discordantwords (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
discordantwords) wrote2018-03-07 09:25 pm
discordantwords) wrote2018-03-07 09:25 pm
Entry tags:
Familiar
Tonight's XF episode was a standalone that felt like it strolled right out of the 90s. I believe I saw a post going around on Tumblr that likened it to a mix between "Chinga" and "Die Hand Die Verletzt," which seems an accurate description. Lots of small town relationship drama spilling over into witchcraft and murder.
This episode has also introduced the world to Mr. Chuckleteeth, who I think will be featuring in a lot of folks' nightmares for quite some time.
There are heavy spoilers below the cut.
Just as a note before you read further-- the case involved in this episode deals with child murder (the opening scene is extremely reminiscent of the beginning of Stephen King's IT, right down to the yellow rain slicker), and while the camera pulls away before you see much of anything, the descriptions and speculations about the cause of death and motivations are pretty uncomfortable.
So. An adorable little boy (and his TERRIFYING Mr. Chuckleteeth doll) wanders away from his mother at the playground. He follows a life-sized version of Mr. Chuckleteeth into the woods, where he meets a violent end.
Mulder and Scully show up. Mulder talks about hellhounds and witchcraft. Scully is the appropriate level of skeptical. The police are saying the boy was killed in an animal attack, Scully says it appears that he was strangled first. She spends a bit of time at the crime scene profiling/thinking out loud about the kind of person who would conduct this kind of attack. Her profile makes its way back to the father of the victim (he's a cop), who immediately digs up a likely match-- a convicted sex offender who lives near the park where his son was killed.
Scully examines the body, Mulder discovers salt on the boy's foot (which he pokes at with his ungloved hand, never change Mulder, never change).
There's a HUGE amount of plot shoved into this hour, with the murdered boy's mother having had and ended an affair with the police chief, who happens to be a witchcraft/local history buff with a bunch of old books that catch Mulder's eye. He also has a five year old daughter (named Emily, couldn't they have picked any other name?) who watches a horrifying Teletubbies-esque show that is going to feature in all of my nightmares right alongside Mr. Chuckleteeth. In any case, Emily is subsequently lured into the woods by one of the soulless faux-Teletubbies and murdered too.
Meanwhile, the police officer father of the first murdered victim gets his hand on his prime suspect, and-- honestly, this was one of the more disturbing scenes I've seen on this show. He beats him bloody, and then an angry assembled mob gets in on the action, kicking and stoning and punching. One of the other cops jumps into the fray and shields the man. Mulder intervenes, breaks up the chaos, and just when all seems calm, the father of the murdered boy pulls his gun and shoots the suspect in the head. It's graphic. It shocked me. I really didn't see it coming.
There's more drama and anger over who's having an affair with who and-- you don't actually care about any of this. Mr. Chuckleteeth makes some more appearances. Still nightmare-inducing. There's witchcraft and a hellhound that rips out a guy's throat and a salt circle with an insane amount of candles and it all ends with a nice bit of spontaneous combustion.
It was too much for a single hour of television, I think. The small-New-England-town drama was a central point to all of this, and I felt like I didn't even have enough time to learn everyone's name, let alone who was sleeping with who. But it DID feel like an old school episode. Mulder even tasted a bit of crime scene evidence.
Random observations:
Mulder and Scully's bantering continues to be a delight.
Scully's been hoarse for weeks. Get her a lozenge.
Mulder awkwardly answering "I have a son, he's grown now" to the "do you have children?" question.
Mr. Chuckleteeth is the single most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my life.
No clues on the Mulder/Scully relationship front. They acted like very close coworkers again.
This is one of those self-contained stories that would have ended the same way whether Mulder and Scully were on the scene or not. They don't actually really do anything.
There is only one episode of the X-Files left.
(Okay, fine, there's two. But one of them is called "My Struggle IV" and was written by Chris Carter, so I'll leave it up to you to decide if that's worth acknowledging or not.)
This episode has also introduced the world to Mr. Chuckleteeth, who I think will be featuring in a lot of folks' nightmares for quite some time.
There are heavy spoilers below the cut.
Just as a note before you read further-- the case involved in this episode deals with child murder (the opening scene is extremely reminiscent of the beginning of Stephen King's IT, right down to the yellow rain slicker), and while the camera pulls away before you see much of anything, the descriptions and speculations about the cause of death and motivations are pretty uncomfortable.
So. An adorable little boy (and his TERRIFYING Mr. Chuckleteeth doll) wanders away from his mother at the playground. He follows a life-sized version of Mr. Chuckleteeth into the woods, where he meets a violent end.
