History NightmareFuel / TheXFiles

** The idea that the Indian begger can make himself invisible. The sound of squeaky wheels should ''not'' be that terrifying. The scene where the kid is running down the street and he can't see what's chasing him, but can only hear the "squeeeak, squeeeak, squeeeak..." of the wheels behind him... ''*Shudder*''
** At the end of the episode, Scully evidently shoots the Indian begger dead at a school in Maryland, yet the closing stinger shows him back at the airport in India from the start of the episode, with [[MindScrew absolutely no explanation for how he got there, or how he's still alive. ''If'' he's still alive, that is....]]

* "[[{{Recap/TheXFilesS04E21ZeroSum}} Zero Sum]]". It's bad enough seeing a postal worker and scientist get killed by swarms of bees carrying [[ThePlague a virulent smallpox strain.]] How about unleashing those swarms on [[AdultFear a schoolyard full of children?]] The hospital scene after is [[TearJerker heartbreaking]], with at least one teacher and [[DeathOfAChild child]] dead and other parents and kids crying in the hallway.

** To make matters worse, this ''isn't'' some genetic throwback, or a creature from space, or a mythological monster; it's just an ordinary, terrestrial parasite that was irradiated after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

--> '''Boggs''': My family, who I killed after their last meal, was right there to watch me over mine. And their fear and their horror that I made them feel when I killed them was injected into me, and their collective fear alone was this ''long'' taste of Hell.

* The subliminal messages people start seeing all over the place in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS02E03Blood Blood]]", such as "KILL 'EM ALL." Oh God… Neither the FBI or the audience find out [[UnknownCharacter who sent these messages]]. They simply stop, [[NothingIsScarier with no explanation for why they were sent in the first place.]] The final message sent to Mulder doesn't help much either: [[FalseReassurance ALL DONE BYE BYE]].

* The first murder victim in "[[Recap/TheXFilesMiniseriesE14Familiar Familiar]]" is lured to his doom by a demon appearing as Mr. Chuckleteeth, a [[NightmareFuel/LiveActionTV Noseybonk-esque]] character from an in-universe children's television show, whose UncannyValley [[https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--mst1AZIO--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/btiaatjpqusp78hg3su8.jpg appearance is just unsettling]].

* "[[Recap/TheXFilesS02E23SoftLight Soft Light]]": The clear despair and self-loathing Tony Shalhoub's character feels for what he is inadvertently doing, and the genuine fear and horror as he tries to warn people away from his shadow is bad enough… but what the shadow itself does… This is taken {{up to eleven}} when he faces his ultimate FateWorseThanDeath.

* Even with its crossoverness, all of "[[Recap/TheXFilesS07E12XCops X-Cops]]" has to be mentioned. It's YourMindMakesItReal cranked UpToEleven. [[NothingIsScarier And the camera never catches the monster]], only the aftermath. And did we forget to mention that all this was filmed on a ShakyPOVCam, heightening the terror?

* "[[Recap/TheXFilesS01E12Fire Fire]]": People being set on fire and ''burning alive'' is very chilling (ironically). And there's even AdultFear thrown into the mix when the children are trapped in a burning building ''twice!''

* All the deformed children Scully sees in "[[Recap/TheXFilesMiniseriesE02FoundersMutation Founder's Mutation]]", if only because they look so [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome disturbingly realistic]]. Doubles as AdultFear, both in and out of universe.

** "I can tell you don't have no children. Maybe one day you'll learn… the pride… the ''love''... when [[IncestIsRelative you know your boy will do ANYTHING for his mother.]]" AUGH.

* Eugene Victor Tooms (pictured above), possibly the most [[EnsembleDarkhorse popular]] (and most terrifying) monster to appear on the series. Once you see him in action, you'll never go near another air vent again. His introduction in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS01E03Squeeze Squeeze]]": after an establishing shot of a busy city street at rush hour, the camera settles on a sewer grating and slowly, slowly zooms in on it. Pretty soon, we begin to see a pair of cold, yellow eyes staring predatorily out. He then kills a businessman, and the last shot before the opening credits is the vent closing again, with the screws being tightened. It was only the third episode of the series (and the first standalone), but it set the tone for the entire show. One of the scariest episodes ever.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_tooms_470.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[WesternAnimation/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas You're a mean one, Mr. Tooms]]…'']]

When one considers how ''The X-Files''' theme song made whistling scary, you can bet that this show will deliver on the horror front.

