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By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 15 seconds ago

There’s been a lot of Stephen King adaptations over the years. In the early 90s, King decided to write a story as a screenplay first, and the result was the insane Sleepwalkers, about a mother and son pair of vampiric werecats terrorizing a small town in Indiana.

It’s one of those films that has to be seen to be believed, especially for a pre-Borg Queen performance by Star Trek: First Contact’s Alice Krige as one of the sleepwalkers. The 1992 horror film recently arrived on Netflix, making it even easier to play “spot the famous horror director” from among the many cameos jammed into the brisk, 89-minute runtime. 

Don’t Think Too Hard About Sleepwalkers

Stephen King has been very upfront about the copious amounts of drugs he consumed during the 70s and 80s, particularly cocaine, which helps explain Sleepwalkers’ plot. Alice Krige is Mary, the mother of Charles (Charmed’s Brian Krause), and the two happen to be energy-draining werecats who feed off the energy of female virgins. Tanya (Twin Peak’s Madchen Amick) is targeted by the two after Charles fakes his way into the local high school, but the elaborate plan, which consists of make out in a cemetery, is thwarted when Tanya fights back using a corkscrew. 

The two sleepwalkers may be powerful night creatures, but they have one weakness, and it just so happens that Tanya’s bonded with one of the beings who can easily kill them in a fight: Clovis the housecat. Sleepwalkers is very simple in its storytelling, and absolutely insane with its bizarre face-morphing CGI (at the time, it was cutting edge), cats flying in off the side of the screen, cars blowing up with a single bullet, and an “interesting” mother-son relationship. 

Sleepwalkers Was A Surprise Box Office Hit

Alice Krige manages to again be off-putting, terrifying, and charming at the same time, similar to her later performance as the Borg Queen, the original “hear me out” meme of the 90s. Her performance helped propel the off-kilter feature to top the box office the weekend it debuted on the way to earning $30 million, unadjusted for inflation, that still tops the 2025 box office for horror films Him and The Woman In The Yard. 

One of the fun parts of Sleepwalkers comes from director Mick Garris’ mission to include as many horror directors as possible, leading to cameos from Stephen King himself, John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Scream), and Joe Dante (Gremlins). Mark Hamill and Ron Perlman also pop in for brief appearances. 

Sleepwalkers was savaged by critics and still only has a 29 percent rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an equally low audience rating of 32 percent. Those people clearly don’t know how to have fun. King’s story may have, allegedly, been drug-induced, but it’s so weird and off the wall that the film is a blast. While it’s special effects aged like milk, Krause and Krig managed to create some great scares, and in an era of bloated runtimes, 89 minutes makes it feel like it’s ending as soon as it gets going. 

Sleepwalkers is now available to stream on Netflix, and we suggest you sit down with your cat to watch it. 

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins’ Episode 4

As we near the halfway point of NBC’s funniest new sitcom, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, Daniel Radcliffe’s documentarian character, Arthur, is already in much deeper than he was probably meant to be. What starts as a film about Reggie’s (Tracy Morgan) comeback turns into something a lot more personal for Arthur, who Radcliffe tells Collider is “actually pretty unhinged and in a pretty desperate place in his life.”

That kind of tension gives the show’s fourth episode, “Save the Cat,” so much of its edge and humor. Reggie’s search for Namath the cat might look like a way to earn back Duck Donovan’s (Corbin Bernsen) trust, but it turns into something a lot sadder and more revealing, especially as Arthur starts to understand why this so-called lost cause matters so much. Back at home, Monica’s (Erika Alexander) attempt to get back into dating brings out some of the episode’s biggest laughs thanks to Rusty (Bobby Moynihan), even if Carmelo’s (Jayln Hall) reaction reminds us how much change this family is dealing with all at once.

When Collider spoke with Radcliffe, Moynihan, Hall, and Precious Way, the cast revealed how Arthur is becoming a big part of the family, Rusty’s place as the home’s unexpected source of comfort, and Carmelo’s real fear of losing the one constant he thought he could count on. Radcliffe also had one very clear response to a possible 30 Rock crossover moment: “Please make that happen.”

Radcliffe Teases Arthur Gets More Unhinged as ‘The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins’ Goes On

Meanwhile, Moynihan says Rusty might be “the most emotionally at peace” in the house.

Image via Scott Gries, Peacock

From Episodes 1 to 4, the show really nails the nuance between people that you think you know who they are, but you really don’t. Did either of you feel a connection to that while playing your characters?

MOYNIHAN: I have it easy. I feel like Rusty thinks he’s the king of his own world, and I think he kind of is. [Laughs] I think Rusty might be the most…

RADCLIFFE: There is a world in which he’s kind of the most emotionally at peace, I think, of any of the characters.

MOYNIHAN: He is! I think he is. He’s figured it out. But he just wants people to join him. He wants to be included.

