I was there in 2008, day one, in theater to see Chris Carter’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe. A huge fan of the TV series (like, it was my first big fandom), even an apologist for some of the lesser seasons, I wanted to support and spend some time with Mulder and Scully again. But the theatrical film was, if nothing else, a bit underwhelming? The plot was fine, but I didn’t quite see why it needed to be a movie.
That might have been because it wasn’t what creator Carter wanted in the first place. Now, in a little under two weeks, we’ll get to see the gorier, scarier director’s cut of the movie, The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn, on Hulu. And now we have a trailer for that new cut below.
The press materials call this cut a “darker, frightening thriller exploring a real-life Dr. Frankenstein.” I’m assume it’s “real-life” in terms of the movie, not a guy who actually existed.
The official synopsis says:
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 Dr. 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.
The prospect of this movie, even way after the fact, is pretty exciting to an X-Phile like myself. I always dug the chilly vibe of the movie, I just never fully understood why I was watching it. Now, hopefully with Carter’s original vision restored, we’ll get to see. Plus, Vrach Frankenshteyn is just an objectively cool as shit subtitle. So, maybe naive, but I really do want to believe.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn will drop on Hulu August 14. The original cut of the movie will also drop that same day, for compare and contrasties.