** The titular character needs to feed on the cancerous cells of others in order to regenerate his body. He's also a very gentle person who hates hurting others, and [[ApologeticAttacker apologizes to his victims]] before killing them. That's tragic and creepy enoughm. And then he comes face to face with Scully...

* "[Recap/TheXFilesS06E14Monday Monday]]". Imagine experiencing the trauma of the day where your boyfriend dies, but worse (he takes a bunch of innocent people with him), and knowing there is nothing you can do to stop it. Now imagine experiencing that day FOREVER! The woman even says she is in hell. Mulder somehow breaks the loop, but considering how many times he personally looped, one can assume that woman had experienced that day for months, years, or possibly even decades. Hell indeed.

* "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E09Terma Terma]]": Picture yourself in Alex Krycek's shoes. You have encountered a group who all don't have their left arms. You manage to convince them that you ran from the Krasnoyarsk gulag tests, so you're safe and can sleep well that night, right? ''Dead wrong.'' Out of absolutely nowhere, you are forcibly awakened by the men and held down. You can see one of them holding a heated knife, kneeling down and [[AnArmAndALeg amputating your left arm]]. All you can do is scream and feel every single ounce of pain for god knows how long.

** The titular character needs to feed on the cancerous cells of others in order to regenerate his body. He's also a very gentle person, who hates hurting others and [[ApologeticAttacker apologizes to his victims]] before killing them. It's already sad and creepy enough -- and then he comes face to face with ''Scully''.
--->''[[WhamLine "I'm sorry, but you've got something I need."]]''

* Mulder's experiences being taken by aliens, seen in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS08E01Within Within]]": Mulder is ''bolted'' to a stone chair through his ''wrists and ankles'', has his cheeks stretched wide with what looks like fish hooks and wire, and we watch as a drill is sent through his soft palate. Yikes. And then there's the little circular saw that starts vivisecting him. Yikes is right. His screams don't help either.

* "[[Recap/TheXFilesS08E10Badlaa Badlaa]]". OrificeInvasion at its most {{squick}}y, the idea that he can make himself invisible, and the sound of squeaky wheels should ''not'' be that terrifying. That scene where the kid is running down the street and he can't see what's chasing him, but can only hear the "squeeeak, squeeeak, squeeeak…" of the wheels behind him… *shudder*

** Mulder's resurrection. He has been dead and buried for months, but he gets better. How? It's super creepy when you imagine that his body has been embalmed and decomposing or that he might have been cremated. In addition, people are only slightly disbelieving and by the end, apparently nobody is freaked out by this. When did people like doctors and skeptics like Doggett start to take the paranormal this easily? Why is nobody freaking out?

* "[[Recap/TheXFilesS09E08Hellbound Hellbound]]", which is about people being skinned alive. It gets ''even worse'': those deaths are a particularly horrific case of YouCantFightFate, as the murderer and the victims are part of a death-and-rebirth cycle that started when four miners flayed a man alive in a claim dispute and were acquitted. All five are now bound together, with the four miners repeatedly being reincarnated to eventually die those same awful deaths at the hand of the reincarnated victim, who always winds up being a representative of the law so as to ensure that all the deaths avoid being investigated. The worst part? Despite Reyes' best efforts to end the cycle, the victim-turned-murderer is shown to have been reincarnated yet again at the end of the episode, and literally nothing will change.

** Scully looking out her living room window at night during a rain storm -- and seeing Barry staring ''right at her'', right before he smashes through the window and abducts her. The tension leading up to the scene is palpable, and it's a ''very'' real fear for women who live alone.

** It's also implied that Mulder was unable to sleep after Bruckman told him about the dream. Think about that, just hearing about it was disturbing enough to keep Mulder who has seen some scary shit awake.
* "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E06TwoShy 2Shy]]": Two words -- Human soup.

* "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E17Pusher Pusher]]" gives you an evil bastard who can control you with his mind, forcing you to shoot yourself or set yourself on fire, or even ''induce a heart attack using nothing but words over a telephone''.