RADCLIFFE: Honestly, you just remind me of my son. My son is like that. Sorry, it’s a tangent. We were in a library the other day, and he was at this little kitchenette set that they had in the library, and he was playing with some stuff. My son’s almost three, and this older kid, like five or six, just came over and absolutely rinsed him. He took a bunch of the stuff he was playing with, threw a bunch of other stuff on the table, and walked away. My son turned to me and went, “He’s playing with me.” It was heartbreaking. It was so sweet. I was like, “No, bro, he’s not, but it’s really nice that you think he was.” Sorry. I’ll answer your question now.

MOYNIHAN: I’m sorry. I’m going to go leave and beat up that kid.

RADCLIFFE: It was tough. So, I do think the appeal about Arthur is that he’s somebody who, on the surface, when he comes in, seems like he has got it all under control and like he’s got himself together, but actually, as you learn more about him, you realize that he’s actually pretty unhinged and in a pretty desperate place in his life. As the series goes on, his desperation to make this documentary work means he is becoming a more and more unhinged person.

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Bobby, your character, I love how there’s a lot behind him that we don’t know yet. He enters the show as Reggie’s best friend, but by Episode 4, he’s also the emotional utility player for the entire house. When did you realize Rusty’s job wasn’t just to be funny, but to also sort of absorb everyone’s tension and be that relief for everyone when they need it most?

MOYNIHAN: Oh my God, that’s me in real life. [Laughs] No, coming in, I knew my job was to be the funny guy in the basement, but then by Episode 4, my favorite thing about this show is it’s like, “Oh, this is a me and Erika [Alexander] episode,” or “This is a me and Tracy [Morgan] episode.” Once we started pairing off, or we all started having our own little pockets of like, “This is how we act together,” and “This is how we act together,” when we all come together as a family in that living room to shoot a scene, it felt better. It felt like we were becoming more of a family. So, I think I and Rusty naturally just feel more comfortable around them and got better with them.

Radcliffe and Moynihan Explain Why Arthur and Rusty Can’t Stay on the Sidelines

Radcliffe’s response to a possible Tracy Jordan cameo: “Please make that happen.”

Daniel, Arthur mirrors Reggie more and more as the season goes on. From Episodes 1 to 4, we see that there’s the avoidance, the shame, the fear of being seen going out. By Episode 4, though, do you think Arthur realizes he’s no longer just the observer, he’s sort of enabling things to be a certain way?

RADCLIFFE: I think that’s the battle that he has throughout the series, is that he has these rules and this code of ethics when it comes to documentary filmmaking, and we must remain separate, a sort of church and state thing. But actually, as he’s carrying on, he realizes that not only is that becoming harder to maintain, but also he really likes these people, and they have actually been incredibly kind to him and are showing him more kindness and friendship than a lot of other people in his life have. So, I think his journey across this series is admitting to himself that he’s not going to be objective, and he is becoming a part of this family.

I know you’re both huge fans of 30 Rock, so for a show that quietly lives in that universe, I clocked little things, but are there any Easter eggs that you guys saw, or even had no idea they were going to be put in there when you were watching and looking at the script?

MOYNIHAN: They’re drinking Donaghy wine in the first episode. I’m looking through files or something, and Mr. Frumpus comes up, from [Unbreakable] Kimmy Schmidt. There’s a lot of Tina [Fey]/Robert [Carlock] universe Easter eggs in it.

RADCLIFFE: And Mike Carlsen, who plays… What’s the character’s name in our show?

MOYNIHAN: The guy who screams at Reggie.

RADCLIFFE: Yeah, the Jets fan. Nick! In theory, he is potentially related to other versions of that character.

I loved seeing that. Robert and Sam [Means] were talking about having, in, like, Season 7, Tracy Jordan play Reggie Dinkins. It would look like the Spider-Man meme!

RADCLIFFE: That’s incredible. Please make that happen. We have to run long enough for that to happen.

MOYNIHAN: Yeah, exactly.

Hall and Way Break Down Carmelo and Brina’s Very Different Reactions to Monica Dating

Brina “becomes protective of Monica” as the season goes on.

Image via Scott Gries, NBC Universal

So, in Episode 4, “Save the Cat,” Carmelo finds out that Monica is getting dating advice from Rusty, which hits him kind of hard, but it’s also very funny. Jalyn, what do you think Carmelo is really reacting to in that moment, especially when we see him supporting her later on with that video?

HALL: I think it’s more so the sentiment that Carmelo has really been focused on all the changes that his father has been going through, because there have been so many over the years. With mom, like you said, this is mom — mom is only ever going to be mom, and she’s going to stay that way. I think that this is the realization of, like, “Oh, not only is my dad going through changes, but my mom, my cornerstone, the one thing that is supposed to be a constant and never change, is trying to get back into the dating field?”

I feel like for him, he’s always been the one to get the most attention from his mother, and now with her getting back out there, that’s a change in the dynamic. And surprisingly enough, he’s seen the efficiency that Rusty dates with, so, “If he’s the coach, oh my god, I’m doomed.” So he has to put a stop to it. He has to put a stop to it.

