Aliens. Monsters. Paranormal entities. These are the usual suspects in mind when popular 90’s TV series The X-Files is mentioned. Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully go through a bunch of hoola to find proof of the paranormal, knowing full well that somewhere, “The truth is out there,” as the famous line in the series goes.
But more than extraterrestrials, hybrids, and human mutants, the agents encounter animals that take horror to a whole new level.
- PRIMITIVE WORMS FROM ICE
A group of scientists forming part of the Ice Core Project stationed in Antarctica made a discovery that made them realize something a little too late: They should not have disturbed whatever was lying dormant out there for thousands, if not millions, of years. Agents Mulder and Scully try to find out for themselves what the real deal is about these new species of worms.
Apparently, the worms bring about a lot of hate. Upon finding a host, they inhabit a part of the brain that controls the person’s violent impulses. The infected hosts then kill each other, making the worms dormant until another warm body gets close.
A haunting videotaped message from one of the victims lures the agents to the expedition – “We’re not who we are.” But who’s to say he is who he says he is?
2. THE LUMINESCENT SWARM FROM DARKNESS FALLS
“Come on, Scully. It will be a nice trip to the forest,” Agent Mulder says to his partner as they set out to the Olympic National Forest of Washington state on the account that loggers have gone missing without any explanation.
At first, they thought that eco-terrorists upgraded their tactics to prevent loggers hired by big corporations from cutting down trees. But when the agents hike up the mountain, they find something more sinister.
A rare type of luminescent insects apparently attracted to old growth rings were awakened when their tree – around 500 or 600 years old – was cut down. And these insects do not want to be disturbed.
When the sun goes down, they can wreak havoc on anyone who gets in their way. They can cocoon up their prey and drain them of all fluids, eventually killing them. Word to the wise: Do not wake the swarm.
3, FALLING FROGS FROM DIE HAND DIE VERLETZT
You know things are going to go downhill when an episode of The X-Files begins with a downpour of frogs on a cold morning in Milford Haven, New Hampshire, where a teenager died from what appears to be a ritual of the occult.
While it will later be revealed that parents running the school are actually Satanists, there is something more ominous at work that will stop at nothing to get the sacrificial lambs it wants.
The frogs serve as prologue to more deaths in Milford Haven. Bring out your umbrellas, fellas, there’s something in the sky that’s heavier than rain.
4. THE INVISIBLE ELEPHANT FROM FEARFUL SYMMETRY
A tremor? An eruption? A sonic blast? In a warm night in Fairfield, California, when two janitors minding their own business witness a spontaneous wreckage of the street by an unseen force.
Cars parked outside do not stand a chance, and building windows burst from a phantom stampede, with nothing left spare the scent of an animal. Footage found at the scene shows no suspects, but hours later, roughly forty miles from the scene, an elephant is reported to have had a near miss with a trailer truck.
Did the elephant enter a wormhole? Was she invisible to the naked eye? How could she have escaped from the zoo?
5. THE ENIGMATIC INSECT FROM F. EMASCULATA
Scared of bugs? Then this insect’s gonna give you nightmares.
Discovered in the thick forests of Costa Rica by a team of scientists looking for medicinal plants and insects, the F. Emasculata somehow finds its way to a prison in Virginia State, causing irreversible casualties.
The insect’s M.O.: burrow itself deep in the flesh of the host and complete its life cycle by bursting out of boils appearing hours after infestation. The burst also allows the F. Emasculata to reproduce and transfer to another host who is unfortunate enough to see the insect spurting out of another person’s face, only to land on theirs.
The moral? Let sleeping bugs lie.
6. KILLER COCKROACHES FROM WAR OF COPROPHAGES
People say that cockroaches will be the last ones standing on earth after the apocalypse, but have you ever heard that these same cockroaches will be the ones to actually bring about the apocalypse itself?
In the strange town of Miller’s Grove, Massachusetts, mass hysteria begins to brew as reports of cockroaches “killing” unwitting civilians begin to circulate. While there is no hard evidence to support the notion of killer cockroaches, the shared fear of these insects overcoming humanity drives an entire town to hoard insect repellents.
7. THE TENTACLE FROM AGUA MALA
It’s been said somewhere that only 4% of the ocean has been explored, which means that a huge part of the earth’s waters contain undiscovered mysteries. So what happens when a hurricane ravishes a good part of suburban Florida?
Agents Mulder and Scully are called to find the Shipley family who was lost in the middle of a strengthening hurricane. As marine biologists, the Shipleys apparently found something – rather, something followed them from within the trenches of the sea, snaking its way to the plumbing of their residence.
And it’s no ordinary sea creature. While it resembles the tentacle of an octopus, the unidentified sea creature sneaks its way into unsuspecting homes as sea water, which eventually transforms into a tangible creature moments before it attacks.
Once it attaches itself to its prey, it begins to devour its victim by turning them into slime until they eventually dissipate as salt water. But Mulder and Scully discover, by sheer luck, that the creature can be fended off by something as simple as freshwater.
8. BIG BLUE FROM QUAGMIRE
Another town, another group of citizens disappearing without explanation. The catch: body parts resurface on and around the shores of a lake in Georgia.
Agents Mulder and Scully take a weekend trip to investigate this string of disappearances that most townsfolk attribute to their local cryptid – Big Blue, a prehistoric dinosaur or plesiosaur living underwater who, for some reason, has been active recently compared to previous years.
Though no clear photograph or forensic evidence of Big Blue is available, the last shot of the episode clearly shows that the large creature does exist, and presumably will still remain hidden from inquisitive human eyes.
9. THE WANSHANG DHOLE FROM ALPHA
Man’s best friend? The Wanshang Dole from this episode of The X-Files will make anyone rethink that statement.
Believed to be a prehistoric and extinct canid, the Wanshang dhole somehow finds its way to a freight ship onto the port of California. But it leaves its first tracks: two dead crewmen from apparent bite wounds.
The agents seek the help of a well-known dog whisperer who then reveals to them that this particular dog has near-human intelligence and can even transform itself to other creatures, such as humans.
Why it kills remains a mystery throughout the episode. But one can surmise why it might have acted violently toward humans: They were his captors.
10. THE RAVEN FROM CHIMERA
Then the bird said, “Nevermore.”
While ravens are believed to be omens of misfortune, the ravens in the episode Chimera are merely foretellers of what is to come. In yet another suburban area in Vermont, sightings of the notorious foul prompts Agent Mulder to investigate a bizarre disappearance.
Right before her vanishing act, a housewife was said to have encountered a raven. But the ravens’ presence is merely the opening act to a main perpetrator: the sheriff’s wife who transforms into a ghastly monster, a second personality manifesting physiologically, when she kills her husband’s mistresses.
DO NOT DISTURB
While these animals are fictionalized, let’s not forget that they only bring about horror after humans disturb them. The X-Files has several episodes exploring man’s relationship with nature where the message is clear: Do not tamper with the hidden ones. I, for one, am a believer that some truths should remain unknown.
