be like one of those robots in Disneyland.”  

There’s the crux of it: the replacement Joanna will love to serve (and possess larger breasts too…) but the spark of life, of individuality would be missing. What does it say about the men of Stepford that they prefer mindless, perpetual service to the spark of life?  To the companionship of real women? 

 

One funny aspect of The Stepford Wives is the high level of denial the movie exposes on the part of the Stepford men. They program their wives to mindlessly and relentlessly appreciate their lovemaking, and the audience hears one wife moaning during sexual intercourse that “nobody ever touched me the way you touch me. You’re the best. You’re the champion. You’re the master.”  The man on the receiving end of that excessive compliment would have to know, of course, that his machine-wife was programmed to express that level of satisfaction and enthusiasm, and therefore that the sentiment was not genuine or authentic, let alone earned.  And yet he still wants to hear it, and he still wants to believe it.

 

If you think about that kind of self-deluded behavior and couple it with the selfishness the film exposes in the Men's Association, including the guy who paves over his wife’s tennis court, it’s not a pretty picture.

 

The satire and social commentary here really works because it makes another trenchant point too. The problem with men reaches beyond the borders of Stepford.  The town doesn’t contain it. Accordingly, one of the most fascinating scenes in The Stepford Wives sees Joanna reconnecting with the man she almost married, humorously named Raymond Chandler, as if to put a fine point on her “romantic” vision of a man not her husband. But very soon, Joanna realizes that Raymond is just a bad a choice for her as Walter is and that he would have been no more appreciative or responsive a mate.  

 

This scene is also illustrative for another reason. Joanna confesses that she married Walter because, she dreamed, he was going to “become Perry Mason.” She married him because she believed she could mold him into a vision or male fantasy that she personally found appealing. And of course, that’s what Walter is literally doing with her in Stepford, crafting a replacement that is more his dream Joanna than the real one is. 

Male or female, the desire for a “perfect” mate is shared, apparently.  However, fifty years on, it’s clear that The Stepford Wives understood just how monstrous the Boy’s Club could be, and would be, if granted power. Half-a-century after the film's release there are so many people, still in power, who believe a woman's only place is at home, serving her spouse.  

It's a bit depressing that this well-made film, this social critique, remains so relevant in 2025.

 

AF: Meet Detective Missy Styles (Kim Breeding-Mercer)

It's my pleasure and delight to see the return this week on AF (Abnormal Fixation) of Kim Breeding-Mercer, who portrayed Astrid on The House Between (2006-2009) and in the audio drama Enter The House Between (2023). 

Kim essays the role of the no-nonsense Detective Missy Styles in tomorrow's episode of Abnormal Fixation, "The Trip," and she is a marvelous straight man...er woman.

I love working with Kim, as she is a superb actor, always prepared and always ready to give a line (or a look...) a sharp twist. Just watching her dry, askance reactions to Elvis, Season and Mark in "The Trip" cracks me up every time I watch the show. Among her many talents, Kim has absolutely mastered the reaction shot!

Outside of AF, Kim is a talented author of fantasy and science fiction. She adapted The House Between first season fan favorite "Mirrored" into a novella, available here, and is serializing her own original fantasy tales at Oneirical. 

New installments of Kim's "ongoing bedtime stories" can get delivered to your inbox, every day, free, and I wholeheartedly recommend catching up with them!

See Kim in action in "The Trip," tomorrow on AF!

Guest Post: Companion (2025)

By Jonas Schwartz-Owen

Humanity goes on trial in the latest black-comedy thriller film Companion, and it does NOT paint us in a good light. A satire on toxic masculinity, this latest by Producer Zach Cregger of Barbarian is crisp, acerbic, and predictive of man’s eminent extinction.

 

Iris (Sophie Thatcher) dreads spending the weekend with her boyfriend, Josh’s, judgy gang of friends. She worships the handsome Josh (Jake Quaid), so against her better judgment, she willingly goes along to meet his friends, though she thinks everyone looks down their noses at her. She arrives and Josh’s bestie Kat (Megan Suri) makes snide comments, while she gets unwanted attention from the owner of the isolated house, Sergey (Rupert Friend). Little does Iris know she’s being set up for something nefarious that will question everything she knows about herself, her boyfriend, and civilization itself.

 

Writer/Director Drew Hancock, who wrote for the clever ABC comedy Suburgatory makes his directorial debut here, and he has a great sense of comic timing. The affluent home, the wooded surroundings, all play into the satire but also give a creepy otherness. He puts Thatcher in soft focus unlike the other characters, giving her an ethereal essence -- Hancock borrows visually from Brian Forbes’ 1975 adaptation of Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives. The gore is limited, but when it comes, it’s inventive. He also plants seeds in his script that flower into great set pieces.  The commentary on love as transient in the “love lock” sequence is spot on. 