** Scully looking out her living room window during a rain storm -- and seeing Barry staring ''right at her'', right before he smashes through the window and abducts her. The tension leading up to it is palpable, and it's a ''very'' real fear for women who live alone.

** Keeping Donnie Pfaster's demon form in quick, darkened glimpses was how you do it right. Or very very wrong.

** The titular character needs to feed on the cancerous cells of others in order to regenerate his body. He's also a very gentle person who [[ApologeticAttacker apologizes to his victims]] before killing them. It's already sad and creepy enough -- and then he comes face to face with Scully.

** His reappearance in "Tooms" is no slouch either: whenever he looks for his next prey, his POV slows down and [[SplashOfColor all colour apart from his next target bleeds out]]. This shows us just how much of a stalker Tooms really is.

* Eugene Victor Tooms (pictured above), possibly the most [[EnsembleDarkhorse popular]] (and most terrifying) monster to appear on the series. Once you see him in action, you'll never go near another air vent again. His introduction in "Squeeze": after an establishing shot of a busy city street at rush hour, the camera settles on a sewer grating and slowly, slowly zooms in on it. Pretty soon, we begin to see a pair of cold, yellow eyes staring predatorily out. He then kills a businessman, and the last shot before the opening credits is the vent closing again, with the screws being tightened. It was only the third episode of the series (and the first standalone), but it set the tone for the entire show. One of the scariest episodes ever.

* "Ice": "We're not who we are", although admittedly possibly coloured because it's basically ''Film/TheThing1982'' but science-y.
* "Eve": The Eves themselves are chilling. TwinTelepathy and CreepyTwins notwithstanding, EnfantTerrible as a result of genetic manipulation that, according to the doctor who did it herself (one of the few surviving Eve clones), accelerated instead of improving the hereditary psychotic problems all Adams and Eves have. [[NothingIsScarier And who knows what the Adams would've been like.]]

* "Fire": People being set on fire and ''burning alive'' is very chilling (ironically). And there's even AdultFear thrown into the mix when the children are trapped in a burning building ''twice!''
**
* "Beyond the Sea":

* "Darkness Falls" has a swarm of strange, glowing insects (theorized to be extraterrestrial in origin) awakened from thousands of years of dormancy when an illegal logging project accidentally cuts down the old-growth tree they had been trapped in. The insects only appear in the dark, but when they do, quickly swarm and kill anything they find, wrapping their prey in a spider-like web. The majority of the episode has Mulder, Scully, two police officers and an environmentalist trapped in a cabin in the middle of the wilderness with little time to escape and gasoline to keep any light on.

* "The Host", in which a giant mutant flukeworm that looks part human goes on a sewer rampage biting people. However, the most horrifying moment of the episode was not the flukeman himself, but the scene in which a bitten worker THROWS UP A FLUKEWORM IN THE SHOWER. AHHH!
* The subliminal messages people start seeing all over the place in "Blood", such as "KILL 'EM ALL." Oh God… Neither the FBI or the audience find out [[UnknownCharacter who sent these messages]]. They simply stop, [[NothingIsScarier with no explanation for why they were sent in the first place.]] The final message sent to Mulder doesn't help much either: [[FalseReassurance ALL DONE BYE BYE]].
* The scenes and descriptions of Duane's torture in "Duane Barry". Real or not, the sight of a man strapped to a table, immobile and terrified, as a drill slowly lowers itself into his open mouth to drill [[TheToothHurts his teeth]]... it's enough to make anyone flinch.

* "Irresistible"

* "Die Hand Die Verletzt" (German for "The Hand That Wounds):

* "Red Museum" has a subplot where Mulder and Scully discover a hidden camera and stacks of video tapes behind a family's bathroom mirror. Earlier, you see the eyes of the a man watching the woman undress as he breathes heavily. She has two boys. And in confession, he says he ''loves those boys''.
* "Fresh Bones": A person emerging out of a small cut in Scully's ''hand'', fingers first. Oh God, oh God, oh God…
* "The Căluşari": "Be careful. ''It knows you now.''"
* "F. Emasculata" is a germophobe's worst nightmare. Especially the part when the escaped convict's boil bursts at his girlfriend's face. You can see all of the gunk that's on her face and you can almost feel the germs on you.
* "Soft Light": The clear despair and self-loathing Tony Shalhoub's character feels for what he is inadvertently doing, and the genuine fear and horror as he tries to warn people away from his shadow is bad enough… but what the shadow itself does… This is taken {{up to eleven}} when he faces his ultimate FateWorseThanDeath.

