Library Journal Recommends Horror Films of the 2010s

To my delight and gratitude, Library Journal has reviewed my new book (and final contribution to this series), Horror Films of the 2010s. 

 Here is an excerpt of their review:

"Horror reflects the anxieties of an age, and Muir connects the films from 2010-2019 to economic unease, political polarization, and institutional mistrust in the post-Great Recession era... Muir goes out on a high note, documenting 275 movies with his trademark insight and wit." — Library Journal. 

Abnormal Fixation crosses 1 million views on YouTube!

Every journey begins with a first step, right?  

The YouTube channel for our indie (and award-winning) mockumentary web series, Abnormal Fixation, just crossed one million views!

This figure doesn't count streaming, (we're on Fawesome and Relay at present,) but it's a good sign, I hope, that our audience is starting to find us!

Give us a watch when you get the chance!

JKM on Roy's Tye-Die Sci-Fi Corner to Discuss Abnormal Fixation Season Two and More!

 

Abnormal Fixation, Season One, Now Streaming Free on Fawesome

Our award-winning, indie (low budget) series, Abnormal Fixation, is now streaming for free on Fawesome. All six episodes of the first year are available.  I hope you will check us out.

Abnormal Fixation at Fawesome,

The X-Cast: "Familiar"

I loved getting to discuss an iconic X-Files monster, Mr. Chuckleteeth and the episode "Familiar" on The X-Cast! 

Check the episode out, below!

Space 1999 This Episode - The Infernal Machine

I had the great pleasure of being a guest on the Space:1999 "This Episode" podcast to discuss the Year One episode "The Infernal Machine" with co-hosts Roy and Warren.  

We spent a little over 90 minutes really digging in, so I hope you enjoy it!

20 Year of Blogging!

Today is this blog's 20th anniversary! Where does the time go!?

I started posting here on April 23, 2005. 

That was before my 18 year-old son was born, before I created The House Between (2006 - 2009), and while George W. Bush was still President of the United States.  

I was eagerly anticipating, at the blog's start, upcoming releases including Serenity (2005) and Revenge of the Sith (2005).

It was a different world.  

Since my start on April 23, 2005, I have written 11,935 blog posts here, which is crazy to me, and I have had, over that span of the blog's life, more than 11 million readers pay me a visit (that's 11,494,694 as of this writing).

Blogs and movies themselves both played a more central role in our popular culture in 2005 than they do now, which I think is probably not a good thing. The internet has also, I feel, become a much meaner place than it was two decades ago, when I began.

Over the years, most bloggers have either called it quits I guess, or moved to YouTube, Facebook, Tik-Tok or other social media to become "influencers."  

However, I still believe there is a certain place, a certain sweet spot, that is fulfilled by a web-log like this one. 

And so I still write here when I can. 

I accept -- after 20 years -- that this blog, like all my work, and all of life itself, goes through different phases. 

Whenever I've thought of ending the blog, something has held me back. I know I can jump on blogger, write, connect, and get my thoughts to the world instantly. There's a value in that, and I find it priceless.

No, I don't post here as much as I used to, it is true. 

In the blog's heyday, from 2012 - 2017, I was posting over a thousand times a year.  Ironically, 2023 was the blog's biggest year in terms of readership and audience, however, which convinces me there's still life in blogging.  

So, I'll just quote This is Spinal Tap (1984) and note, perhaps, that my appeal as a pop culture writer is not diminishing, just becoming "more selective."

Where and why have I shifted my focus? 

Well, in honesty, I am way out of tune with the modern era of film, not being a particularly big fan of Disney live-action remakes or endless superhero movies. Those productions bore me to tears, and I just can't devote energy to writing about them. By the same token, I don't want to be the cantankerous old guy who doesn't like anything new, or who constantly lives only in a place of nostalgia.  

That's why, since 2023, I have focused largely on creating my own universes in audio drama format (Enter the House Between [2023]), in fiction (The Subway Game [2024], with Alicia Martin) and in a comedy web series, the award-winning Abnormal Fixation.  

In terms of my traditional nonfiction, Horror Films of 2000-2009 came out not long ago, and Horror Films of the 2010s is done, and incoming, any minute now...

