X Files is horrid!

[fannishliss]

Argh, I just watched a s2 Xfiles at random, and it had exploding pustules everywhere.  It made Pestilence look like a dainty sneeze into a lace hanky.  OMG.  As usual, I was writhing around on the couch with my blanket over my eyes for almost the whole episode.  Why doesn't SPN make me that afraid/uncomfortable?    Given that Supernatural is Xfiles' kid sister, why isn't she scarier?  Do any of y'all find spn really, really scary?

Comments

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

No, not really. Earlier episodes were creepier and pulled from universal fears more acutely, like being trapped in an abandoned mine, buried alive, attacked by demonic shadows or what have you. But then they started focusing on the Big Story and kinda left horror in the dust.

Not that I'm complaining loudly, mind you! I think the relationship between the characters is what has carried the show, as well as great casting. And I do enjoy the angel/demon story. They've lost a little creativity in the terror department, I think, but that can return if the writers decide to shift it back again. We shall see!

[bowtrunckle.livejournal.com]

Have you seen X-Files "Home" (4x02)?

Do any of y'all find spn really, really scary?

I found early seasons of SPN scarier. "Bloody Mary", "ELaC", "Folsom Prison Blues" (yes, that last one scared me ... those eyes were freaky!). I think once SPN started concentrating on demons, which aren't very scary, a lot of the fright factor was removed.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I think it's really funny that demons aren't scary -- but it's true! Strangely, there's an aspect to the formula of the show, that the boys always solve the mystery, that makes it less scary for me. Their goal is to destroy the monster ... and I can hardly think of even one time when they failed to destroy the monster. ?? When Kolchak or Mulder went up against a monster, half the time it would get away, after throwing the hero down and terrifying growling at him or something.... the only monsters that ever get away on spn are the Angels and demons -- and as you point out, demons aren't scary! they just have a lot of amusing attitude.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I came into watching sometime during early s3... I bought the Ben Edlund episodes from s2 off of itunes and watched them first. Nightshifter is not what you'd call "scary" and strangely enough, neither is Simon Said. I went out and bought the first two seasons on dvd but I don't remember being scared by any of them... I just really liked the way that the show manipulated "lore" and of course I fell in love with Dean in all his complexity. I find the show can be really emotionally tense, but not frightening in the nailbiting way that XFiles always was. :P

[fanaddict.livejournal.com]

XF was much creepier because they tried to explain it with science, while SPN doesn't. SPN is horror in the sense that it's all about manipulating viewer emotions, while XF is sci fi because it manipulates viewer intellect/ideas. I find it much less easy to dismiss ideas than emotions, which are over once the initial reaction is over usually.

The other thing about XF is that it delved into the "natural" world - we've seen images of smallpox pustules, so the idea of some nasty pulsating disease-caused pustules on a person is gross/disturbing because it takes something we know and blows it up into something horrifying. SPN, especially these days, no longer speaks to me/most people as something we can identify with. I think S1 they tried a little more, but it's only scary if you believe in ghosts, etc - and you come in with that idea or not. XF explained why we should believe (or not) and then took us forward.

I love SPN, but nothing compares to how I felt about XF and nothing ever will because my love for XF contains so much bitterness for how they strung us along.

BTW, try Darin Morgan's eps for XF and Millenium for truly awesome humor writing, if you like Englund's writing on SPN.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting. I like your idea that spn is more about emotions, being horror, while xf is more about ideas, being sf, and that xf explained why you should believe. In terms of what I could relate to, there was no difference to me with the idea that "someone could be abducted" vs "someone could be haunted." :P Both were equally plausible to me in that fuzzy area of my mind like "it COULD happen" -- though actually, I'm a lot more likely to really believe in a ghost occurrence than a UFO sighting or abduction (the universe is just so big!)

I was a huge xfiles fan for a long time -- up until the first movie. Then I got tired of the Samantha storyline and let it go.

I didn't really think I'd ever become as involved again in any tv show -- but then Supernatural came along and it had all I wanted out of XFiles, plus a little more somehow.