* "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose":

* "2Shy": Two words -- Human soup.
* "The Walk":

* "Syzygy": Summoning up Bloody Mary by [[MagicMirror a perfectly ordinary mirror found in every household]] and just repeating her name.
* "Pusher" gives you an evil bastard who can control you with his mind, forcing you to shoot yourself or set yourself on fire, or even ''induce a heart attack using nothing but words over a telephone''.
* The premise of "Wet-Wired", where a subliminal TV signal causes you to have hallucinations based on your worst fears and anxieties and subsequently become dangerous and violent, is ParanoiaFuel enough. It really starts getting creepy once Scully gets affected, both because she's a viewpoint character and because the paranoia that results is so opposite of her normal personality.

* "Home":

* "Teliko" gives us a man who steals the pigment from his victims.
* The [[http://www.yourprops.com/movieprops/default/470a93503fe8c/The-X-Files-TV-1993-movie-props.jpg pictures]] [[http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm69/IntelligentInfection/Unruhe_4x02.jpg from]] "Unruhe". Very creepy in themselves, but consider that one crazy guy takes them as a proof that you need a lobotomy. With an ice-pick [[EyeScream through your eye]].
* The scene where the plastic surgeon in "Sanguinarium" is removing his own face, but really '''the whole episode''' is ''filled'' {{Squick}} and NauseaFuel. Vomiting needles. [[BloodBath Bathtub full of blood]]. A guy getting his organs ripped out by a liposuction device. Gruesome plastic surgery accidents. Don't EVER watch this episode with a full stomach.
* "Terma": Picture yourself in Alex Krycek's shoes. You have encountered a group who all don't have their left arms. You manage to convince them that you ran from the Krasnoyarsk gulag tests, so you're safe and can sleep well that night, right? ''Dead wrong.'' Out of absolutely nowhere, you are forcibly awakened by the men and held down. You can see one of them holding a heated knife, kneeling down and [[AnArmAndALeg amputating your left arm]]. All you can do is scream and feel every single ounce of pain for god knows how long.
* "Leonard Betts":

* In "Synchrony", the villain (who is the future version of one of the researchers, Jason Nichols) tries to kill the scientists. His reason? Their research will lead to the creation of time travel, which will be available for everyone. Everybody will know everything, there will be no future. Nichols describes this world as that one without hope. The most horrific part? We don't know if he succeeded to avert this future, as Lisa, his girlfriend scientist, continued her work...
* "Small Potatoes": The MonsterOfTheWeek (a man who is a shapeshifter) impersonates Mulder for the few days, while the real Mulder is trapped in a hospital cellar. Though the entire episode is pretty comedic, and while Mulder manages to get out, the fact that everyone around actually took the fake Mulder for real can induce heavy amounts of ParanoiaFuel.

* Detour":

* The cursed doll from "Chinga". Particularly the way it speaks when attempting to kill the mother. "Don't play with matches. Let's play with ''the hammer''."
* "Bad Blood", despite being a LighterAndSofter comedy episode, has a very creepy scene where Mulder is drugged and cornered by a vampire. Even without the supernatural element, it's still scary for having Mulder slowly losing consciousness and unable to move while someone with horrible intentions walks toward him.
* The ''entirety'' of the titular character in "Patient X". Kidnapped, tortured, infected with the Black Oil and then having his eyes, nose and mouth sewn shut to prevent it from escaping.
* "Folie à Deux". Your boss is a horrible insectoid creature who vibrates like he's out of sync with reality and can move faster than you can blink. Worse, he's systematically turning your coworkers into the living dead, and everyone thinks you're delusional because ''you're the only one who can see it.''

