The X-Files is reopened as the show creator unveils his true vision for the 2008 movie
Directed by: Chris Carter
Written by: Chris Carter
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly
Director’s Cut
Release Date: August 14, 2026
Runtime: 1:39
This review may contain 20-year-old spoilers
The Audience is Out There
The X-Files are back! One of my favorite shows Mama Kaiz wouldn’t let me watch as a kid. It’s an X-Files review, so I know she won’t read this.
The X-Files was a collection of aliens, urban legends, supernatural phenomena, and government conspiracies. It also had a great opening theme, both haunting and captivating, with that damn eerie music.
Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox
Despite several attempts of revival seasons and a couple of movies, the series ended back in 2018. Now it looks like the series creator (and this movie’s director), Chris Carter, is making another go, at least until Ryan Coogler takes over.
I Want to Believe… Again
Actually, if you already saw the 2008 version, you know all there is to know. It’s barely changed.
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, respectively) return to help the FBI find a missing agent. Also aiding in the search is a former priest and convicted pedophile (Billy Connolly, The Boondock Saints) with psychic visions of the missing agent.
Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox
And since this is a nearly 20-year-old movie and the subtitle already said it, the whole mystery is centered on a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein who reattaches heads and body parts in a dog kennel in snowy West Virginia. So do with that as you will…
The Directing Man’s Cut
Vrach Frankenstein was generally the same movie as before, just a couple of seconds more of the Frankenstein surgery. I think. So little was changed that I wasn’t sure if I just started the regular version.
Or maybe it’s a head game. Maybe the director’s cut is the X-File and Chris Carter is the real Smoking Man, or shall I say, the Directing Man. Cue show theme song.
Photo Credit: David Buchan/Variety/PMC
One change I noticed, other than the extended surgery, was the removal of a portrait of George W. Bush. It was a brief close-up shot of Bush (giggity) with the theme song jingle. It’s a weird shot in 2026, but it was also a weird shot back in 2008.
Like, why the close framing and music? Are you trying to tell us something, Directing Man? Is Dubya an X-File or a government scheme arranged by the Syndicate and alien colonists? What?
Holy Subtitles, Batman!
That is one long title, with a weird way of spelling the last part. Also, that’s a wild way to give away the movie’s spoilers right off the bat. I know, it was 18 years ago, but really?
Not to mention, while the main reveal is a bizarre Frankenstein experiment (hey, if they’re okay spoiling it, I am too!), no one is actually named or credited as Frankenstein, or Frankenshteyn as the title spells it.
That spelling sounds like it’s trying to rip off Young Frankenstein’s name pronunciation.
The Truth is… Somewhere… Maybe…?
The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn is like one of the show’s random episodes, like when Mulder is tracking moss monsters or head-popping extremely low frequency (ELF) waves. Nothing about kidnapped agents or experiments with body parts has been on the show before, and I don’t remember it ever being followed up in later episodes.
It’s like it came and then just vanished in thin air… cue show theme song.
I don’t know, wouldn’t you think a movie based on a TV show would be a wrap-up for the series? Something to connect all the dots to the main overarching story?
Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox
Instead, I Want to Believe (director’s cut or not) is just a longer episode of a bizarre story out of nowhere. The Vrach Frankenshteyn version doesn’t do much to enhance the original movie and makes you wonder, “What the hell and why?”
This brings me back to George Lucas’ Star Wars: Special Edition, because the movie really needed more CGI scenes.
Sarcasm? What sarcasm?
The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn is streaming on Hulu.
