10 Scariest Episodes Of 'The X-Files'

TV & Film

Aug 14

The X-Files poster — Image Source: TV Insider

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigated paranormal activity in The X-Files for eleven seasons. But which were their most terrifying cases? Check out our top ten below.

10. "Darkness Falls" (Season 1 Episode 20)

Plot: Mulder and Scully become trapped in a forest where thirty loggers went missing. However, something creepy starts to happen as soon as the sun goes down.

Why It’s Scary: The bugs in the darkness. Carter creates an episode full of suspense and threat against our most primal fear. This is not one to watch with the lights down low.

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9. "Squeeze" (Season 1 Episode 3)

Plot: A mysterious death with a lack of entry points links back to a cluster of deaths in 1963 and 1903. In each case, the victim’s liver was removed. An elongated fingerprint is discovered in a vent, and they catch a man named Eugene Victor Tooms fleeing from the scene. But he couldn’t possibly be responsible for all those murders…could he?

Why It’s Scary: Tooms squeezing through a vent, able to jump out at any minute and munch on a liver. He’s coming for Scully next.

8. "F. Emasculata" (Season 2 Episode 22)

Plot: A prisoner receives a pig leg in the mail, but it's not so he can have tasty roasted pork for dinner. It’s loaded with a lethal virus that gets let loose when he and his buddy escape the correctional facility.

Why It’s Scary: The X-Files make-up department did a fantastic job on "F. Emasculata", creating realistic boils that pulsate on screen and burst at any given moment. After COVID-19, watching the infected board a coach filled to bursting was scary in itself. If Contagion puts the frighteners on you, then watch "F. Emasculata" with a mask and a bucket of hand gel on standby.

7. "The Host" (Season 2 Episode 2)

Plot: A body turns up in a sewer, and Mulder isn’t best pleased when he has to wade through human waste to investigate but guess what! It’s an X-File. There are a few more attacks and Scully pulls some fluke worms out of the corpses. Until they find something bigger lurking in the water.

Why It’s Scary: This is one of the best X-Files creature features, as well as a fan favorite. A giant fluke worm lurking in the toilet, a man puking worms, and the monster hiding in the shadows. What’s not to love?

6. "Ice" (Season 1 Episode 8)

Plot: A group of scientists in the Arctic all die violently. The last survivor sends out a garbled message before taking his own life. Mulder and Scully arrive with a fresh team to explore the ice cores, not realising they dug up something.

Why It’s Scary: It’s Alien meets The Walking Dead. Most of the time, you’ve got no clue who is infected with the parasite, and there are some great special effects from Carter and co to add to the creep factor. Mark Snow’s score really adds to the tension in this episode.

5. "Elegy" (Season 4 Episode 22)

Plot: Dead women start appearing in a bowling alley. Mulder thinks they are harbingers of death until Scully sees one.

Why It’s Scary: She is me written in blood on a mirror as well as Scully trying to rationalise her paranormal experiences. And somehow the bowling alley makes it so much weirder.

4. "Irresistible" (Season 2 Episode 13)

The Plot: Donnie Pfaster likes to collect hair and fingernails from dead women, but he moves to the Twin Cities and gets a job. So naturally he wants to start murdering for real.

Why It’s Scary: Nick Chinlud’s Norman Bates-esque performance as Donnie Pfaster is truly terrifying.

3. "Die Hand Die Verletzt" (Season 2 episode 14)

Plot: A parent-teacher committee decides to worship dark forces things get a little problematic when a teen dies in the middle of the woods. Mulder and Scully start to investigate, and a substitute teacher and her huge pet python don’t seem in the least bit problematic.

Why It’s Scary: So much of this episode is terrifying, from the python swallowing a human whole to the substitute teacher’s evil eyes. No one has plot armor in "Die Hand Die Verletzt", the kids are most definitely not safe. Chris Carter, Glen Morgan, and James Wong created a less is more script that builds tension and has you on the edge of your seat. There’s also a Stephen King easter egg in this episode if you are quick enough to spot it.

2. "Home" (Season 4 Episode 2)

Plot: A corpse of a deformed infant is unearthed in the woods. Mulder and Scully investigate the Peacock family, three brothers with an extremely unique look.

Why It’s Scary: This is probably one of the most disturbing episodes that The X-Files ever put out. The make-up and prosthetics team created an all too believable set of villains on this one. Brace yourself for the final twist.

1. "Grotesque" (Season 3 Episode 14)

Plot: Mulder and Scully are called to investigate a string of homicides. The victims are young attractive men, and the investigating agent is an old mentor of Fox’s. The murderer has been apprehended, but the killings have not stopped.

Why It’s Scary: This is probably one of the darkest episodes in The X-Files’ history. If watching Fox Mulder go insane doesn’t scare you, then ripping apart a clay gargoyle to find a mutilated dead body will. There’s plenty of jump scares and psychological twists and turns. By the end, you’ll wonder if any of it was real.