(Insert clever title here)

OG X-Files fan, here for the fanfic and fandom! I'm shy and generally ignorant of how to Tumblr so I mostly just like posts, reblog and follow. I read and draw/paint/generally create when I have the energy, which is currently not often.

[andremichaux]

THE X-FILES | 6.08, "The Rain King"

[mytouchstonee]

Mulder & Scully + comforting each other

[cecilysass]

Spooky Award Winners 1998 - full list!

The Spooky Awards were the annual awards given to X-Files fan fiction from 1995-2004 (except for, strangely, the year 1997). They were voted on by readers in a process that's a little unclear to me now--I know it must have been occasionally controversial, because there were sometimes concerns about "ballot stuffing." Full disclosure, I'm getting most of my info about this from Fanlore, although as an aged person I do remember the Spookys being a big deal back in the day. I might have even voted for them at some point, but I really don't remember how it worked. I sure af know we didn't have Google Forms. From year to year the categories changed, sometimes drastically, and sometimes they awarded honorable mentions. In the earlier years, from my point of view, it looks like a lot of the same fics and authors won again and again in lots of categories, but by the later years, it seems like it was a much more varied group of winners. I find the Spooky winners really fascinating to look at now because (1) they show what people liked to write and read back when the show was on; (2) they're an interesting documentation of early online fandom / fanfic, including how people liked to categorize fic and pairings; (3) there are a lot of fics and authors on these lists that people still read and recommend; (4) there are some fics that people really don't read and recommend, and I'm always curious why (some might deserve to be remembered more!). I'm going to list the 1998 Spooky winners below and link each fic as best I can so other people can explore them. I chose 1998 because there were a lot of familiar fics to me on this list--honestly, some real bangers--but maybe I'll do another year later. I found every fic but one still online. (Unacceptable by Justin Glasser anyone? - update: found, thanks to @lilydalexf !) A few random observations about 1998: obviously lots of movie fic. Less of a focus on strictly MSR, and plenty of same sex pairings, including Scully slash. More male fic authors / author names than we typically see nowadays. Also, in googling for a hard-to-find fic, I think I discovered another XF fanfic author who went pro (Saundra Mitchell). Look these over and give me your thoughts!

Outstanding Portrayal of Mulder Angst

First Place - Iolokus series - Mustang Sally and RivkaT

Second Place - The Cry of the Truth - A. I. Irving

Third Place - Eleventh Hour - Rachel Anton

Outstanding Mulder Characterization

First Place - Reach - Khyber

Second Place - Antidote - Karen Rasch and Rachel Howard

Third Place - Tangible - Blueswirl

Outstanding Original Character

First Place - Miranda Scully -- Iolokus IV - MustangSally and RivkaT

Second Place - Audrey--A Show of Strength - Meredith

Outstanding Original Villain

First Place - George Naxos --- Iolokus - MustangSally and Rivka T

Second Place - Mark Dupree --- ELS - Dawson Rambo

Third Place - Mr. Chancy/Simon Moloch -- Kevin Justin Glasser

Outstanding Portrayal of Scully Angst

First Place - Wallpaper - Annie Sewell-Jennings

Second Place - Primal Sympathy - Lydia Bower

Outstanding Scully Characterization

First Place - Reach - Khyber

Second Place - Antidote - Karen Rasch and Rachel Howard

Outstanding Characterization of a Recurring TV Character

First Place - Worth her Weight - Marguerite

Second Place - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Plausible Deniability

Outstanding Vignette

First Place - Fast Hard Screw on the Main Deck - Bidie McCucholl

Second Place - The Shadow of His Wings - Marguerite

Outstanding Humor Story

First Place - Your Platonic Relationship: An Owner's Manual - Lilla Vaughan

Second Place - The Carrot and the Stick - Plausible Deniability

Outstanding Author

First Place - Dawson Rambo

Second Place (tie)- Lydia Bower

Second Place (tie)- Nascent

Outstanding New Author

First Place - Bidie McCucholl

Second Place - Annie Sewell-Jennings

Outstanding Drama

First Place - The Iolokus Series - MustangSally & RivkaT

Second Place - A Show of Strength - Meredith

Outstanding Mulder/Scully Friendship

First Place - Worth Her Weight - Marguerite

Second Place (tie) - The Abyss Looks Back - Kronos

Second Place (tie) - And Chaos Shall Reign - Kronos

Outstanding NC-17 Romance

First Place - Metamorphosis - Annie Sewell-Jennings

Second Place - Momentary Lapses Series - Dasha K. & Plausible Deniability

Outstanding Non-NC-17 Romance

First Place - Reach - Khyber

Second Place - Merry Christmas, Scully - Stephanie Kaiser

Outstanding Other Romance

First Place - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Plausible Deniability

