X-Files Producer Reveals Secret Sauce Behind Most Iconic Episodes

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 11 seconds ago

Through nine seasons, two movies, and one deeply unfortunate revival, The X-Files was driven by a deep and sprawling mythology involving UFOs, aliens, and government coverups (oh, and just a weird amount of oil). This mythology tied to Fox Mulder’s desire to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life, and audiences were meant to tune into the show each week to see how his crusade was going. However, audiences soon found something far more interesting to obsess over than Mulder’s kooky quest: monster-of-the-week episodes!

Instead of focusing on deep lore or alien conspiracies, these episodes featured memorable foes (including everything from a stretchy cannibal to a giant flukeworm) who terrorized Mulder and Scully each week. Aside from the fact that these episodes were fun and scary, most fans never bothered to think too hard about why they loved these stories so much. However, in looking back at “The Host,” veteran X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz developed a theory: namely, that these episodes were popular because they focused on things that felt both “scary and real.”

Enter The Flukeman

As reported by X-Files Confidential, Spotnitz himself was fascinated by the Flukeman, who was the memorable monster of the week in the episode, “The Host.” He noted how “there’s something very visceral” about this particular thread, and how “it really captured people’s imaginations, and that was one of the big themes of the show, was finding things that were scary and real.” The Flukeman was memorably able to attack people through toilets, and the producer pointed out that “everyone seemed to be able to imagine … being attacked in a porta-potty, something coming out of your toilet.”

Wrapping up his thoughts, Spotnitz said that the enthusiastic audience reception to “The Host” was because the episode “speaks to deep fears – you know, urban myths people have heard their whole lives about, you know, snakes coming out of toilets or being attacked in vulnerable places, like a bathroom.” In reading what the producer had to say about this iconic episode, I was struck by a simple fact: he just quietly uncovered why X-Files fans love monster of the week episodes. The short answer is that the villains in these episodes typically tap into our more practical fears than things like alien abduction.

So Much Scarier Than Aliens

Aliens may be the primary threat on The X-Files, but when you get right down to it, they represent a pretty abstract threat to audiences. A good chunk of the people watching the show are, like Scully, skeptical about the existence of extraterrestrial life. Furthermore, a big part of the audience who does believe in aliens thinks that they are more likely to be friendly, Star Trek-style friendlies rather than little green men out to probe human butts.

However, monster of the week villains usually have their basis in something more realistic and, therefore, more terrifying. As Spotnitz points out, countless people are terrified of the idea of a snake hiding in their toilet and biting them in the bum. For someone who deeply fears something like that happening, the idea of a human-sized flukeworm who can do the same is downright horrifying.

The Scariest Monsters Look Like Us

Plus, it helps that so many monsters of the week are often human or present themselves as human. You might not be specifically scared of stretchy cannibals like Eugene Tooms, but he represents a more universally primal fear: that someone could be hiding in your home or workplace, and you wouldn’t know until it was too late. The show is also filled with human monsters like John Lee Roche, someone whose child victims reflect our very real fear of predators attacking kids with impunity. Even the inbred hillbillies of “Home” tap into the paranoid fear that your neighbors are not what they seem and that you will never truly be safe in your community.

Long story not very short, X-Files fans are more frightened by monster-of-the-week episodes because the villains in them are a little more (ahem) down to earth than aliens. They tap into urban myths, folk tales, and old-fashioned camp stories to remind us that we are always vulnerable when we least expect it. Let’s be real: what could be scarier than that?