R-rated director's cut of X-Files film restores Chris Carter's original horror vision
Ars Technica · LC · trust 33/100
do-do-do-do-do-do R-rated director’s cut of X-Files film restores Chris Carter’s original horror vision Chris Carter chats with Ars about the film he originally wanted to make—and why it’s more relevant than ever.
17 Credit: 20th Century Fox Credit: 20th Century Fox Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav There is a lot of excitement and some trepidation among The X-Files fans about Ryan Coogler’s reboot for Hulu, currently in production. While we’re waiting, Hulu just released Chris Carter’s revamped (and R-rated) director’s cut of the 2008 standalone spinoff film The X-Files: I Want to Believe , distinguishable from its predecessor with a slightly different title: The X-Files: I Want to Believe–Vrach Frankenshteyn .
(Minor spoilers below but no major reveals.)
I Want to Believe received mixed reviews at its release and didn’t exactly light up the box office, but it still grossed $68 million against its $30 million budget. By 2015, the project led to the return of The X-Files as a limited-run TV series, with the six-episode season 10 debuting in 2016. Mulder and Scully were reunited 14 years after the events of season 9 as the FBI reopened the X-Files under Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi). The response was strong enough to warrant a follow-up ten-episode season in 2018, focusing on Mulder and Scully’s search for their missing son, William.
So one could hardly call I Want to Believe a failure. I quite enjoyed the film, but I always had a niggling sense that something was missing. That suspicion was confirmed when Carter made an appearance on David Duchovny’s podcast last summer and revealed that the studio had insisted he cut numerous scenes to get the desired PG-13 rating. Carter also hinted that a director’s cut was in the offing. “I made it too scary,” Carter told Duchovny of his original vision. “Now I have a chance to go back and make the scary movie that I always intended.”
Originally slated for a June release on Disney+, I Want to Believe–Vrach Frankenshteyn eventually moved to Hulu with an August 14 release. It’s largely the same film as in 2008, just rejiggered to emphasize the stronger horror aspects that Carter originally envisioned. Per the official premise:
When a group of women is mysteriously abducted, it becomes a case right out of The X-Files . Years after walking away from the FBI, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are pulled back from the shadows when a federal agent vanishes without a trace. In a case you’d never see on TV, their only lead is a disgraced, defrocked priest claiming to have horrific psychic visions of the crime. Forced to confront the ghosts of their past, the partners must navigate a chilling winter landscape and an even darker human monstrosity. The truth of these crimes is out there somewhere… and it will take Mulder and Scully to find it.
Ars Technica caught up with Carter to learn more.
Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) reunite to solve a new X- file. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Father Joe (Billy Connolly) leads FBI agents to a gruesome find. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Father Joe (Billy Connolly) leads FBI agents to a gruesome find. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) reunite to solve a new X- file. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Father Joe (Billy Connolly) leads FBI agents to a gruesome find. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Special Agents Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) and Mosley Drummy (Alvin Joiner) hope Mulder can help them crack the case. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Special Agents Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) and Mosley Drummy (Alvin Joiner) hope Mulder can help them crack the case. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios The film also probes the familiar theme of faith versus science and reason. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios The film also probes the familiar theme of faith versus science and reason. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Special Agents Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) and Mosley Drummy (Alvin Joiner) hope Mulder can help them crack the case. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios The film also probes the familiar theme of faith versus science and reason. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Ars Technica: The original series always had some elements of horror. I’m curious about why you wanted to make a feature film that was more overtly horror with I Want to Believe .
Chris Carter : We certainly mined the horror genre over and over. The show always works at the intersection of science and science fiction. The original inspiration for this movie was that I read about a doctor who had done a head transplant from one monkey to another monkey’s body, and he’d done it successfully. Immediately I said, “That’s an X-File . I’ve got to tell that story.”
Of course, I wanted to tell it with human beings. So I flew to Cleveland, Ohio, where this doctor was, and he told me how he did it. It was successful, but ultimately the monkey died. But then I started thinking, “Well, maybe this is a way to live forever.” If you could transplant your head onto a younger person’s body, you could possibly keep doing that until something went wrong.
There’s this tech-bro fascination with living forever right now. So this story is as relevant now as it was back then. It’s a great time to tell this story. And I got to go back and revisit something that I was unable to make the way I wanted to make it, due to studio executives who really didn’t know the show. I had promised them I’d make a PG-13 movie because I thought, “That’s what I make on TV every week.” But it turns out that both the executives and the MPA , the people who do the ratings, are less permissive with a PG-13 movie than network television was with horror.
Ars Technica: There’s more to your director’s cut than just restoring a few deleted scenes. You’ve done a full re-edit.
Chris Carter…
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