Second Place - Loners - Anne Haynes

Outstanding Mulder/Other Romance

First Place - Banging Your Head Against a Red-Haired Brick Wall - Blair Provence

Second Place - Venture Forth - Punk Maneuverability

Outstanding Scully/Other Romance

First Place - Half a World Away - Jane St. Clair

Second Place - Wheels of Iscariot - Emilie Renee Karr

Third Place - Homicidal Tendencies - Swikstr

Outstanding Skinner/Mulder Romance

First Place - Baton Rouge - Frogdoggie

Second Place (tie) - Challenges - Te

Second Place (tie) - Lasting Consequences - Debra Fran Baker

Second Place (tie) - Rarest Man Series (Body of Evidence, Duty Before Pleasure, Feast and Famine, Resolution, Test of Endurance, Wet Dream) - Sergeeva

Second Place (tie) - Unacceptable - Justin Glasser

Second Place (tie) - Wakened by Silence - JiM Page

Outstanding Skinner/Scully Romance

First Place - A Cold Angel Eye - Jordan

Second Place - Red Valerian Series - Dasha K.

Outstanding Platonic Mulder/Scully Romance

First Place (tie) - The Shadow of His Wings - Marguerite

First Place (tie) - Theory and Practice - Nascent

Outstanding Mulder/Scully UST

First Place - Your Platonic Relationship: An Owner's Manual - Lilla Vaughan

Second Place - Ninth Circle - Tim Scott

Outstanding Slash Story

First Place - Nightclub Girls - Dasha K

Second Place - Nightclub Jitters - Dasha K

Most Chris Carter

First Place - Kevin - Justin Glasser

Second Place (tie) - Antidote - Karen Rasch and Rachel Howard

Second Place (tie) - ELS - Dawson Rambo

Outstanding Series

First Place (tie) - The Iolokus Series - MustangSally and RivkaT

First Place (tie) - Momentary Lapses Series - Dasha K and Plausible Deniability

Outstanding Short Story

First Place - Day 17 - Khyber

Second Place - Fast Hard Screw on the Main Deck - Bidie McCucholl

Third Place (tie) - Camp - Shalimar

Third Place (tie) - All the Children are Insane - MustangSally

Outstanding Long Story

First Place - Antidote - Karen Rasch and Rachel Howard

Second Place (tie) - Reach - Khyber

Second Place (tie) - ELS - Dawson Rambo

Outstanding Story in a Series

First Place - Said the Spider to the Fly - Dark Nascent

Second Place - The Ghost at Her Side - Joyce McKibben

Third Place - Iolokus IV - MustangSally and Rivka T

Outstanding Unfinished Work

First Place - Paper Saints - Jill Selby

Second Place - Above Rubies - Rachel Howard

Outstanding Post-Episode Story

First Place - Camp - Shalimar

Second Place - All the Children are Insane - MustangSally

Outstanding Movie Fic

First Place - Worth her Weight - Marguerite

Second Place - A Makeshift Kiss - Jill Selby

Outstanding Action/Adventure Story

First Place (tie) - Antidote - Karen Rasch and Rachel Howard

First Place (tie) - Iolokus - MustangSally and RivkaT

Outstanding X-File

First Place - ELS - Dawson Rambo

Second Place - Antidote - Karen Rasch and Rachel Howard

Outstanding Crossover

First Place - Homicidal Tendencies - Swikstr

Second Place - The Flash Forward Series/ Slash Evidence Series (Young Blooded, Signature, Worst Case Scenario, Segue: Litany and Requiem) - Saundra Mitchell

[cecilysass]

Spooky Award Winners 2000 - full list!