Precious, Brina and Monica have this great scene in Episode 3, where she decides to trust her, and they have this really close relationship. What does that relationship start to look like as the series progresses, especially as we see her now rooting for Monica when she does eventually start dating?

WAY: To people’s surprise, Brina… Well, she already loves Monica, admires her, and wants to be friends. So, no matter how unlikely, that’s just the attitude that she has. She has such an appreciation for her, as do I with Erika [Alexander] in real life. I love her. And I feel like Brina becomes protective of Monica as the series goes on. I feel like Brina is a lover, you know? And she has no problem saying what’s on her mind and being out there with how she feels and protecting what she loves, and that includes Monica. So it’ll be fun to see how that unfolds and how people see that in the coming episodes. I think people will really get a kick out of that.

Hall and Way Share What Tracy Morgan Brings to the Set of ‘The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins’

After Episode 4, Brina is “locked and loaded” while Carmelo is pulled in two directions.

Image via Scott Gries, NBC Universal

I will say, Tracy [Morgan] is a legend, and for you guys sharing those scenes with him, I love the dynamics because there are so many different elements of comedy that we see between all of you, but he’s also so human and heartfelt on camera. What’s the funniest thing that you learned just by watching him work so close to you guys in those moments you share, or maybe something you never thought to put into effect as an actor for yourself?

HALL: Oh, that’s a great question.

WAY: That really is a good question.

WAY: I mean, not that we don’t already, but I feel like Tracy has a way of fully committing. You know how people say, “Don’t just dip your toe in the pool, completely get in if you’re gonna get in?” Well, Tracy dives in, and he stays underwater, in the sense of his work and his acting. He brings so much of his heart and who he is as a person to the role, to where you just automatically feel comfortable and settled in. He has this way of making you feel comfortable as a viewer, as an actor, everything, and I feel like if I could steal or borrow or learn a little piece of that, that’s definitely a gift.

HALL: Yes. And then one thing I would say that’s not necessarily out-of-the-box thinking, but keeping the scene going through, even when we’re not filming. What that looks like is there’ll definitely be times where we’re setting up shots, or we’ve yelled cut!, but he’ll keep going. He’s talking, he’s building that rapport that can easily be picked up in the scene. So, those times where you’ll maybe cut to a group shot of us, the conversation, you’re catching us in the middle of it. That’s never the start of it. And I feel like that kind of helps the flow of the scene, the emotions through the scene, how we’re feeling through the scene, and also gets those creative juices and comedic juices flowing to help the scene be that much better. I’ve kind of watched and learned that from him, too.

After Episode 4, what’s the biggest shift for each of your characters? How will we see some of these dynamics shift for the rest of the season?

WAY: Ooh, I think for Brina, she just steps more into her power and more into her mission in life, and what she wants and her belief in her family. She really just takes the whole experience on fully. She’s like, “Okay, the cameras are going to be here. This is my family. This is what we’re after. I’m locked and loaded. I’m ready to be a team player. I’m ready to get the ball rolling for the whole game plan.” I feel like we see her step more into her power and where she lies within the family.

HALL: I think that for Carmelo, in comparison, I feel like he’s kind of like…a diagram. So, you have two circles and then the little oval, diamond thing in the middle. On this side, he’s still a teenage boy, right? He’s still living his life, growing up, and doing teenage things. But on this side, he wants to be there for his family in a way that may be a little bit like Overwatch. You know, when you walk behind someone, and they might drop something, you’re there to see it and pick it up. He kind of does that for his family. But he’s kind of in the middle, where he’s bopping between both of those sides.

I feel like the dynamic for him, you will definitely see him indulge in his teenage, living-his-personal-life side, and going out and doing teenage things, and then also having to jump back into his more parental, well, third parental side. I feel like that dynamic and that balance is very interesting to watch because you’ll see him do this, and you’ll be like, “Oh, look at Carmelo!” And then you’ll see this, and you’ll be like, “Look at Carmelo!” And I can’t wait for you guys to see that.

This interview has been edited and abridged for clarity and length.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins airs Monday nights at 8:30 p.m. EST on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.

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The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins

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Release Date

January 18, 2026

Directors

Rhys Thomas

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By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 21 seconds ago

The advent of streaming completely changed how we watch television, allowing fans to watch whatever they wanted with the press of a button. This is perfect for avid entertainment lovers always looking for their next fix, but as an aging Millennial, I can’t help but think the prominence of streaming took something special away from the overall experience. Television used to be a communal ritual where we all watched the same things at the same time, excitedly sharing our thoughts on the latest shows with fellow fans; now, everyone is siloed in their own entertaining bubbles, enjoying their favorite programming in the stifling comfort of complete isolation.

However, one streaming show set out to change all that: The Last Drive-In on Shudder featured iconic horror guru Joe Bob Briggs hosting scary movies, offering commentary segments throughout where commercials might have gone way back when. While the Last Drive-In segments are available to stream on demand after a couple of days, they would premiere on Friday nights in a live broadcast that superfans would watch at the same time, all while chattering with each other and with Joe Bob (and his perky co-host, Darcy the Mail Girl) on social media. This made this the best show on streaming, but it’s the end of an era now that Shudder has canceled the show.