 

There does seem to be a huge disconnect between the script and marketing. The script hints at the reveals with incisive dialogue and camera movements, which all seems for naught when the poster, trailer, and marketing EPKs gives the first twist away immediately. Hancock may have been better off ripping the Band-Aid off in the first moments or hiring the marketers for The Crying Game.

 

Thatcher, fresh off the success of Heretic, has the audience in the palm of her hand the entire film. She’s an endearing protagonist, tough, but vulnerable. Quaid is pitch perfect in mocking his mother Meg Ryan’s 90’s romcoms, exposing the flip side of the perfect lover.  Harvey Guillén (What We Do In The Shadows) is hilariously flippant as the gay best friend, who shatters the sexless gay cliche (sort-of) from those earlier romcoms by bringing along his own true love (Lucas Gage). 

 

Horror has always wrestled with the question “what is humanity?” Is it flesh and blood? Is it empathy? Is it an entitlement to those who walk the earth? Companion clearly believes the answer: humanity is bunk, and not worth saving. 

Three Awards at The Florence Film Awards!

 

AF Episode 3: "The Video"

 

Sci-Fi Pulse called this episode "hilarious" in its review yesterday. 

Now you can see it for yourself!  Episode 3 of Abnormal Fixation: "The Video."

Sci-Fi Pulse Reviews AF Episode 3: "The Video"

In advance of tomorrow's Abnormal Fixation episode, "The Video," Raissa Devereux at Sci-Fi Pulse has posted a review of the episode.  

She writes:

"The comedy is even more hilarious, and the tragedy is even more heartbreaking. Muir underpins the tonal extremes with incredible world-building. For the comedy, viewers get an incredible sequence tied to Alyssa’s back up plan.That isn’t all, though. We also get an ever more earnest story behind an app Elvis has used to cope with separation. For the tragedy, viewers confront the titular video. For this, Muir employs a sobering mix of history, mythology, and body horror...

...Muir and Alicia Martin absolutely sell the comedy and history between Elvis and Season. However, the grounded, harrowing turn by Pauline Mae Allera as Chesa centers the story....

...Abnormal Fixation, Episode 3: “The Video” is wonderfully layered entertainment. So far, Muir has given his audience a whole-hearted class on less is more film making."

Read the full-review here!

AF: Meet Chesa (Pauline Allera)

Tomorrow on Abnormal Fixation's third episode, "The Video," Elvis, Season, Bleeder and the team investigate a disturbing video, from a mysterious young woman named "Chesa." 

In that "dark web" video, Chesa reveals a harrowing tale, and drops an important clue involving the mystery of the Woodpyre Mill Phantom.

In real life, Chesa is played by the amazing Pauline Allera, a talented graphic artist, and storyteller, who you will be hearing much more from, I'm certain, in the future. 

I first met Pauline during the pandemic, when she was a remote student (on Zoom!) in my Public Speaking class  I learned of her amazing artwork in class, and I was so glad when she took on the role of Chesa for our indie show.

Last spring, when we started prepping AF, Pauline really did amazing character work for Chesa. She constructed a back story for the character, granting her new depth and motivation. Much of that detail now ends up on screen. It's so good. 

After intense rehearsals, Pauline shot her material for the episode first, before the rest of the cast in principal production, and she set the bar high.  When we filmed the other cast members reacting to Chesa's video, they were actually watching Pauline's footage!

I can't wait for you to see Pauline and meet Chesa tomorrow, in "The Video."

AF: The Team! 100K and rising!

A humbled and grateful hank you to all the viewers who are discovering, watching, and re-watching our silly rockumentary web series.  

The second episode "The Team," is over 120K views at this time!  (It's a record for our channel!)

JKM Talking AF on The EasterPod

I'm appearing on the newest edition of The EasterPod, hosted by Corey Easterday, who portrays "The Professor" on Abnormal Fixation.  

Corey and I talk horror, my writing/creative career, and of course, the making of the show itself. It was an honor to spend this time with Corey.

Give it a listen when you can!

Soon...

 

Sci-Fi Pulse Reviews AF (Abnormal Fixation) Episode 2: "The Team"

Sci-Fi Pulse reviewed episode 2 of Abnormal Fixation, "The Team," this morning, and it's the kind of review that writers really cherish getting, I must admit. I know I have cherished writing them too.

I'm certainly not the first critic or writer or filmmaker in history to note the connection between comedy and horror, or to note how something funny can come from something dark. Or how we laugh because of, sometimes, the absolute absurdity of our existence.