This is my second Spooky Award post. It's apparently a series! My post about Spookys 1998 is here. The Spooky Awards were the annual awards given to X-Files fan fiction from 1995-2004 (except for 1997). They were voted on by fans and were always a bit contentious. You can read more about this at Fanlore or my previous post on the topic. The award categories changed pretty drastically changed them every year: look how different 2000's are from 1998's! But ... this was apparently a loaded topic. Check out this lively discussion about what the Spookys' categories should be in 1999. Also, there were apparently no 1997 awards because of ballot stuffing during the 1996 Spookys, which seems like it was a whole exciting fandom drama! But I digress.

Originally I was going to focus this post on the 1999 Spooky Awards because, you know, they came consecutively after 1998 (and because @amplifyme won a lifetime achievement award that year! did y'all know that? it seems deserved for sure, although she must have been awfully youthful to be getting a lifetime achievement award). But once I looked over the full list for 2000, I couldn't resist choosing 2000. Nearly every fic on the list is familiar to me. These are some masterpieces. This had to be one of the high point years for fic, at least in my book. So many of these are still on my rec lists! (And not just mine!) I mean, right? Some trends I notice for the winners of this year: lots of angst. XF fic always includes angst, but oof, 2000's winners had so much. More angst than smut, I would say, although there's smut, too. This is interesting because in 2000 canon, of course, we're in season 7 and things are generally lighter and flirtier. Well, I guess Sein und Zeit / Closure, Orison and the season finale are plenty angsty, and there are fics here about those episodes.

I also notice a 2000 trend for post-apocalyptic fic and fic with clever and grim twists. Of course, in canon, the mytharc is pointing to likely colonization at this point, there were lots of 90s alien invasion stories in general. And who knows, maybe we have some general turn-of-the-millenium apocalyptic vibes in the air, too? Pop culture of the late 90s / early 2000s also really liked clever plot concepts and twists (See: Se7en, Sixth Sense, Usual Suspects, The Others). So these make sense as fanfic elements.

At any rate, I present to you ... the XF fandom's Spooky Award Winners of 2000. (I will get back to 1999, I promise! And the others!) I do have to split this up in two posts because of link limits, but I will link the second part below. Let me know what you notice / think.

SPOOKY WINNERS 2000 Outstanding Short Story, Vignette or Poem

First Place - Black Hole Season - Penumbra

Second Place - Nobody's Son - Marguerite

Third Place - Cellphone - Marasmus

Outstanding Midlength Story

First Place (tie) Aquinnah - Anjou

First Place (tie) Strangers and the Strange Dead - Kipler

Second Place - Night Giving Off Flames - Jesemie's Evil Twin

Third Place - A Candle for Katherine - marasmus

Outstanding Long Story

First Place - The Dreaming Sea - Revely

Second Place - The Second to Last 7-Eleven - V. Salmone

Third Place - Malus Genius - Maybe Amanda and Plausible Deniability

Outstanding Novel

First Place - Arizona Highways - Fialka

Second Place - Blinded by White Light - Dasha K. (@dashakay)

Third Place - Blood Oranges - Syntax6 @syntax6

Outstanding Series

First Place - Life During Wartime - cofax, Maria Nicole and Marasmus - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Second Place - Intuitive Reasoning Series Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 - Mish

Serendipity Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 - Sue Schramm

Outstanding WIP

First Place - All the Way Home - syntax6 @syntax6

Second Place - Ersatz Promises - Suzanne Barringer and Suzanne Schramm

Third Place - Almost Home - Shoshana

Outstanding Angst Story

First Place - Arizona Highways - Fialka

Second Place - Night Giving Off Flames - Jesemie's Evil Twin

Third Place (tie) - Cellphone - Marasmus

Third Place (tie) - Strangers and the Strange Dead - Kipler

Outstanding Apocalypse / Post-Colonization Story

First Place - Blinded by White Light - Dasha K.

