The X-Files creator is releasing R-rated director’s cut with darkest never-before-seen moments
18 years after The X-Files: I Want to Believe released, and we're still searching for the truth. However, as the strapline of Chris Carter's sci-fi series continuously reminds us, "The truth is out there." Often credited as one of the greatest TV shows of all time, The X-Files made household names out of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson for their roles as Special Agent Fox Mulder and Special Agent Dana Scully.
The X-Files' original run of nine seasons ran from 1992 to 2002, although a live-action movie aired between seasons 5 and 6. After the main series had ended, Mulder and Scully were lured back for 2008's The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
It's fair to say that I Want to Believe wasn't exactly a hit, with it making just $68.4 million on a $30 million budget. Duchovny and Anderson both blamed the film going up against The Dark Knight for its failure, although it also has a paltry 32% score (from both critics and audiences) on Rotten Tomatoes.
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If that wasn't enough, many thought I Want to Believe would be the end of the road, because although the leads expressed interest in a third movie, the franchise lay dormant until season 10 aired in 2015.
Hoping to restore I Want to Believe to its former glory, The X-Files creator Chris Carter is releasing The X-Files: I Want to Believe - Vrach Frankenshteyn on Disney+ and Hulu on August 14.
I Want to Believe's original logline explains how Mulder and Scully are pulled back years after they walked away from the FBI, with a federal agent vanishing in the midst of a women being mysteriously abducted.
Billy Connolly plays Joseph "Father Joe" Crissman, a shamed priest convicted of pedophilia who claims to be experiencing psychic visions of the missing women. I Want to Believe hoped to serve as a modern nod to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and also return to the show's original 'monster of the week' premise while upping its horror elements.
Unfortunately for Carter, the movie was chopped around and ultimately ended up being released with a PG-13 rating. Tacking 'Vrach Frankenshteyn' (Russian for Physician/Doctor Frankenstein) on the end, Carter's 2026 streaming rerelease has earned an R-rating and hopes to retell the story in his original vision.
It's true that the likes of Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Zack Snyder's Justice League, and X-Men: Days of Future Past's 'Rogue Cut' have massive overhauled theatrical releases, but over on Reddit, it seems The X-Files fans will take some convincing to give Vrach Frankenshteyn a chance.
On the r/horror subreddit, one person claimed that Carter had been forced to cut scenes from his original R-rated cut, with plans for more body horror.
One unconvinced viewer wrote: "I love the X-Files and I'll give this a shot, but I full on just don't believe there's a way to re-edit this movie to make it genuinely good."
Another was equally unsure as they added: "I remember seeing this in a theater, as an x-phile from a young age, and coming out of it absolutely crestfallen.
“Maybe this will be an improvement, but I don't think it will cure the feeling that an X-Files movie was wasted on what could have been a tv episode."
Others were more supportive, as a third concluded: "Hell yeah. I've always loved this movie and no amount of nay saying from the purposefully obtuse here will change that."
For fans of The X-Files who might've given I Want to Believe a miss, it could be worth checking it out on Disney+, while even the critics are sure to check out what (if anything) has changed.