And stylistically, there's a true, undeniable connection between the form of the "found footage" horror movie and the "mockumentary" comedy.  

There's an absolute tether between those two formalistic concepts. On one end of the spectrum we laugh. And on the other end, we scream.

So it's especially nice to get a review that gazes at how the themes of our indie, grassroots web series are underscored in the creative equation: in the arc, the storytelling, the performances, and so on.

Reviewer Raissa Devereux writes:

"Enabling is the theme that unites all the characters. Muir crafts dialogue and sight gags that reinforce the theme. Moreover, he ensures that the dialogue and sight gags foreshadow their character arcs..."

She terms the episode "visceral" and notes the social commentary on "out of control capitalism," which is, indeed,  part of the equation of this set of stories.  

The Woodpyre Mill Phantom, of course, is a real life reflection of what was happening in mills in NC a hundred years ago, in the 1920s. 

The long hours ("the Stretch out" is NOT an invention, it's real), child labor, and more are all things that one might have hoped would be consigned to history.  Five years ago I would have thought it impossible to a see a return of the age of the robber baron, but current events have made this episode, the Phantom himself, and AF, all the more timely and relevant.

You can read the whole review of "The Team" at Sci-Fi Pulse!

And Episode 2 "The Team" has dropped!  Let me know what you think of the show (and the series so far...)

Meet "The Professor" (Corey Easterday)

Episode 2 of Abnormal Fixation drops tomorrow!

But in the meantime, I want to introduce you to one of the show's incredible cast-members, Corey Easterday.

Corey portrays the series' mysterious Edward Snowden-esque character, "The Professor," and he brings a deadpan, off-kilter delivery to the secretive, unusual character and friend of Elvis Bragg, as you will soon see. 

When not appearing in Abnormal Fixation, Corey is not only a successful stand-up comedian here in Charlotte, NC, but the host of the popular local podcast The EasterPod. 

I love working with the talented Corey and sharing scenes with him, and I can't wait for you to meet The Professor tomorrow, in "The Team."

AF Reels!

(AF) Abnormal Fixation Episode 1: "The Contest"

 

Meet AF's Alicia Martin (Season Winters)

Abnormal Fixation's first episode, "The Contest" drops on YouTube tomorrow, here!  

In the meantime, meet Alicia Martin, who stars in our indie web-series as forensic biologist Season Winters.

Alicia and I have been working together on creative projects for almost twenty years, on projects like The House Between (2006 - 2009) and Enter The House Between (2023). Last year, she and I co-authored the first book in a supernatural/psychology thriller series, The Subway Game (2024), which is free on Kindle (hint, hint). The lead character, Eloise Webb, is modeled on her!

Alicia has won Best Actress awards for her role in AF at The Critic's Choice International Film Festival, Cineplay International Film Festival, Elegant International Film Festival, The Script Symphony Awards, and Magic Silver Screen. 

She was also nominated for best actress at the Oniros Film Awards in August 2024. I suspect Alicia is so effective in the role not merely because of her great talent, but also because of her temperament. There is little I can do, playing her klutzy husband, Elvis, to rattle her, alas.  Because I really want to rattle her, and it never works. But that long-suffering, level-headed, sharp-witted approach makes Season real, grounded, and also comedic.

Can't wait for you to see Alicia in action!

AF is Best Comedy Film, wins Best Supporting Actor at Elegant International Film Festival!

 

David Lynch (1946 - 2025)

50 Years Ago: Dark Star (1975)

Conceived as Planetfall, Dark Star (1974) is the first film of director John Carpenter and writer Dan O’Bannon.  The film began as a student project at U.S.C. in 1970, with principal photography occurring early in 1971. The film underwent re-shoots in 1972 to extend the fifty-minute production to eighty-minutes, and to make it viable for a theatrical release.  The film was then purchased by Jack H. Harris (The Blob [1958]), who demanded additional reshoots.  The film finally premiered in 1975, and met with negative reviews, and relatively little audience appreciation.

Regardless of its origin as a student film, Dark Star is today considered a cult-classic. Its low-budget nature does not take away significantly from the film’s success in part because it is clear the filmmakers had both a creative strategy, and an example to follow. In short, Dark Star is the anti-2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).  As a work of (caustic) 1970s art, it knowingly draws all the opposite conclusions about space travel, mankind, and man’s place or role in the universe. In so cleverly over-turning the 2001 apple cart, Dark Star not only lives up to its title, it remains one of the funniest science fiction films made in the 1970s.

“Don’t give me any of that intelligent life crap. Just give me something I can blow up.”