The Man, The Myth

Since he is something of a cult figure, you may need a primer on Joe Bob Briggs, especially if you’re a younger horror fiend. Joe Bob (real name, John Bloom) started out as a reporter for The Dallas Herald, and he specialized in a niche no one else cared about: shlocky exploitation films and gruesome horror movies you could only find at the local drive-in theater. To cover these movies, Bloom developed the persona of Joe Bob Briggs, a quippy, quirky redneck whose rants offered great insight into genre films while serving as a parody of the prim and proper reviews from film critics like Siskel and Ebert.

In 1985, Briggs made an unexpected jump from the printed page to the stage with a very successful one-man show, An Evening With Joe Bob Briggs. This raised his profile and proved he could entertain large crowds, and this led to an unexpected opportunity: he guest-hosted Drive-In Theater on The Movie Channel, which led to him getting his own show, the appropriately named Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater.  There, he hosted shlocky movies (typically horror films), complete with a tongue-in-cheek tally of things like how many dead bodies and naked breasts appeared in the film.

When Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater ended, he took his unique brand of entertainment, hosting MonsterVision on TNT. There, he once again hosted a variety of films, but he offered more commentary than ever: rather than appearing only at the beginning of the film, Joe Bob would also pop up on commercial breaks, offering further insights into each movie. When MonsterVision ended, though, Joe Bob largely dropped out of public life, popping up two decades later in a farewell performance that ended up reigniting his career.

A New Era

In 2018, Joe Bob Briggs hosted a 24-hour marathon of movies for Shudder, all of which were initially broadcast as part of the horror streamer’s live feed. This was meant to be a final performance for Joe Bob, giving this old cowboy one last time on the saddle before he rode off into the sunset. However, the marathon proved to be insanely popular, with Shudder’s servers crashing due to the high number of fans all rushing to watch this genre legend dish dirt on spooky movies.

In response, Shudder ordered more specials from him before greenlighting The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs, a regular series. For the next seven years, Joe Bob hosted one of the most popular series on the streaming platform, and his most ardent fans tuned in to each live broadcast, using social media to connect the entire fandom (affectionately nicknamed “The Mutant Family”). Due to the show’s success, it really looked like Joe Bob would be doing this forever, but just a few days ago, he dropped some devastating news on his fans.

An Emotional Rollercoaster of Announcements

Joe Bob Briggs typically hypes up his upcoming shows on Shudder, offering cryptic hints and funny commentary on platforms like Facebook and X. Ahead of the season finale of The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs, he made a somber-sounding announcement about how important it was for all of the fandom to tune in for this episode. This led to rampant speculation from fans: some thought Joe Bob needed more live views to get his show renewed, and others thought he would be announcing his retirement because, at 73, he’s one of the oldest entertainers in the business and may be dealing with unknown health issues.

When the episode aired, Joe Bob and co-host Darcy the Mail Girl offered fans some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Joe Bob is quite healthy (or, in his words, “spry as f*ck”), but the bad news is that Shudder is canceling The Last Drive-In. The hosts have apparently known this was coming for a while, but they are currently forbidden from saying exactly what went down and why Shudder (which just updated its app in an attempt to gain more subscribers) suddenly decided to kill the only show that countless fans (myself included) subscribe to this streamer to watch. 

An Unknown Future

The silver lining in all of this is that Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl plan to take their show somewhere else, but they have not yet confirmed where this will be. We likely know where they will not go, and that is Tubi. On X, Joe Bob retweeted a post from Damian Maffei that didn’t explicitly name Tubi but accused “that free streaming app with all the ads” of being a streamer that has been known “to edit movies. Cut things down, and zoom in on scenes.”

Many have pointed out that Tubi doesn’t do this and just streams whatever print of the film they can get, but the implication of the retweet is that Joe Bob doesn’t like the free streaming service and is unlikely to take The Last Drive-In over there. Unfortunately, this brings us no closer to knowing where Joe Bob and Darcy will land and when they’ll start hosting movies again. Until they confirm anything, all fans can do is speculate while mourning the loss of the best show on streaming.

The Drive-In Will Never Die

The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs was unlike anything else in the streaming world: it featured eclectic horror classics, insightful commentary, and gonzo humor, all while letting fans share the magic together through live broadcasts. It brought the entire Mutant Family together, allowing us to bond over everything from Joe Bob’s signature rants to the shlockiness of our favorite films. Fortunately, the man himself has confirmed he will be returning and keep gracing us with his unique brand of comedic criticism powered by decades of arcane horror film knowledge.

That announcement fulfills the prophecy of something Joe Bob has been reminding us of at the end of every episode since the new show began. A promise, a mantra, and a fervent hope, all rolled into five little words that the Mutants are clinging to now more than ever: “the drive-in will never die.”

