How many of these episodes traumatized you as a child?
The '90s were a wild time for TV, and the things shows like The X-Files were able to get away with under the guise of spooky sci-fi fun are pretty legendary. From boneless, contortionist serial killers who could fit themselves through air conditioning vents or tub drains to incestuous, backwoods murder families, there's a good chance that if you grew up during The X-Files heyday, you saw some things that really, really messed you up.
But hey, sometimes being scared out of your mind as a child can be fun, too, right?
Thankfully, given how far both TV and special effects have come, The X-Files is by-and-large considered a nostalgic artifact--pretty harmless and fun to re-watch, especially when you make a game of pointing out all the now-famous guest stars. But there are those episodes that, no matter how dated the effects have become or how quickly you're able to guess (or remember) the twist ending, are still going to get under your skin. And, if you saw these episodes as a young child? You probably spent some time sleeping with all the lights on.
Which episodes of The X-Files terrified you most as a kid and which ones still scare you now? Let us know in the comments below!
1. Squeeze
The introduction to one of the most famous X-Files monsters of all time, Squeeze gave us the horrific and horrifying Eugene Victor Tooms. He may not have looked particularly scary--he was pretty much just a regular dude, with the exception of his eyes that occasionally turned bright yellow around the iris. But his animalistic behavior, need to eat human livers, and ability to fit himself through tiny ceiling grates and drains to corner his kills more than made up for his mundane appearance.
2. Badlaa
Badlaa focused on a beggar-slash-mystic from India slowly achieving his revenge against the foreign businessmen who wronged him in the most brutal way possible. While he was parapalygic and confined to a rolling cart for mobility, he was able to create illusions, appear as other people, and even crawl into the bodies of other humans to use them as people suits to achieve his goals--all while being completely and utterly silent save for the ominous creek of his cart's wheels.
3. F. Emasculata
The idea of a deadly contagion spreading from one person to another due to sheer proximity is a frightening one, particularly in light of current events. But what makes "F. Emasculata" an especially disturbing episode are the physical symptoms--namely, the gross-looking pustules that adorn the victims' faces. The climactic scene shows a particularly nasty-looking one that might leave you unable to eat bubbles on pizza for years (not that we're talking from experience or anything).
4. Space
The low budget of Season 1 lends the show an extra element of creepiness, and "Space" stands out as one such example. While it's otherwise an unremarkable episode, it takes one thing that might've frightened you as a kid--what's the deal with that face on the moon?--and turns it into a frightening hour of TV. The lo-fi look of the entity that takes control of Colonel Belt resembles the shape you might see in the dark while looking up at the ceiling or someone's face in the dark, ensuring you're never comfortable at night.
5. Our Town
There's nothing scarier than a good cult story and while the X-Files managed to deal with a number of them across its episodes, Our Town was one of the very best. Focusing on a town built around a meat-processing business, Our Town peeled back layer after layer around a series of mysterious deaths that eventually resulted in a cascade of major reveals. Cannibalism? Check. Horrifying (and actually real) genetic diseases? Check. A town-wide conspiracy to ensure immortality? Check, check, and check. This one will make you second guess that order of chicken nuggets.
6. Grotesque
Grotesque is an episode about the image of a gargoyle that may or may not drive people insane and make them kill, so of course the gargoyle itself had to be appropriately horrifying to look at. The entire episode is riddled with fever-dream imagery of monstrous creatures as Mulder himself starts to succumb to the gargoyle's influence--perfect bedtime watching, especially for kids.
7. Unruhe
German for "unrest," Unruhe plays fast and loose with the idea of a serial killer driven by "supernatural" forces to kill--or in this case, lobotomize his victims. This episode is made downright terrifying by its villain, a man named Gerry Schnauz, who believes he's seeing "howlers" haunting his victims that he's removing with his lobotomies. Things get even worse when he gets his hands on Scully--and, well, we won't spoil the whole thing for you, but if you're easily stressed out, this probably isn't the best episode to watch.
8. Sanguinarium
One of the show's goriest episodes, Sanguinarium is about a hospital under the say of a demonic influence--and all the horrifically botched surgeries that come with it. From a laser burning through a patient's brain stem to a liposuction vacuuming out a patient's insides, this episode is not for the faint of heart, and actually received some critical push-back for just how bloody and violent it was.
9. 2Shy
Remember when the idea of making friends, or, heaven forbid, dating on the internet was taboo? It may seem absurd and antiquated now, but 2Shy took that idea and put a horrifying spin on it: What if the idea of an internet predator was made literal in the most disgusting way possible? 2Shy's monster would vomit up a stomach-acid like slime to digest the adipose off his victims while they were still alive, leaving their husk-like corpses behind for Mulder and Scully to find.
10. Home
Unquestionably the most infamous episode of the show, Home was The X-Files' only TV-MA rated episode, and the only episode to be kept from replay syndication for years. This was for good reason--this episode was, for lack of a better word, a lot. A Texas Chainsaw-style murder shack? Horrifying inbred monsters? Infanticide? Yeah, it's all here. To make things worse, it also didn't really have an ending--two of the villains get away to go off and start a new family in another home. Yikes.
11. The Host
Parasites are gross, full stop, but giant humanoid parasites that can live in port-a-potties and murder hapless sanitation workers? Absolutely disgusting. The Host's Fluke Man secured himself a spot in the pantheon of The X-Files' most disturbing monsters with his horrible face, but probably also made you scared of the bathroom if you saw this episode as a kid. A real two-for-one special.
12. Chinga
Scary doll episodes are a dime a dozen, but Chinga (written by none other than Stephen King) manages to set itself apart from the pack by adding some truly emotionally fraught mother-daughter drama into the mix. Also the fact that the doll itself isn't actually the one doing the horrific things--it's just making other people do it by sheer malevolent psychic force alone--somehow makes it worse. Sorry if this one made you not trust your own toys when you were growing up, but that was probably the intent.
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