Second Place - Night Giving Off Flames - Jesemie's Evil Twin

Third Place - Life During Wartime - cofax, Maria Nicole and Marasmus - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Outstanding Crossover Story

First Place - Thanks of a Grateful Nation (The West Wing crossover) - Sabine

Second Place - Straight on 'Til Morning (Peter Pan crossover) - Brandon Ray

Third Place (tie) - Glass Hearts (The Sandman crossover)- David Hearne

Third Place (tie) - Mezzo Luna (Like Water for Chocolate crossover)- Michelle Kiefer

Outstanding Humor Story

First Place - Malus Genius - Maybe Amanda and Plausible Deniability

Second Place - Good Vibrations - Lysander

Third Place - Midnight Mark-up - Louise Marin

Outstanding Post-Episode Story

First Place - Black Hole Season - Penumbra

Second Place - Aquinnah - Anjou

Third Place - Nobody's Son - Marguerite

Outstanding X-File

First Place (tie) - Arizona Highways - Fialka

First Place (tie) - Blood Oranges - Syntax6

Second Place - Malus Genius - Maybe Amanda and Plausible Deniability

Third Place - Gutless - Magdeleine

Outstanding Scully Characterization

First Place - Arizona Highways - Fialka

Second Place - Blood Oranges - Syntax6

Third Place - Blinded by White Light - Dasha K.

Outstanding Mulder Characterization

First Place - Aquinnah - Anjou

Second Place - Arizona Highways - Fialka

Third Place - Night Giving Off Flames - Jesemie's Evil Twin

Outstanding Skinner Characterization

First Place (tie) - Abject - PD

First Place (tie) - Whom My Soul Loveth - Marguerite

Second Place - The Measure of My Days - Marguerite

Third Place - Six Months - Keleka

Outstanding Krycek Characterization

First Place - Crashing in the Same Car - Rachel Anton

Second Place - Useful Idiots - Brandon D. Ray

Third Place (tie) - My Little Demons - a frightened little girl

Third Place (tie) - Mapping the Veins - she who hides

Outstanding Other Series Character Characterization

First Place - Arizona Highways (Kresge) - Fialka

Second Place - Intuitive Reasoning Series (Karen Kosseff) Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 - Mish

Third Place - Getting Used to Gunfire (Maggie Scully) - cofax and Maria Nicole

Outstanding Original Character

First Place - Strangers and the Strange Dead - Kipler

Second Place - A Candle for Katherine - Marasmus

Third Place - My Favorite Word - Mish

Outstanding MSR UST

First Place - Strange Fruit - Punk Maneuverability

Second Place - Good Vibrations - Lysandra

Third Place - The Dreaming Sea - Revely

Outstanding Non NC-17 MSR

First Place - Atoll - Terma99

Second Place - Black Hole Season - Penumbra

Third Place - In the Night Season - Revely

Outstanding NC-17 MSR

First Place - Landfall - Ambress

Second Place - Worth Breaking - Narida Law

Third Place - Blinded by White Light - Dasha K.

second part of list here!

[teathattast]

[dd-is-my-guiltypleasure]

[thatgirlxf]

2013 vs. 2026

2016 vs. 2026

Another reason why I love them so much, same energy time after time! 😍😄

[dd-is-my-guiltypleasure]

David Duchovny Reflects on The Beatles, Acting, Reinventing Himself as a...

[randomfoggytiger]

randomfoggytiger's Fail Better Notes (Part I)

Realized I needed to record broad points from DD's podcast episodes (for future projects.)

For those who skipped the podcast or only listened in chunks, perhaps this could be a good resource.

Part I: Ben Stiller, Bette Midler, Gabor Maté.

May 7, 2024 | Ben Stiller

FOREWARD

-DD warns he’s bad with technology (“so bad”), spent the last ten minutes messing up

-Reasons for the podcast, wants to explore the pushing back-pushing forward nature of failure, wants a little bit of failure to fall away.

-House of D one of his most painful professional failures. Sent deeply inside himself to a childhood sense of shame. Woke next day, felt fantastic. Realized he’d always been afraid of an 'F', but survived it.

-So happy all these years later to have gotten that 'F'.

PODCAST

-Very first interview he’s ever conducted. Ben Stiller excited for him; DD admits he feels a bit nauseous with new venture, Ben understands. 

-Duo discuss how they “came to do” Zoolander (Ben sent script to Tea Leoni, DD wanted to do it. Was offered the brother or hand model role.)

