| Genre: | Analog horror |
| Creator: | Alex Casanas |
| Num Episodes: | 33 |
| Related: | The Nixonverse |
The Monument Mythos is a YouTube analog horror webseries created by Alex Casanas, set in an alternate history version of the United States.[1] The premises include James Dean serving as President and Martin Luther King Jr. avoiding his assassination. The episodes are in the found footage and mockumentary format and revolve around American national monuments being depicted in relation to unusual incidents, involving fictional conspiracy theory narratives, such as disappearances of immigrants near the Statue of Liberty and a mysterious infection affecting individuals near Mount Rushmore.[2] [3] [4] [5] Lovecraftian motifs are also present.[6] Three seasons were produced, each consisting of 11 episodes. The series ran from August 26, 2020, to April 30, 2023. The storyline had been written in its entirety before the series' release, but the author began making changes to it starting with May 2021. The series' production included original music and voice acting.[7] [8]
A spin-off show titled The Nixonverse is set in the timeline in which Richard Nixon was elected as president instead. It ran from May 14 to August 13, 2022. A compilation film, The Absolute Nixonverse, which added new sections and removed certain sections from the original series, was released on October 1, 2023, on the Dwight Comics YouTube channel.
Nestor Kok of F Newsmagazine described the series in positive terms in 2022, writing: "There is nary an analog horror series, let alone a YouTube web series of any genre, that comes close to matching the scope and ambition of "The Monument Mythos"." According to Joe Hoeffner of Collider in 2023, the series was among the most popular entries into the genre, alongside Local 58, Gemini Home Entertainment, and The Mandela Catalogue, all of which have "increasingly elaborate backstories and mythologies, usually parceled out one cryptic piece at a time"; however, he singled out The Monument Mythos as being particularly engaging for its narrative puzzles. At the same time, he commented that the approach risks becoming clichéd.[9] Tilly Lawton of Pocket Tactics classified the series as a type of an alternate reality game, albeit one with a "[narrative] that [doesn't] alter regardless of player participation" (using the novel term "unfiction").[10] According to the author in 2022, a community of followers was gathering in the series' Discord server, where various thematic events were organized.[11]