Mulder and Scully show up. Mulder talks about hellhounds and witchcraft. Scully is the appropriate level of skeptical. The police are saying the boy was killed in an animal attack, Scully says it appears that he was strangled first. She spends a bit of time at the crime scene profiling/thinking out loud about the kind of person who would conduct this kind of attack. Her profile makes its way back to the father of the victim (he's a cop), who immediately digs up a likely match-- a convicted sex offender who lives near the park where his son was killed.
Scully examines the body, Mulder discovers salt on the boy's foot (which he pokes at with his ungloved hand, never change Mulder, never change).
There's a HUGE amount of plot shoved into this hour, with the murdered boy's mother having had and ended an affair with the police chief, who happens to be a witchcraft/local history buff with a bunch of old books that catch Mulder's eye. He also has a five year old daughter (named Emily, couldn't they have picked any other name?) who watches a horrifying Teletubbies-esque show that is going to feature in all of my nightmares right alongside Mr. Chuckleteeth. In any case, Emily is subsequently lured into the woods by one of the soulless faux-Teletubbies and murdered too.
Meanwhile, the police officer father of the first murdered victim gets his hand on his prime suspect, and-- honestly, this was one of the more disturbing scenes I've seen on this show. He beats him bloody, and then an angry assembled mob gets in on the action, kicking and stoning and punching. One of the other cops jumps into the fray and shields the man. Mulder intervenes, breaks up the chaos, and just when all seems calm, the father of the murdered boy pulls his gun and shoots the suspect in the head. It's graphic. It shocked me. I really didn't see it coming.
There's more drama and anger over who's having an affair with who and-- you don't actually care about any of this. Mr. Chuckleteeth makes some more appearances. Still nightmare-inducing. There's witchcraft and a hellhound that rips out a guy's throat and a salt circle with an insane amount of candles and it all ends with a nice bit of spontaneous combustion.
It was too much for a single hour of television, I think. The small-New-England-town drama was a central point to all of this, and I felt like I didn't even have enough time to learn everyone's name, let alone who was sleeping with who. But it DID feel like an old school episode. Mulder even tasted a bit of crime scene evidence.
Random observations:
Mulder and Scully's bantering continues to be a delight.
Scully's been hoarse for weeks. Get her a lozenge.
Mulder awkwardly answering "I have a son, he's grown now" to the "do you have children?" question.
Mr. Chuckleteeth is the single most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my life.
No clues on the Mulder/Scully relationship front. They acted like very close coworkers again.
This is one of those self-contained stories that would have ended the same way whether Mulder and Scully were on the scene or not. They don't actually really do anything.
There is only one episode of the X-Files left.
(Okay, fine, there's two. But one of them is called "My Struggle IV" and was written by Chris Carter, so I'll leave it up to you to decide if that's worth acknowledging or not.)
no subject
They really tried to make something of the whole small-town-with-history-of-witchcraft vs modern-day-witch-hunt thing, I think. It just kinda fell short. This was the kind of episode that actually might have worked as a movie or something with a longer run time. None of the key roles were on screen long enough for me to care about any of them.
I can't tell if I'm enjoying these because they're actually good or just because they're so much better than Season 10. It's just nice to see Mulder and Scully on screen again, doing what they do.
no subject
I also like hearing that Mulder and Scully are being, well, Mulder and Scully. I will see if I can watch this online this weekend and I'll report back in. I've yet to see a single episode from this season, but maybe this is the one to try.
Thanks again for your great reviews! And My Struggle IV? Yeah, no.
no subject
I'm so sad that next week will likely be the last episode actually worth watching. I've been enjoying the revival in spite of myself, and I wish they'd just keep on making these fun standalones and leave the conspiracies alone.
no subject
no subject
I tell myself that I won't watch it, but I probably will. Curiosity won't let me leave well enough alone. That said, in spite of my somewhat mixed reactions to the episodes, I think this season has been a gift. It's head and shoulders above the quality of Season 10. I've been glad to spend a little more time with Mulder and Scully before they go.
And yes! It is one of the most terrifying things I've ever read. There are scenes in that book that absolutely make my skin crawl.
no subject
Agreed! I found the third act less scary after It finalizes its form, but the first 2/3 of the book when It's basically just the avatar of malice and human evil, hoo boy. I had heart-pounding nightmares about It chasing Mike as the giant bird. Before that, my scariest book reading experience was reading Dracula in high school, mostly at night after everyone else was asleep. I had naively thought that since it was a classic, it wouldn't still be scary, but NOPE, it still was.