Sci-Fi Pulse Reviews: Abnormal Fixation, Season 2 and calls it "hilarious" and "heartfelt"

Sci-Fi Pulse's Raissa Devereux reviews Abnormal Fixation Season Two and calls it "hilarious" and heartfelt"

Check out the full review here:

In Review: Abnormal Fixation, Season 2 (Web Series)

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!

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...)

Sci-Fi Pulse Radio Appearance: Enter The House Between, and Horror Decade Books

This week, I'm a guest on Sci-Fi Pulse Radio with co-hosts Ian Cullen and Marx Pyle to discuss Enter The House Between's first season (to wrap up beginning September 13, 2023), as well as my latest Horror Films decades book from McFarland, Horror Films 2000 -2009.  

We also discussed the Strange New Worlds' musical episode (which I loved), and some slasher movie remakes.

Give it a listen!

Sci-Fi Pulse Reviews Enter The House Between (2023)

Sci-Fi Pulse's Raissa Devereux has just reviewed our full-cast audio drama, Enter The House Between and rated it a 9.5 out of 10.  Whoo-hoo!

The author writes:

"15 years ago, John Kenneth Muir’s web series — The House Between — was ahead of the zeitgeist. Now, his podcast continuation — Enter the House Between — is heartwarmingly on-trend...For the unfamiliar, Muir’s universe is less Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and more Everything Everywhere All at Once. Moreover, his less is more story telling allows room for accessible exposition. As a result, new listeners won’t feel left behind.

That said, there’s plenty for fans of the original series to love. As with the web series, the podcast is character driven. Happily, Muir hasn’t missed a beat..."

Read the full review and scores for audio production, performances and story here, at Sci-Fi Pulse: https://www.scifipulse.net/enter-the-house-between-podcast/

Our first six episodes are available NOW on all podcast platforms, and on YouTube.  Our final three episodes of the season drop this fall!  Joins and and Enter The House Between...