The X-Files Retrospective: Jersey Devil
Season 1, Episode 5—The Jersey Devil This review contains spoilers. “I heard the same story when I was a kid, too. Funny thing is, I believed it.” A corpse with gnawed-off body parts discovered outside Atlantic City is thought to…
The X-Files Retrospective: Conduit
Season 1, Episode 4—Conduit Mulder is attracted to a tabloid story about a teenage girl’s abduction by aliens and petitions the FBI to make it a legitimate X-Files case—a move that angers his superiors and gives Scully pause. Believing the…
Darkroom, Ghosthouse, Mary Mary Bloody Mary
DARKROOM (1989) A dysfunctional family hiding a dark secret is menaced by a prowler who takes photos of his victims before and after hacking them up. Suspects proliferate in the form of a mullet-sporting photographer, a repressed family matriarch, a…
The X-Files Retrospective: Squeeze
Season 1, Episode 3—Squeeze “Is there any way to get it off my fingers quickly without betraying my cool exterior?” —Mulder, after coming into contact with bile. A string of murders in Baltimore, Maryland, implies a certain X-Files motif after…
The X-Files Retrospective: Deep Throat
Season 1, Episode 2—Deep Throat “Let’s just say this case has a distinct smell to it. A certain… paranormal bouquet.” After presenting a new case to Scully (the disappearance of a disturbed military test pilot in Idaho), Mulder is confronted…
The Basement, The Immortalizer, Return to Salem’s Lot
THE BASEMENT (1989) Four people are summoned to a dank basement by the Sentinel, a hooded ghoul who warns them of crimes they will commit in the future. Told in omnibus format, the first story is about an unfaithful housewife…
The X-Files Retrospective: Pilot
With the 33rd anniversary of The X-Files, I’ve decided to rewatch the show in its entirety—for about the 10th time!—and write a perspective/review of each episode. I expect this project will take me well into 2027 since there are 202…
Blood Mania, Devil’s Nightmare, Sweet House of Horrors
BLOOD MANIA (1970) Tight sweater-donning Vicky (Maria de Aragon) is a nympho—a female character trait frequently found in low-budget horror movies of the time period—who’s plotting the murder of her ailing father so she can inherit daddy’s fortune. After attending…
Cellar Dweller, Island of the Fishmen, Mutant
CELLAR DWELLER (1987) Using a Satanic text for inspiration, comic book artist Colin Childress (Jeffrey Combs) accidentally conjures his creation (an eight-foot tall demonic creature) into the real world and the two go up in flames. Years later, Childress’s house…