What were the scariest “X-Files” episodes? Which particular sequences were the most frightening? (I know this will vary widely from person to person, I just wondered what you guys consider the most spine-tinglig episodes and scenes!)
For me, the most cringe-inducing moments involved the Peacock family from an episode in season four. The scene of the boys preparing to get in on with mom was just vile. When M & S drag mom from underneath the bed, I’m not sure if her it was her appearence or her screaming which was the most disturbing. They really broke the creep-o-meter with that episode.
The “Detour” episode, with the red-eyed humanoids who, chameleon-like, faded into the background. At the end, Scully is packing her bag in her motel room. You KNOW something is going to happen, but you don’t know what. Mulder, suspecting something is up, runs to her room, opens the door, and escorts her out to the car to drive back to DC.
The camera pans around the room, coming to rest on a pair of red eyes under the bed…
The scariest episode for me was when Mulder and Scully were investigating the death of a man and a woman. They went underground and were caught in some kind of gel like substance that made them hallucinate. I couldn’t tell what was hallucination and what was reality until Skinner rescued the both of them and they were put in an ambulance.
Eugene Tooms scared the fuck out of me the first time I saw those episodes and every time since. (I was in fifth grade when the X-Files premiered and those were both in S1).
Man, me too. I think I was in middle school in season 1. At the end of the first episode when [spoiler]he reaches out of the heating grate to attack Scully** I jumped about 3 feet in the air because I was standing right next to one.
Could a mod fix my coding so there’s actually a spoiler box? Sorry about that.
The Fiji Mermaid episode was scary to me in elementary school.
One of the most frightening moments would have to be the scene where Donny Pfaster kills the priest.
Gah. One of my big childhood carryover fears is things under the bed. In that episode, wasn’t there also a whole sequence where the things are running through someone’s house?
Donnie Pfaster had major creep factor, especially his ritual of “is your hair natural, or colored” or whatever he said. But one episode I haven’t seen since its air date that scared me was called “Unruh,” I think. It had the guy walking around on those extendable leg things, and a whole series of creepy photographs with people screaming. Gave me the wiggins, it did.
This one really weirded me out as well.
The episode that scared me the most was when that one office guy could see that his boss was really this alien/giant bug thing, but no one else could. Mulder later explained that it was like the Praying Mantis and how it hypnotizes people into thinking he was human. The office guy eventually goes crazy and holds up the whole office with an AK47 wanting to kill the boss. But mulder and the police come in and kills him before he has the chance to. During the breakin, the lights flicker on and off, and for the briefist second Mulder is able to see that the boss was indeed this alien bug thing. Lying on the ground the office guy looks up at Mulder and just whispers, “See, I told you.” and then dies.
The Peacock family episode is, IMO, the ultimate X-Files.
The episode is called Home and I have ehard that it has never been shown on broadcast television since it’s inital airing. I really don’t know if that’s true. although I am 99% certain is was never shown again as a rerun during the regular run of the series
It’s Home for me, too. The scene where the brothers break into the officer’s house and kill him and his wife is one ofo the scariest things I’ve ever seen in the X-Files, on TV, in a movie, anywhere.
It didn’t help that I was probably, like, 13 or 14 when I saw it. Didn’t sleep a wink that night.
I’ve owned the video tape with that ep on it for about six years (it was a gift) and I’ve only been able to bring myself to watch it once.
That bit’s what freaked me out too; iirc a character hears noises coming from downstairs, goes to have a look and there’s these red eyes coming up the stairs…
While Wonderful, Wonderful played on the radio.
::shudder::
D.P.O. was pretty disturbing, too.
That episode when they get stranded in some forest with killer insects who only come for you in the dark scared the crap out of a young Domokun. Even weeks after when I’d go walking in the woods. 
I’ve seen it on tv quite a few times, could have been on cable but I don’t think so. It’s one of my favorite episodes, though I never really though it was scary.
Eugene Tooms always scared me, as did Donnie Pfaster.
Not really a “jump” moment, but the most emotionally harrowing for me was the episode with Robert Modell, the mind-controlling murderer. Mulder has the gun in his hand, and as he starts to point it as Scully he said something like “Run, Scully! Get out of here!”
Guh.
“Home”…Ah yes. This is a favorite of mine but it truly is disturbing in every way.
The only comic relief was when Mulder found the newspaper announcing Elvis’s death and he pouted as if he’d just heard it for the first time.
And the one where the guy tried hooking up with overweight women online so he could meet them and then suck out the fat…Oooooohh ewwwwww! Gooey gory nastiness.
How about the episode where Mulder and Scully are in a dark place, shining their flashlights around?