-First acting opportunities, embarrassments.

-Young people have (and need) an overabundance of confidence. (DD looks back at early X-Files and cringes.) Replace that with personal creative expression as they age.

-Ben Stiller's childhood, acting parents. DD volunteers info about fragile mother, made her laugh; freedom in acting.

-Every bad thing that has happened (rejection) has opened opportunities to do something else.

-Childhood in the 70s, mind control seminars, EST craze.

-Both reflect on their own parenthood struggles. (Amram Duchovny once said, “I’m giving you one of the greatest things a father can ever give a child: I’m not very successful.” Meaning, DD thinks: “humility of that joins us together.”)

-Ben talks about it over now with his kids, DD doesn't.

PREMIUM

Transcript bits here~

May 7, 2024 | Bette Midler

FOREWARD

-DD talks about meeting Aquarius costar for lunch, sharp dresser, picky eater. Always remembered Californication’s lines for following day over tuna burger. Duo saw Bette Midler there. 

-Doesn’t like going up to celebrities, plane experience with Ringo, jumped out of cab to say hi to Mohammad Ali.

-Wanted to thank her for experience back when he catered (job.) She “couldn’t be nicer.”

-Bleeds story into introducing the podcast.

-Relates technological failures on both ends for fifteen minutes.

PODCAST

-Bette Midler, DD bond over agitation, frustration with technology. Jokes about it ruining their creativity, “ruined my life.” 

-DD was Bartender at Radio City Music Hall in 1983. Saw her, others’ acts. Had “never seen a performer go from sentiment to irony, and somehow do both at the same time,” gets emotional talking about it. Never forgot it.

-Bette Midler said born with a lot of confidence, didn’t have anyone squash it in a public way. If father put her down, it made her angrier, more determined to “show him.” Worshiped dad, but he wasn’t a "praiser." Mom didn’t have time, “barely keeping it together.” Grew up seeing the greats. Finally “got” them, realized what they were doing was what she was doing. 

-Bette Midler discusses early career, walked away from theater when her pay wasn't raised, found next level performing "God Bless the Child."

-Jinxed and Miss Bette were hard lessons, biggest regrets. Hired wrong people, underestimate hierarchies. She was the boss but wasn’t the boss, didn’t realize she wasn’t the boss. Lesson: do your homework, “find out who you’re dealing with.” 

-Both understand the demanding pace of television.

-Bette Milder Praises Taylor Swift for changing the game.

-Discuss how to quite the "Thinker" in your head. Bette Midler: “Every day is different, and every set of challenges brings a different response. The thing to do is not to beat yourself up.” (DD: “Oh, but I’m really good at that!”) Bette Midler: “You’re good at that? Everyone in the whole world is good at that. And it’s good sometime to separate-- I’m learning this now-- it’s good to separate the Thinker [self] from yourself.” 

-DD brings up that enthusiasm means “to have God in you.” Bette Midler excited to learn that. Both laugh over him not knowing Greek.

-DD wants to think that it’s possible to be an enthusiastic, pessimistic person.

-Bette Midler says everything, the worst and greatest, will fade with time. “That’s just the way of the world.” 

PREMIUM

Transcript bits here~

May 14, 2024 | Gabor Maté

FOREWARD

-DD mentions writing Bucky Dent, loving the losers. Podcast same: failure teaches you to be a better human “winning, winning, winning.” 

-Emotional disruption between father and child.

-The Myth of Normal got him thinking. Sent Bucky Dent movie copy to Gabor Maté (felt “icky” sending his own work.) “He liked it so much that I’m going to take him on the press tour with me.”

-Gabor advocates “we’re sick because society’s sick”: “our mental health, our physical health, our addictions are all linked to the pressures of modern living.”

-”Struck by” the discussions of early childhood breaks in attachment, traumas caused between “0 and 3” years old. 

-How to deal with pre-verbal injuries in a verbal way.

PODCAST

-Introductions

-Gabor and his wife watched Bucky Dent, loved it. Reveals he and his son are writing a book that mirrors the movie’s themes. DD says it was a "thinly-veiled account of my spiritual landscape at the time."