* "One Son" ends with the death of most of the Syndicate by the Faceless Rebels. You could be cheering for the sinister organisation's demise and the rebels' victory... if not for the fact that the Syndicate had their ''wives and children'' with them. This really emphasises [[TheUnfettered just how determined the rebels are at stopping alien colonisation from happening at all]]. It doesn't help that there is a ScreamDiscretionShot after the group are surrounded in a circle by the rebels.
* "Field Trip". Particularly freaky were the scenes where reality seeps into the hallucinations in the form of ''gooey yellow acid'', and especially when ''a whole room, including the people in it'', dissolves into the acid. The whole concept of the episode is both Nightmare Fuel and ParanoiaFuel.
* "Monday". Imagine experiencing the trauma of the day where your boyfriend dies, but worse (he takes a bunch of innocent people with him), and knowing there is nothing you can do to stop it. Now imagine experiencing that day FOREVER! The woman even says she is in hell. Mulder somehow breaks the loop, but considering how many times he personally looped, one can assume that woman had experienced that day for months, years, or possibly even decades. Hell indeed.

* Rob Roberts' true form in episode "Hungry". His sharp, pointed teeth and black eyes were particularly disturbing.

* Even with its crossoverness, all of "X-Cops" has to be mentioned. It's YourMindMakesItReal cranked UpToEleven. [[NothingIsScarier And the camera never catches the monster]], only the aftermath. And did we forget to mention that all this was filmed on a ShakyPOVCam, heightening the terror?

* Mulder being taken by aliens in "Requiem". It seems somewhat peaceful Mulder to simply walk into the beam with the other abductees, only for the Alien Bounty Hunter to walk in and face Mulder. The former's smile is unnerving, because this is essentially business as usual, while the latter has a look of silent fear, immediately regretting his decision. It's almost as if the two of them know what will happen to this unfortunate, new arrival.

* Mulder's experiences being taken by aliens, seen in "Within": Mulder is ''bolted'' to a stone chair through his ''wrists and ankles'', has his cheeks stretched wide with what looks like fish hooks and wire, and we watch as a drill is sent through his soft palate. Yikes. And then there's the little circular saw that starts vivisecting him. Yikes is right. His screams don't help either.
* "Invocation", especially when Scully plays the tape backwards. *shudder*
* "Via Negativa". Not only can this person kill you in your sleep, but they can also control you to murder someone else.
* "Badlaa". OrificeInvasion at its most {{squick}}y, the idea that he can make himself invisible, and the sound of squeaky wheels should ''not'' be that terrifying. That scene where the kid is running down the street and he can't see what's chasing him, but can only hear the "squeeeak, squeeeak, squeeeak…" of the wheels behind him… *shudder*
* "[=DeadAlive=]":

* "Essence" has Billy Miles carrying the nightmare fuel in this episode. As a Super Soldier, he is indestructible. No bullet or car can stop him, and how does he kill, you ask? Swinging his hand to ''[[OffWithHisHead chop people's heads off]]''!

* "Hellbound", which is about people being skinned alive. It gets ''even worse'': those deaths are a particularly horrific case of YouCantFightFate, as the murderer and the victims are part of a death-and-rebirth cycle that started when four miners flayed a man alive in a claim dispute and were acquitted. All five are now bound together, with the four miners repeatedly being reincarnated to eventually die those same awful deaths at the hand of the reincarnated victim, who always winds up being a representative of the law so as to ensure that all the deaths avoid being investigated. The worst part? Despite Reyes' best efforts to end the cycle, the victim-turned-murderer is shown to have been reincarnated yet again at the end of the episode, and literally nothing will change.

* All the deformed children Scully sees in "Founder's Mutation", if only because they look so [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome disturbingly realistic]]. Doubles as AdultFear, both in and out of universe.
* All the murder scenes in "Home Again", with the Bandage-Nose Man literally ''ripping his victims apart with his bare hands''. There's also a homage/callback to "Home", in which Petula Clark's cheerful "Downtown" plays over one of the most brutal and horrific death scenes in the series.

* The first murder victim in "Familiar" is lured to his doom by a demon appearing as Mr. Chuckleteeth, a [[NightmareFuel/LiveActionTV Noseybonk-esque]] character from an in-universe children's television show, whose UncannyValley [[https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--mst1AZIO--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/btiaatjpqusp78hg3su8.jpg appearance is just unsettling]].

-->-- The FBI's '''[[CompellingVoice Robert Patrick Modell]]''' briefing, "[[Recap/TheXFilesS05E08Kitsunegari Kitsunegari]]"