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is making a Kaiju-sized splash in its second season. The proof lies in its ratings, as it’s scored a solid 82% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, and in the number of Titans that appear on-screen. In addition to MonsterVerse icons like Godzilla and King Kong, Monarch must contend with the mysterious “Titan X”: an amphibious creaturetrapped in the realm known as Axis Mundi. Titan X doesn’t waste any time establishing itself as a threat, as it engages in battle and kills Monarch’s deputy director Natalia Verdugo (Mirelly Taylor) in the Season 2 premiere “Cause and Effect. This battle sets up a massive plot point that is sure to come into play later in the season: the split between Monarch and Apex Cybernetics.

Apex is fated to play an antagonistic role in the MonsterVerse, since it’ll eventually build MechaGodzilla in Godzilla VS. Kong. Season 1 started to hint at Apex’s future destiny, with May Olowe-Hewitt (Kiersey Clemons) learning that the company had appropriated code she’d written. Apex also tried to blackmail May into spying on Monarch, which eventually led to a stalemate of sorts between the two organizations. Verdugo’s death has set the stage for the rift between Monarch and Apex to reopen, especially with Monarch’s shift in leadership.

‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Is Keeping a Key Character Hidden

Image via Apple TV+

Though Verdugo’s death is shocking, it does raise the question of who’s really in charge of Monarch. After all, she was only the deputy director, which must mean that there’s an acting director. Said director, Barris, was finally name-dropped in the Season 2 episode “Resonance”, Tim (Joe Tippett) tries to contact a “Director Barris.” While Tim has now become head of operations at Outpost 18 following Verdugo’s death, his attempts to contact Barris reveal that Monarch has evolved far past the organization that Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell), Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), and Bill Randa (Anders Holm) formed back in 1954.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters also revealed in its Season 1 finale that Tim is working with Apex, which means that Barris might be a double agent looking to utilize Monarch’s resources for nefarious ends. Apex’s main goal is to create weapons capable of taking down Titans; while it eventually succeeds with MechaGodzilla, it hasn’t been clear how it obtained the resources to do so. Monarch could reveal how that happened. If Barris is an Apex double agent, it could also explain some events in Monarch Season 1, particularly the operation to kill Godzilla with nuclear bombs in 1954. That sounds exactly like something Apex would do.

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The Monarch-Apex War Could Shape The Future of ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’

If Monarch: Legacy of Monsters ends Season 2 by creating the rift between Monarch and Apex, it could set up a conflict that shapes future seasons. That conflict might also affect an upcoming Monarch spinoff, which is set to delve deeper into Lee Shaw’s life. Wyatt Russell previously teased the spinoff by telling Collider’s Steve Weintraub that it would take Shaw’s story to some unexpected places:

“I think people are going to expect one thing and be like, ‘Holy shit, this is not what I expected.’ It’ll go deeper into Lee’s experience after he came up, and being sort of put on ice, in 1982, and then what happens after that, and why he’s needed and the mission he goes on…Having it come together the way it’s come together, I’m very excited and excited about exploring more of what this character becomes as you’ve seen him, an older version, that you see these experiences that he’s had that inform much more of what you’re going to continually be seeing in Monarch.”

If this spinoff is going to show more of Shaw’s life during the Cold War era, it should absolutely touch on the conflict between Monarch and Apex. That would make for an interesting story and show how far both sides are willing to go to pursue their goals. While most viewers are coming to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters for the Titan battles, the real conflict has been staring them in the face.

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Release Date

November 16, 2023

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Network

Apple TV

Showrunner

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Chris Black, Matt Fraction

Directors

Julian Holmes, Matt Shakman, Mairzee Almas, Andy Goddard, Hiromi Kamata

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Writers

Al Letson, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Chris Black, Mariko Tamaki, Amanda Overton, Andrew Colville, Matt Fraction, Milla Bell-Hart

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By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 13 seconds ago

During The X-Files’ historic run, Mulder and Scully tackled mysteries both large (aliens) and small (Was Scully’s old partner really possessed?), leading to the Season 6 episode, “Triangle,” where Mulder finds himself trapped in the Bermuda Triangle. It was only in the last decade that the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle started to vanish from pop culture.

Once on the same level as quicksand as far as Gen X and Millennials were concerned, the area between Florida’s east coast, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico has been the site of countless lost ships, planes, and mysterious sightings. The “Devil’s Triangle” was the perfect setting for a standalone episode, and “Triangle” turned out to be one of the best of the series. 

The Monster Of The Week Is The Bermuda Triangle

Agent Mulder (David Duchovny) is stuck on a raft out in the ocean when the Queen Anne ocean liner picks him up. This would be a good thing except it’s 1998, and the Queen Anne vanished within the Bermuda Triangle in 1939. Mulder quickly realizes that he’s the one who went back in time after German officers, led by a man who looks exactly like the Smoking Man (William B. Davis), comes on board, and a radio broadcasts the start of World War II. 