-DD and Gabor Maté discuss parental detachment. Maté assures there should be no shame because detachment was self-protective, not conscious.

-The second point, per Gabor Maté: “When in your life did you not feel guilty?” Never. “In other words, the guilt long preceded the birth of your daughter. So, the guilt has nothing to do with your daughter-- it was there long before. It was naturally triggered by our parenting, but it doesn’t belong there.” 

-The third point, per Gabor Maté: “The last thing our children need from us-- and trust me, I get this all the time from my kids all the time-- is a guilty parent. They don’t want to be seen through the eyes of our guilt. Nobody wants to be seen as somebody else’s mistake.” 

-On parental guilt: “For all the years that I carried this guilt… I was only seeing myself. I wasn’t seeing them at all. I wasn’t seeing their creativity, their wonder, their capacities, their resilience. I was just seeing what I had done wrong. That guilt is very narcissistic.”

-Trauma is a wound that can be healed, not an act that is irreparable.

-Both discuss addiction. Addicts lie, cheat, and steal for drugs but are honest about that motive.

-Addiction is the wrong cure for pain, "what is right about it?" Unaddressed long-term pain can become trauma. One doesn't have to go back to the past to heal trauma in the present.

-Society perpetuates addiction, minimizes all its forms. Gabor Maté's (shopping) and DD's addictions (workaholism and sex) were laughed at.

-Gabor Maté notes some probably envied DD's addiction; DD revealed he most wanted to correct false narratives about his addiction.

-DD's sex addiction gave him a sense of freedom from a mother who modeled him as proof she could do it without her absent ex-husband. Sex was the one space away from that dependence.

-Gabor Maté: “That’s my whole point of addiction. These are not just diseases that you acquire inherent-- they’re an attempt to solve a problem. The states of non-independence, the state of not being wanting, not validated: these are states of emotional pain. Not ‘why the addiction,’ but ‘why the pain?”

-Both discuss Gabor Maté's books, writing the latest one with his son. Brought up, worked on old wounds between them.

-DD thanks Gabor Maté: “I came to this through reading your book. So, I wanted to thank you for kind of opening up that part of myself that kind of led me to a direction that I’m still walking, in many ways.” 

-The challenging, maturing dynamics of parent-child relationships.

-Modern culture kills relationships, stunts growth. Children are less susceptible to phones, disconnection if foundation with parents is established first.

-Gabor Maté sees healing everyday, despite darkness in the world.

-DD thanks Gabor Maté, hopes he can model the others’ words and return the favor. Maté catches him, asks him why he feels need to return the favor. (DD: “I almost got away!”) The former admits feeling vulnerable. Both agree the better option is to pay their experience forward.

PREMIUM

Transcript bits here~

[dd-is-my-guiltypleasure]

David & Gillian (Mulder & Scully) Panel FanExpo Denver 2026

[tripleennui]

not you casually writing extremely thought-provoking comments in the tags (also they are such losers and that is so important to me)

Haha, I should probably stop doing that and make actual posts. I used to write X-Files reviews when I was a teenager, with the intention of reviewing every single episode. I didn't finish, but it was a fun exercise, although I'm sure if I read them now I'd die of embarrassment. Darin Morgan is my favorite X-Files writer so I love talking about his work. I also enjoy that his short time on X-Files is basically the highest-profile work he's ever done. He managed to make a huge impact with not a lot of episodes and has gone on to do basically nothing else. He's just the Guy Who Wrote Those Six Really Weird But Good X-Files Episodes and I honestly think that's an incredible legacy. Not everyone has to go on to be a Vince Gilligan! Sometimes you're just the guy who wrote "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" and that's enough.