Making the jump from literary critic, pop-culture commenter to content "creator" is not necessarily easy but I feel committed to it. 

I remember back in the late 1990s, before I found an agent, a prospective agent asked me why I wanted to make the jump from non-fiction to non-fiction when I was so well-known for non-fiction film reviews and movie writing. He said it was a trick I simply wouldn't be able to pull off, so I shouldn't even try.

I hope that's not true, and it was incredibly rewarding in 2024 and now, in 2025 to see our web series, Abnormal Fixation pick up so much audience recognition (26 awards won so far, and 12 nominations) and so many views on YouTube.  I hope if you haven't seen it, you'll give a whirl.

That said, this blog is not going anywhere, at least not any time soon, and for the next several months, I'll celebrate this milestone by re-posting some of my most popular articles.  

In fact, I'll be counting down from the 10th most popular post to the 1st most popular post (at least in terms of views) in the blog's history.

So stick with me, please, as I celebrate 20 years of blogging, starting TODAY!

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."

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...

 

John talks AF (Abnormal Fixation) on Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner!

 

Semi Finalist at Lonely Wolf International Film Festival!

 

Reflections on Turning 55

Last year on my birthday, I wrote about a study published in The Guardian about turning 54.  

That study concluded that fifty-four is the age that people lose their "get-up and go," meaning their "passion and grit."

I was determined not to succumb, and be another statistic. I was not ready to give up my energy and creative life.  Not yet.

And here I am, turning 55, and, well, it has been a heck of a year since I made the pledge not to grow old, to be Peter Pan forever.

There have been great highs and great lows in these last twelve months.

The low, of course, was losing my dad in April.

He was eighty, and battled prostate cancer for so many years. 

We're in the holiday season of 2024 now, and it's the first without him.

I miss him. 

My whole family misses him. 

It already seems like forever that my Dad has been gone. I hope I honored him and his incredible journey of resilience and strength with this diary entries I posted here on the blog early in 2024.

But the fact is that when you lose someone so important to you, you are never the same. 

There is a new normal, but it is not the same normal. 

Here, we are all clinging to one another, and charting a new way forward, because life must go on. But we all miss my Dad and his humble, patient, loving nature.

I have been so fortunate, this year, in other ways, that, I hope, keep me young, and looking to the next sunrise, the next horizon.

This past summer, I collaborated with a tremendously talented group of artists (of multiple generations!) to create our independent web series, Abnormal Fixation. 

It is a comedy-horror show, silly to its low-budget core, and I have been go gratified not just to do the work with my friends, but to see the reception the web series has had on the film festival circuit. 

Its reception so far has exceeded any expectation I had, in honesty. 

So far, Abnormal Fixation has won awards for:

-Best Screenplay (Oniros Film Awards)

-Best Comedy Actor (Elegant International Film Festival) -- That's me!

-Best Actor (Alicia Martin) -- Magic Silver Screen, Critic's Choice International Film Festival, Script Symphony Awards

-Best Supporting Actor (Chris Martin) -- Elegant International Film Festival, Magic Silver Screen

-Best Sound Design (Tony Mercer) -- Oniros Film Awards, Magic Silver Screen

-Best Web Series (Script Symphony Awards)

-Best Indie Film (Cineverse International Film Festival)

And, our series teaser got over 41,000 views in two weeks, which is great. Our show premieres January 23rd, and I hope you will all watch it and see what the fuss is about.

Working with Kathryn, and Joel on Abnormal Fixation, and with all the other amazing cast and crew has been, in so many ways, a life-changing experience for all of us, with more excitement to come. 

We are on an AF journey here in Muirland, for sure.

Also in 2024, Alicia Martin and I co-authored the first novel in a series about a psychologist dealing with the supernatural, The Subway Game, and we are hard at work on the second novel in the series. 

If you want to read a great yarn, with a unique voice, I hope you will check it out!

I've also had the pleasure of seeing my work published in Filtered Reality, an anthology about found footage films, and on the Arrow Films UHD edition of A Simple Plan (1998).

Horror Films of the 2010s is also in preparation, at McFarland another whopping 300,000 word tome, and that's been fun to work on too, to revisit a decade of scary movies (even the elevated horror ones...)