The Germans are searching for “Thor’s Hammer,” one of the Allies’ secret weapons, which Mulder helpfully corrects by explaining that “Thor’s Hammer” is a person, not a weapon. During his interrogation, a past version of Scully (Gillian Anderson), or at least a woman who looks exactly like her, steps forward to put an end to it. This sets off a chase sequence shot to look a single-take thanks to some carefully timed edits that ties together both the 1939 Queen Anne with the 1998 version. 

While Mulder is with Not-Scully in the past, present Scully and the Lone Gunmen are exploring the present ship, which mysteriously turns up in the middle of the ocean with not a single soul on board. In a split screen, viewers watch the past on the left and the present on the right as they all go down the same hall, and then pass each other, alternating the perspective. It’s a fun effect, but it’s what comes next that got The X-Files fans all excited. 

The X-Files Sort Of Gave Fans What They Wanted

After years of teasing and buildup, Mulder kissed Scully. Well, Not Scully, right before he jumps overboard in 1939. In 1998, he wakes up and confesses his love to Scully, who blows him off. Every single fan of The X-Files had been waiting for the kiss, and in “Triangle” it finally happened, sort of. It was a genius way for creator/director/writer Chris Carter to give fans the moment they wanted without impacting the series’ established arc. 

“Triangle” was purposely designed by Carter not to tease fans for another year, but as a challenge to himself to use as little film roll as possible. The long tracking shots were inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, and the dual time narrative came from The Twilight Zone episode, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Put together, and “Triangle” looks like nothing that came before or after. 

The X-Files would go on to pair Mulder and Scully together as a romantic couple, finally paying off the year’s worth of fanfictions and pleading from the fans. Thanks to the technical first kiss, and the inventive storyline that was a little bit time loop and a little bit Wizard of Oz, “Triangle” remains a fan favorite to this day. Few shows can say that one of their best episodes came six seasons in, but then again, few shows were as revolutionary as The X-Files.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 1 hour ago

You wouldn’t normally associate Star Trek with Ridley Scott’s Alien. After all, Trek is all about the joys of exploring strange new worlds, and the 1979 film focuses on how terrifying life on other planets can truly be. Furthermore, the creepy Xenomorph is like nothing that can be found in Gene Roddenberry’s famous franchise.

Well, almost nothing: in one of its stranger retcons, Strange New Worlds transformed the lizard-like Gorn into characters that would have felt right at home chasing down Ellen Ripley. However, decades before that show warped into existence, Star Trek’s best show modeled one of its most iconic races after Ridley Scott’s infamous cinematic creation. We’re talking about the Trill symbiont, whose portrayal in the Deep Space Nine episode “Invasive Procedures” was inspired by Alien.

For The Trill Of It

In case you lost your Star Trek Encyclopedia (did you check behind the helm console?), here’s a quick primer on the Trill. These aliens generally look human, with many of them (most famously, Jadzia Dax) having a row of spots going down each side of their bodies. What really makes the Trill special, though, is that a handful of them become hosts to a special symbiont that can later be passed to another Trill when their host dies. These symbionts retain the memories of previous hosts, which is how (for example) Jadzia Dax had all the memories of Captain Sisko’s previous mentor, Kurzon Dax.

Most Trills never apply to be hosts, and less than a third of those who apply ever get to receive a symbiont. In the Deep Space Nine episode “Invasive Procedures,” the station (which has been mostly evacuated because of a plasma storm) is invaded by a group of thugs. Their leader is someone who previously applied to be a host and was rejected, and now he wants to take Jadzia Dax’s symbiont by force.

Is There A Doctor In The House?

What does all this have to do with Alien? In the episode, Dax’s symbiont is transferred out of her body into the other Trill and, before the credits roll, transferred back. This resulted in Star Trek giving us our first really good look at the symbiont’s new design (it looked significantly different from what we saw in The Next Generation), which presented a special challenge to the show’s special effects gurus.

Afterward (as reported in Captains’ Logs Supplemental–The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages), Deep Space Nine producer David Livingston admitted that everyone working on the episode was worried that the symbiont would “look cheesy” onscreen. Eventually, they adopted the approach pioneered by Ridley Scott in his most famous film, stating, “It’s that whole idea of Alien; you don’t really want to see it too much because the audience is either going to be repulsed by it or say it’s too hokey.”

For context, Scott was famously minimalistic in his portrayal of the Xenomorph in Alien, primarily showing us small glimpses of the creature right before it kills another victim. It’s the same approach that worked for Steven Spielberg in Jaws, a movie made so much more terrifying because of how little we actually see the shark. Scott and Spielberg brought us two of the best horror movies ever made, and they each learned a quintessential lesson along the way: less is always more.

An Iconic Horror Movie Inspires The Ultimate Sci-Fi Show

While Star Trek wasn’t trying to scare us with the Trill symbiont, the producers of “Invasive Procedures” faced the same dilemma. If they showed us too much, half the audience would think the symbiont was too fake, and the other half would think it was too gross-looking. Fortunately, they struck the perfect balance, and the symbiont became one of the most iconic aliens in all of Star Trek, one whose influence has continued into the NuTrek era with both Discovery and Starfleet Academy.