Re: Mulder and Scully being losers, I know we like to joke about it on here, but in some ways I mean it seriously. I always try to remind people that this is a show about outcasts and in a broader sense marginalization, and so its leads need to kind of be outcasts themselves. What I think makes it all the more compelling, and what "Humbug" tries to get at, is that on paper Mulder and Scully don't seem like outcasts at all. They're white, conventionally attractive, intelligent, work in freaking law enforcement, come from varying degrees of privilege (Mulder has a rich-ass New England family with like three houses, Scully's father was a Navy captain), are (at least at the beginning) physically non-disabled, educated, etc. But their work takes them to the margins, so they too adopt a life of social alienation. (To quote Eddie Van Blundht: "I was born a loser, but you're one by choice.") This is the primary reason when people ask me what genre The X-Files belongs to I'm tempted to say horror before anything else. Horror is largely a genre about alienation and otherness. There's a quote from Robin Wood's 1979 essay "An Introduction to the American Horror Film" which I think sums it up well:

(The X-Files draws a lot from 1970s horror in particular, so this essay is very apt to me; it's also just a fascinating read in general if you're into this sort of thing.)

Sci-fi looks forward, fantasy looks backward, but horror looks outward, and that's why so many of Mulder and Scully's cases involve marginalized characters or communities, why the X-Files themselves are cases that have essentially been discarded.

Anyway, I could go on, but yes! Mulder and Scully being losers is very important.

[blanches-dubois]

The truth will save you Scully. I think it’ll save both of us.

[nowwhateinstein]

We're halfway through the 2026 MSR Bingo Challenge! We have several fics posted to the collection already (and lemme tell ya - some of them are steamy). Check em out and show the authors some love! And just a reminder: this challenge is open to everyone - veteran authors and newbies alike! This is a great opportunity to stretch your writing muscles. Join us!

[skullsmuldon]

Fanexpo Denver X-Files Panel 2026

[xfiles-behind-the-scenes]

Cute Things from Stephen King’s original script for “Chinga (Before Chris Carter’s re-write):

1. Scully herself is a victim of the grocery store frenzy caused by the doll; she ends up hitting herself in the head, but later lies to Mulder over the phone, saying she’s fine, because she doesn’t want him to worry. 

2. Mulder is NOT completely helpless in this version of the script; in fact, he is preparing to go make a speech at a university, but bails to go see Scully when an officer faxes him a picture of Scully hurting herself in the grocery store (more on this below).

3. Actual lines from the original script:

*After Scully suggests ergot poisoning may have caused the grocery store attack, Mulder goes into graphic detail about the effects it has on people, and Scully responds, “I love it when you talk dirty.”

*A minute later, Scully declines Mulder’s offer to come help her, and when he then wonders why she called him, she responds, “I guess I just missed the sound of your voice.”

4. The ending scene, as written by King, is amazing. (One final note before you read it: in the original script it is even more obvious that Sheriff Jack Bonsaint has a crush on Scully. And at the end of the episode he asks for her number, implying that he would maybe come to see her in Washington D.C. Then, this happens):

BONSAINT: Maybe we could— He stops, realizing that she’s stopped paying attention to him. He sees where she’s looking, over at a man in a topcoat who is sitting on the bench outside. There’s a briefcase between his knees. It’s MULDER. Scully is out of the car almost before it stops, and hurrying over to him, her face amazed and intense. Behind them, Bonsaint gets out and stands watching. Maybe he won’t find any business to do in Washington, after all. Maybe there wouldn’t be much point. SCULLY: What are you doing here, Mulder? How did you get here? MULDER: Hitched a ride from Andrews to Portsmouth Naval Air Station in an F-111. Those Navy kids drive fast. You okay, Scully? SCULLY: Fine. Why did you come? MULDER: (shrugs; smiles) I thought you needed help. Call it woman’s intuition. SCULLY: What about your speech? Weren’t you supposed to give a speech at George Washington University tonight? MULDER: The world’s not short of speeches, Scully. It’ll get along without mine. They reach the top of the steps and face each other. This is a classic lovers’ shot, profiles like you’d see on a Valentine’s heart, lit by one radiant overhead globe. SCULLY: This is the second time I’ve seen you tonight, Mulder. MULDER: Really? Want to tell me about it? SCULLY: It might hurt my credibility. MULDER: (identical delivery) Really? Want to tell me about it? CAMERA moves in on Scully as she thinks.  SCULLY: I might. I believe I just might.

FADE TO BLACK

SCULLY: (in the black, and with a touch of reverb, perhaps) I believe—

[dartmoorpixie]

Ok so we were ROBBED

[scullee]

fox mulder nose appreciation sketch 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[skullsmuldon]

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