And, I keep at this blog!  In 2025, it will be my twentieth year blogging.  In 2024, this blog has had 999,000 views, as of my birthday, today.  (Overall, since starting 20 years, ago, it has had 10 million+). To celebrate two decades blogging, I'll be sharing my most read posts throughout 2025.

Last but never least, I continue to love teaching. I love my co-workers at South Piedmont Community College, and I cherish the opportunity to teach communications and humanities to a new generation of students, each semester.  

So I don't know that I have any universal answers about the "turning 54" slump or conundrum, except for this:  

Be with people you love, doing what you love, as much as you can, as often as you can. 

Create. Collaborate. Share. Learn. And then do it all again.

Second star to the right, and straight on till morning.

Abnormal Fixation at Sci-Fi Pulse Today!

The popular genre web-site Sci-Fi Pulse is covering Abnormal Fixation today, our indie-web series today! 

The site, and Ian Cullen, hav published our series press kit, which goes over the characters, cast and crew, episode titles and summaries, etc.  

Teaser trailer dropping next week!

Check out Sci-Fi Pulse here!

Abnormal Fixation: More Awards!

Our low-budget, indie, self-produced web series, Abnormal Fixation, continues its journey through the film festival circuit (before a premiere in November of this year!)

Today, I am very proud to announce that our low-budget show is a winner at the IMDB qualifying Elegant International Film Festival!

I picked up a "Best Comedy Actor" award, (pictured above) and am quite humbled and honored to have done so!  

Chris Martin, who plays Mark Missouri, won an award in the category of Best Supporting Actor.  

And Alicia Martin was named as a finalist in the category of Best (Overall) Actor!

Congratulations to my cast and crew, and my thanks to the Elegant International Film Festival!

Abnormal Fixation - Laurels and Honors

Our independent web series, Abnormal Fixation, has earned a number of laurels on the film festival circuit as we anticipate our November 2024 premiere.  I wanted to share a few of those laurels with you today.

Again, I know I speak for the whole cast and crew of this low-budget indie production when I saw how honored we are to have earned and received these.

Here are our wins so far:

And our finalists/nominations/honorable mentions:

Some Official Selections:

Abnormal Fixation Web Series is a Quarter Finalist in the Oniros Film Awards!

This summer, as many of you know, I worked with many great cast and crew members on a comedy-horror indie, super-low budget web series called Abnormal Fixation.  

It's a nutty mock-documentary about a character, Elvis Bragg, who enters a contest to prove the existence of the paranormal. He has just one year to deliver the evidence, or face dire consequences. At the same time, he is trying to win back Season, his estranged wife...

 I am planning for you all to get to see the series in October!

But in the meantime, we just picked up a quarter-finalist notification for the Oniros Film Festival in New York!

I am thrilled and honored that the episode received this honor (in the category of best web series) and I'll update you all when I see what comes next!

Abnormal Fixation: The Web Series. Production Begins!

While season two of the award-winning audio drama Enter The House Between is in post-production, I am thrilled to announce the commencement of production on my new web series, Abnormal Fixation (2024). 

We are recording six 30-minute episodes in June with the intent to air the series in the fall of 2024!

The series is a mockumentary/found footage comedy/horror series about a group of strange individuals vying in a contest to prove (or disprove...) the existence of the paranormal. 

But, of course, the real story is about human relationships, and one relationship in particular, which viewers will learn more about.

I wrote the first season, and I'll be joined on production by some of my favorite on-screen and behind-the-scene talents including Alicia and Chris Martin, Tony Mercer, Kim-Breeding Mercer, Kathryn Muir, Jim Blanton, Leslie Cossor, and a host of new friends and colleagues too.

Production officially began this weekend with Pauline Mae Allera, a talented artist who will essay the crucial role of "Chesa" in the show, and she delivered an amazing performance.  

Some photos of the shoot, and Pauline, below!

The X-Cast: The X-Files I Want to Believe (#46): "I Don't Believe This"

 I return, with host Kurt North, to discuss another moment of the 2008 film, The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

The X-Files I Want to Believe Minute (#45): What Joe Sees (with JKM)

 

I'm on The X-Cast podcast, helping out on an amazing, moment-by-moment analysis of the 2008 feature film The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

Check it out!