The X-Files Retrospective: Gender Bender
Season 1, Episode 14 This review contains spoilers. A series of sexual deaths leads Mulder and Scully to a religious community called the Kindred, an Amish-like sect that lives in isolation. After being spurned by the Kindred, M&S sneak onto…
The X-Files Retrospective: Lazarus
Season 1, Episode 15 A botched sting operation results in FBI Agent—and Scully’s ex boyfriend—Willis getting shot by the very criminal he was trying to apprehend, ex-prison guard-turned-murderer Warren Dupre. After Scully shoots Dupre dead, his spirit is transferred into…
Blind Date, Blood Harvest, Grim Prairie Tales
BLIND DATE (1984) An American nomad (Joseph Bottoms) working in Greece goes inexplicably blind after spying on his ex-girlfriend—how’s that for a metaphor!—which subsequently grants him the ability to “see” murders committed by a serial killer through an experimental computer…
The X-Files Retrospective: Beyond the Sea
Season 1, Episode 13 “I thought you’d be pleased that I opened myself to extreme possibilities.” —Scully after Mulder dismisses her belief in serial killer Luther Lee Boggs. In a moment of despair, Scully puts her faith in the hands…
The Hearse, Lurkers, The Soultangler
THE HEARSE (1980) City girl Jane (Trish Van Devere) moves into her deceased aunt’s home in the middle of Hicksville, USA—actually, Bradbury, California—and experiences not only hostility from the locals, but strange goings-on in the house. When Jane isn’t spotting…
The X-Files Retrospective: Eve
Season 1, Episode 11—Eve The unexplained exsanguination of two fathers on opposite sides of the country sparks an investigation that brings Mulder and Scully to the two men’s 8-year-old daughters, Teena and Cindy—both girls unrelated but having the physical characteristics…
The X-Files Retrospective: Fire
Season 1, Episode 12 Mulder is paid a visit by Phoebe Green (Amanda Pays), a Scotland Yard detective and former Oxford schoolmate/lover who believes members of the British aristocracy are being set on fire by a serial arsonist—that killer being…
Deadly Blessing, Embrace of the Vampire, The Kindred
DEADLY BLESSING (1981) Wes Craven’s theatrical follow-up toThe Hills Have Eyes plays like an Amish version of The Omen. Battlestar Galactica‘s Maren Jensen is a widow who believes the religious farming community that neighbors her property is responsible for the…
The X-Files Retrospective: Fallen Angel
Season 1, Episode 10 Mulder receives intel from Deep Throat on a crashed UFO—government codename: Fallen Angel—in Wisconsin and is captured by the military while documenting the crash site. While in captivity, Mulder meets Max Fenig (Scott Bellis), a UFO…