There you have it, space cadets: the tale of how a forgotten Star Trek episode was influenced by one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made. If not for Ridley Scott’s Alien, Trek’s most fascinating aliens might have appeared as a total joke to audiences. Instead, “Invasive Procedures” helped fans take the symbiont seriously, helping Deep Space Nine establish the gravitas it needed to become the best show in the entire franchise.  

Oh no, it’s that time of year. Or it might be, depending on when you’re reading this. At the time of writing, it’s sort of that time of year, at least. And that time of year is Oscar season. People who get excited about the Oscars like to talk about the Oscars, and then people who don’t like the Oscars get excited about talking smack about the Oscars. And those behind the Oscars are probably happy either way.

The following is an attempt to look at times in Oscar history when there was a clear winner for the award of Best Director, and that director won. It’s not necessarily the best of the best when it comes to Academy Award-winning directors, because some of these examples were standout winners in years that weren’t too competitive. Not every year is like 2023, for example, when Christopher Nolan won for Oppenheimer, but just about everyone else would’ve also been a worthy winner (Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest, Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things, Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon, or Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall… big year).

10

William Wyler

‘Ben-Hur’ (1959)

Image via Loews, Inc.

If Ben-Hur ain’t perfect, then it’s close enough to it that it might as well be. Or, if you’re still feeling critical, it’s an amazing production (if a little slow in parts), yet not without some of the best sequences in the history of the whole epic genre. Hell, maybe even the best in cinema history. That chariot race is – and always has been – worth the price of admission alone.

Ben-Hur was done on such a massive scale that the fact it didn’t collapse under its own weight was something of a miracle, and William Wyler, as its director, had to have played a naturally important role in keeping it all together, even if only just. Gone with the Wind had been similarly massive 20 years earlier, sure, and Victor Fleming had won for his directing there, though that win was maybe slightly less indisputable, owing to 1939 being a famously strong year for cinema (and hey, what do you know: Wyler was also nominated that year, for directing Wuthering Heights. No, not that one).

9

James Cameron

‘Titanic’ (1997)

Image via Paramount Pictures

There are complaints that people make about Titanic, since it’s all very broad in some ways, and it also isn’t really the most original movie in the world, but it’s still a wildly impressive technical and directorial achievement, in any event. It’s a tearjerker romance film and a disaster movie, and those two things are combined incredibly well. So, yes, Titanic is well-written (it’s quotable, too), even with some of the clichés and well-worn narrative conventions used.

James Cameron has made plenty of other great movies, so whether Titanic is his absolute best is hard to say, but it feels like the film of his that most deserved to win him a Best Director Oscar. He was king of the world, as he said, on that night in March 1998. That’s a wild thing to say, in most circumstances, yet here, Cameron did honestly earn the right to say it… just.

8

Lewis Milestone

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (1930)

Image via Universal Pictures

All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the first big Oscar successes, naturally, since it won Best Picture and Best Director at the 3^rd Academy Awards. Lewis Milestone won for directing a World War I movie that was, in many regards, quite ahead of its time, in a way that maybe was felt, to some extent, even back then. One can imagine All Quiet on the Western Front succeeding at shocking people, at least.

It’s anti-war in a way that’s been done by plenty of great movies since, and the impact here isn’t going to be as intense if you watch it now, nearly 100 years later, but you can still admire the heaviness of this, by the standards of the early 1930s. As for Milestone’s competition, there were some other directors nominated that year who are fairly well-remembered, at least by those who like older films (like King Vidor and Ernst Lubitsch), but none for helming particularly well-remembered movies, so Milestone and All Quiet on the Western Front felt like the most obvious and deserving picks.

7

Martin Scorsese

‘The Departed’ (2006)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Look, Martin Scorsese should’ve won an Oscar for his directing before 2006, or technically before 2007, because that’s the year his 2006 film, The Departed, finally got him an Academy Award, and it was also the first movie of his to win Best Picture (that’s surprising, too). Honestly, movies like Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Goodfellas were arguably more deserving of a Best Picture win, and Best Director wins for Scorsese specifically.

So, “deserving” here takes Scorsese’s career into account, and the notion that he was kind of overdue. Also, The Departed is still a pretty great movie, so quality-wise, it wasn’t anywhere near an unworthy winner, for either Best Picture or Best Director. The debatable best movie of that year, though, wasn’t nominated in either of those categories: Pan’s Labyrinth (directed by Guillermo del Toro). And the same goes for Children of Men, especially as far as directing’s concerned, as Alfonso Cuarón not being at least nominated for Best Director feels like an oversight.

6

Steven Spielberg

‘Schindler’s List’ (1993)

Image via Universal Pictures

In 1993, two of the best movies Steven Spielberg ever directed came out, and both were completely different in tone and genre. Jurassic Park dominated that year box office-wise, and it still holds up as an absolute classic sci-fi/adventure/thriller movie, while Schindler’s List was that year’s biggest success at the Academy Awards, winning seven in total, including Best Picture and a Best Director win for Spielberg.