For me SPN speaks to me because it engages with the idea of heroism on a grand scale. Mulder and Scully had a lot of trouble being heroes because people would shut them down. I think a lot of the scariness is also in their powerlessness.... Sam and Dean don't even fear Death anymore. But then again, the problems that Sam and Dean face, in terms of who is human vs monster, what it means morally to have to kill monsters as a way of life, what it means to make allies whose morality you don't understand -- for me, these are all real moral questions, just made a little bit more allegorical in terms of the Show. I think that Supernatural is a true post 9-11 allegory of homeland defense, and all that entails. So for me it's not just mythology (tho I find all that very fun) but it's more than that -- what happens to men who fight to defend us in a very irregular war; what happens when all the other, regular people are defined as "civilians".

I loved the humor writing on xfiles, and i love that spn took that humorous stance and ran with it. I am an old Edlund fan since c. 1990. :)

thanks for your thought-provoking comment!

[themonkeytwin.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't remember XF almost at all, but I know I watched it when it first came out. I don't think it made much of an impact on my developing psyche, other than maybe becoming aware for the first time of the idea of a show's OTP. (Which, come to think of it, IS quite the impact!) So I don't remember it scaring me much, but then, I don't really scare easy and make-believe just never did it. I remember being totally fine with literally everything in The Neverending Story, except for the horse being sucked down into quicksand, which TERRIFIED me. Because I knew that quicksand existed, and also, had no concept of the rules of quicksand, ie, it does not manifest in the hallway outside your bedroom at night. Scarred me for life.

So SPN, while dealing with some stuff I accept does exist, is enough make-believe to not have an impact with the scary of it. SPN is so, so much better at dread, which I do count differently to scariness. Like scary is fear awakened on behalf of yourself, but dread can be awakened on behalf of another. AND the ew-factor (which I never noticed in XF, but again, I was young). And they manage to combine them very chillingly, for me anyway, to have you sitting there going, "No, no, no, no, don't – oh ergh, fast forward!" And then there are teeth in the sink and maggots in the burger and raw meat being snarfed and hands in boiling oil, not to mention all the existential dread of Dean going to Hell, and torturing Alastair, and Sammy going darkside.

From what I remember, XF was essentially about the bumps in the night, where SPN is essentially all about a relationship that takes place in the context of bumps in the night. The audience's investment is in different places, and it's hard to make a relationship really *scary* that way. I dunno. My two cents.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

it's so funny how the consensus is that SPN is horror, but that it's not really that scary. It's true, the existential dread is the main impact of what's going on. Like Mannequin 3, which I really enjoyed : It's not actually SCARY, but it's just kind of AWFUL when you see how the vengeful spirit was put down just by the death of the innocent sister, and Samndean are left going OMG WHAT DID WE ACCOMPLISH. So many of their victories are pyrrhic.

My formative scary show was KOLCHAK THE NIGHTSTALKER. I freakin loved that show when I was 6, and just rewatched it this past summer on DVD, and it was still pretty fun. One difference is that Kolchak or Mulder will witness the monster but have no proof of it, and may not defeat it or whatever, whereas, for some reason, samndean ALWAYS defeat the monster -- at least eventually. See also KILLDOZER, a comic book based on a made for tv movie based on a Ted Sturgeon novella that I also really loved when I was 6. :P

XFiles can be awfully, awfully icky!! way worse than poor Misha eating the raw veggie burgers. Tho he said it was still really disgusting. :P

Anyway, I'm getting lots of fun responses to the post. Thanks for commenting!

[monicawoe.livejournal.com]

You know what other show has occassional moments of great horror? American
Gothic.

My feelings on X-files are kind of mixed. I found their main story pretty boring for the most part, but I liked a lot of their standalone episodes Skinner was my favorite character, lol.

Millennium OTOH is fantastic! I highly , highly recommend it. This is also a show that has some very scary moments, but it is just such a well written and well acted show overall. Plus I could listen to Lance Henriksen's voice all day.