Eighteen parsecs from Earth in Sector EB-90, the spaceship Dark Star continues its apparently un-ending mission: to destroy unstable planets in order to pave the way for human colonization.  

Unfortunately, the ship has grappled with some severe damage recently, and the newly promoted captain, Doolittle (Narelle) is ill-prepared when one of the ship’s thermonuclear bombs prepares to detonate while still attached to the underbelly of the ship.  Dark Star’s computer suggests teaching the bomb the study of Phenomenology.  

While Doolittle grapples with this existential crisis, Sergeant Pinback (Dan O’Bannon) battles a mischievous alien pet that has escaped from captivity and Lt. Talby (Dre Pahich) dreams of seeing the mysterious Phoenix Asteroids with his own eyes…

“Are you willing to entertain a few concepts?”

Dark Star is an outer space comedy that succeeds brilliantly on the basis of a very good, well-told joke. Visually, thematically, and in terms of philosophy, the film cleverly operates as the antithesis of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Being the “Anti-2001” may sound like a relatively simple or juvenile thing, but actually the opposite is true considering how consistently Carpenter and O’Bannon’s film develops its world-view.  By creating a world so clearly and deliberately the inverse of Kubrick’s vision, Dark Star’s creators have fashioned an intelligent and challenging response to that beloved science fiction film, one that meaningfully re-evaluates mankind’s nature and his place in the universe.

In brief, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a majestic, stately picture that establishes the mysteries of the universe in the form of the monolith, but which also suggests that man’s progress over time possesses a shape and a purpose; moving from ape-like primitive to evolved star child.  

By contrast, Dark Star suggests the absolute absurdity and pointlessness of the human existence, and therefore of the universe itself.  Right down the line, element-to-element Dark Star mirrors and parodies 2001’s sense of “cosmic purpose” with its own sense of man’s irrelevance in the scheme of things, as well as his general pettiness.

In Kubrick’s 2001, the space age is beautiful, stately, wondrous and because of man’s intended destiny, even ordered.  The spaceship and space station interiors are depicted as roomy and minimalistic, and the incredible visuals of space vessels in flight -- docking and landing -- are sometimes accompanied by instances of classical music such as the Blue Danube Waltz, a composition that suggests the formal, dance-like nature of objects in space, and in motion.  

2001’s “theme song” as it might even be considered is “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” a formal composition by Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949) which again, primarily denotes order.  As Kenneth Von Gunden and Stuart H. Stock wrote in in Twenty All-Time Great Science Fiction Films (Crown; 1982, page 190), the composition: 

“…opens with an ascending phrase of three notes…which represent Nietzcshe’s view of the evolutionary rise of man…These three notes serve note that the number three is essential to the film: from the perfect alignment of the three spheres of Earth, Moon, and sun at the beginning to the appearance of things in threes.”

Dark Star’s first anti-2001 conceit is to adopt country music -- the vernacular of personal stories and human emotions -- as its theme song.  The country music genre is not generally symbolic in nature, but literal in its storytelling of failed love affairs or a relationship now lost.  So where Kubrick utilizes his music to suggest the transcendent and ordered nature of space travel, Dark Star’s theme, “Benson, Arizona” by Bill Taylor evokes nothing of grandeur or cosmic importance. 

The lyrics of “Benson, Arizona” explicitly involve the long separation between an astronaut and his Earthbound love, a love that connects that astronaut not to the future (and evolution), but the traditional past.  

This connection is like a tether, dragging him back to earthbound concerns and therefore precluding the chance for growth or transcendence.  Dan O’Bannon noted this context when he said in an interview that the astronauts’ days aboard Dark Star were sad and ridiculous.

The specific comparison between 2001 and Dark Star involves the nature of life on a ship traveling in space.  In A Space Odyssey, the crewmen fly the roomy Discovery towards a rendezvous with destiny near Jupiter.  In Dark Star, the unkempt astronauts fly their ship, the Dark Star on an endless quest across the galaxy to destroy unstable planets.   One journey is, in keeping with the name of the ship, about “discovery.”  The other is about death and destruction…about “blowing things up.”

In the course of these journeys, both men are contacted by home, and again, Dark Star makes a point of inverting the themes featured in Kubrick’s film.  In 2001, a news anchor for BBC-12’s “The World Tonight” interviews astronauts Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) about life on ship.  There is a time lag of approximately seven minutes because Discovery is 80 million miles away.  But meaningful conversation about life in space is still possible…just delayed.