Spielberg wasn’t as overdue for a win as Scorsese was, in 2006, but still, he’d made some incredible movies in the two decades that preceded Schindler’s List, so it was still a decently long time coming, given that Spielberg had thrived when it came to both quality (for the most part) and quantity. Schindler’s List was a worthy first win for Spielberg, and he won the Best Director Oscar again five years later for another World War II movie: Saving Private Ryan (though that one did lose Best Picture, somewhat infamously, to Shakespeare in Love).

5

Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins

‘West Side Story’ (1961)

Image via United Artists

West Side Story marked the first time two people were given the Oscar for Best Director in the same year and for the same movie: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. For a while, they were the only duo (so to speak) to do so, at least until the Coen Brothers won for No Country for Old Men. With West Side Story, you probably know the deal, though, like, narrative-wise. Romeo and Juliet in New York City, and with singing.

It’s not really a fun or wholesome musical, yet it is an amazing one, and is a contender for the best-directed musical released during the genre’s heyday (at least in the U.S., that was the 1950s and then a good chunk of the 1960s). Wise and Robbins do a particularly impressive job at retaining the feel of the stage production they’re adapting, yet without pushing the artificiality or theatricality too far. And Robbins was key to that side of things, since he was credited with producing and directing the original stage production of West Side Story in 1957.

4

Peter Jackson

‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003)

Image via New Line Cinema

Peter Jackson’s Best Director win in 2003 wasn’t officially for his work on directing all three movies in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but unofficially… like, it kind of/probably was. He won for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and that was the only one of the three that also won Best Picture, but the whole trilogy was kind of one giant production and story (you can easily watch them back-to-back-to-back, provided you have enough time), and it all obviously culminates with this one.

Whether The Return of the King is the genuine best of the three is up for debate, but the main thing is that the landing was stuck (or landings were stuck), and the destination (or destinations) ended up being as immensely satisfying as the journey. For the 21^st century so far, there is also a pretty good argument to be made that The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the best of the Best Picture winners.

3

Francis Ford Coppola

‘The Godfather Part II’ (1974)

Things were tight in 1972, because Francis Ford Coppola didn’t win the Oscar for Best Director for his work on the original The Godfather. Maybe he should’ve, but also, Bob Fosse’s win for Cabaret was fairly well-deserved, or at least you can understand why that film won. Also, both directors did arguably their best work in 1979, with Fosse’s All That Jazz and Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, yet neither won that year. Best Director went to Robert Benton for Kramer vs. Kramer, instead.

Anyway, Coppola did win in 1974, and even if you don’t like The Godfather Part II quite as much as the first, you can probably agree that it’s on a similar level quality-wise (what with it being one of the most acclaimed sequels of all time and everything). Also, it was a more ambitious – and overall grander in scope – movie than The Godfather, so Coppola managing to oversee it all and keep it so consistent and focused was an impressive filmmaking achievement. Chinatown would’ve also been a deserving winner that year, though The Godfather Part II is probably more impressive overall, and if the award for Coppola was also, in part, acknowledging his nomination without a win for the first movie, then that makes his win further understandable.

2

David Lean

‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962)

Image via Columbia Pictures

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A movie like Lawrence of Arabia inspires hyperbolic things to be said about it, and it’s super obvious that it was an amazing achievement on the part of David Lean, who’d already won Best Director at the Academy Awards before, for The Bridge on the River Kwai. That movie won for 1957, and was also a deserving win, albeit not as clear a winner as was Lawrence of Arabia, since Lean had some tough competition for the award, owing to Sidney Lumet also being nominated that year for 12 Angry Men.

Also, the award was technically called “Best Directing” back then, so if you wanted to be annoying, you could say Lean didn’t actually ever win an Oscar for Best Director; not by that exact name. But why would you want to be annoying? Life’s too short to be annoying, though it’s not too short to experience a film like Lawrence of Arabia a bunch of times, even if it’s an incredibly long watch (might well be the most rewatchable movie that has a runtime of nearly four hours).

1

Miloš Forman

‘Amadeus’ (1984)

Image via Orion Pictures

Like David Lean, Miloš Forman also won two Oscars for Best Director, with Amadeus being arguably the most deserving win of his two. Funnily enough, when it won in 1984, one of Forman’s competitors was Lean himself, who’d been nominated for directing what ended up being his final film, A Passage to India. Forman’s other win was for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which famously dominated its year when it came to the Academy Awards, winning the big five.

It’s just that Best Director for 1975 was a stacked category: Federico Fellini for Amarcord, Stanley Kubrick for Barry Lyndon, Sidney Lumet for Dog Day Afternoon, and Robert Altman for Nashville. Like, damn. So, Forman winning in 1984 felt like more of a sure thing, since Amadeus is remarkable in just about every way, and the other nominees for the Directing category didn’t really stand a chance (if Sergio Leone had been nominated as he deserved, though, for directing Once Upon a Time in America… well, that’d be another story).

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Amadeus

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Release Date

September 19, 1984

Runtime

160 minutes

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Director

Milos Forman

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Writers

Peter Shaffer

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