It's hard to believe that a TV series meant to be unsettling and scary could actually make an episode that after airing was considered too scary and not shown again. Leave it to "X-Files" to come up with just that episode!
The plot seems straightforward enough. On October 11, 1996 the "X-Files" new episode was entitled, "Home." It was about an inbred family of feral men live in a farm in rural Pennsylvania. When a kid is found dead in the area, the investigators come in to see what happened.
When they investigate the odd Peacock family in the farmhouse, they find a quadruple amputee under the bed on a car repair dolly on wheels. She had been breeding with her sons for years and putting out deformed babies and stillborn ones.
The episode was so disturbing that it was decided the public wasn't ready to see that again. Later on, channels like FX did show it and Halloween specials released it again, but the network stayed away. You can find this episode two of season four on DVD.
It was disturbing on many levels; creepy location, incestuous inbreds, a baby buried alive, a terrifying showdown and crazy ending. It was just all around awesome on the "unsettle me, please" scale!
Surprisingly, the idea came from Charlie Chaplin's autobiography. He told of staying in a tenement where the owners had a son that was a quadruple amputee they kept under the bed and would pull out to feed and dance around with him in a most disturbing scenario.
Yup, sometimes real life is just the freaky inspiration for fiction.
I have the entire series and it's on there. It's a very disturbing one, but not my favorite episode although close.
I purely liked the monster episodes on X-Files. I was not into conspiracy/government themes. My favorite episode ever was "Darkness Falls," season one episode 20. The dynamic duo goes out to explore the Northwest woods in search of eco-terrorists and find something cocooning bodies in the woods.
I'm not sure if I've seen this one or not but it sounds familiar for sure.
ReplyDeleteI was an avid fan of X-files from the pilot episode which aired in 94 in the UK if I remember right.
Like you I really enjoyed the episodes with monsters,the supernatural or those odd quirky or parody episodes as I found the whole government/alien conspiracy becoming wearing and tedious the more it dragged on.
I loved the deep forest,eco terrorist/freedom fighter episode with it's luminous green swarm and cocoons swinging in the trees but it had a message that was also in that excellent 'The Thing' inspired episode in the polar weather station. This time around I'm glad to say the dog survived which I was happy about.
There was a definite narrative about man's voracious and reckless greed for more and more natural resources driving him to the deepest undisturbed parts of the planey.In his irresponsible carving all up of anything in his way he unwittingly awakens something powerful but dormant that could sow the seeds of his ultimate destruction.
A pertinent message that we may recognise in a TV show but in reality have still not learnt yet.
"Darkness Falls" episode - that was my fav!
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