Dark Star opens with a message from McMurdo Base on Earth as a military officer contacts the crew and notes that there is a ten year time lag in conversation because Dark Star is 18 parsecs distant from Earth, a gap that makes any meaningful conversation impossible.  In 2001, the “entire world” joins the BBC interviewer in wishing Dave and Frank a “safe and successful journey” to the stars.  Dark Star’s communique to Earth, by contrasts gets play in “prime time” and “good reviews in the trade,” but the actual content of the message from home is negative.  Earth will not be sending replacement radiation shields to the damaged ship, because of budget cuts and the vast distance separating the ship and the home world.

Both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dark Star also comment on “intelligent” devices and their relationship with mankind.  In the former film, the mellifluous-voiced HAL 9000 becomes murderous on the journey to Jupiter, and must be de-activated.  Under Dave’s auspices, man re-asserts his rightful control over the machine (thus symbolically conquering technology; the latest in the line of tools since the ape-man through that bone into the sky in the film’s prologue…) and then heads off to evolve via the stargate/monolith “trip.”  

Once more, Dark Star inverts that very premise. 

Here, the crewmen of the Dark Star must interact with a talking bomb, one who is convinced that it must detonate (following an accident aboard ship which activates it) and thus kill everyone.  The ship’s acting captain, the appropriately-named Doolittle (Narrelle), -- who all-things considered would rather be surfing – must teach the bomb Phenomenology in order to prevent it from self-actuating and detonating.  After the bomb learns Phenomenology -- the study of consciousness, essentially -- it becomes an ego-maniac, convinced that it is the only sentient being in the universe.  The bomb decides that it is God and before detonating declares “Let There Be Light.”  

In other words, in Dark Star, man does not conquer his technology.  Instead, he is eclipsed and destroyed by it. Technology supersedes man, and man does not evolve…he is destroyed.  Dark Star even re-parses the transcendental stargate sequence of 2001 to its own ends. It is notable too that the bomb adopts the self-image of man: as destroyer.  The ship’s mission was to blow up planets, and now the bomb will blow up man, a variation of that mission.

In Kubrick’s film, Bowman endures a “cosmic trip,” and the aging process, and then is re-born as the evolved “star child.  There’s a cosmic trip” in Dark Star too, but it is not transcendental in nature.  A crewman named Talby (Pahich) joins the glowing, colorful “Phoenix Asteroids” and becomes indistinguishable from them.  The message is hence that man is not unique and special -- he is not a delicate snow-flake -- but rather part and parcel of a vast, meaningless universe, and in some ways just another grain of sand inhabiting it.  

Doolittle, meanwhile also meets his distinctly not transcendental end. He surfs into the atmosphere of a planet…and burns up. His point of greatest self-actuation is reliving his favorite form of leisure…a hobby.

Up and down, Dark Star functions so colorfully and so amusingly because it undercuts and reverses the premises of the grand Kubrick film again and again.  In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Discovery is a perfectly-ordered technological paradise featuring very few signs of human character or individuality.  The Dark Star’s living quarters, by contrast, look like a messy dorm room.  The Discovery is so spacious that Frank Poole can jog alone through a vast circular track.  The Dark Star, by contrast, is so small that its crew literally possesses no elbow room on the bridge.

The men of Dark Star are also not the brave, resourceful astronauts we have come to expect from efforts like 2001 or Star Trek.  Talby sits alone on the observation deck, isolated from the crew.  Pinback can’t be bothered to feed his alien pet.  Doolittle would rather dream about surfing in Malibu than handle the ship’s problems. Even the injured captain, Powell -- who is kept stored barely alive in some kind of cryogenic freeze unit -- is more interested in his hobby (baseball in general, and the Dodgers specifically) than in helping the ship survive a crisis.  The evolution of man does not seem like much of a possibility with these characters as the spearhead for the future age, does it?

Even visually, Dark Star plays knowingly as a mirror reflection of 2001: A Space Odyssey.  In Stanley Kubrick’s film, the Discovery first passes on the screen from left to right, a visual short-hand for a journey outward.  In John Carpenter’s Dark Star, the ship passes from right to left, thus implying a journey back rather than forward.  Since the film concerns man’s inability to transcend petty concerns and specific incidents (reflected in the use of country music as well as the crew’s petty demeanor), the idea transmitted is that mankind is forever journeying, but not really heading anywhere of import.

There’s an old truism about movie-making that goes: the best way to criticize a film is to make another film yourself.  In some crucial and cerebral fashion, Dark Star epitomizes that notion, and note-for-note, it overturns the premises and ideas of the grand 2001: A Space Odyssey.   If the 1970s is truly the wake-up from the hippie dream, as my friend and mentor, Johnny Byrne used to insist, then Dark Star is pointedly the wake-up from the 2001 dream; an acknowledgment of the absurd and pointless nature of man’s existence…even in the Space Age.