Everyone loves a director’s cut. But unlike some, The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn, which debuted on Friday on Disney+, is not the kind of director’s cut that will radically alter critical perspectives on the original 2008 film. Much has been made, mainly by director and X-Files creator Chris Carter, of the new version’s grisly additions. But there is still so much about this movie that is underwritten, preposterous and lacking in basic dramatic intrigue that upping its body horror quotient merely makes the same old problems slightly more unpleasant to look at. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this new version is hidden away behind the “Extras” tab for the original film.
For those who have sensibly forgotten, I Want to Believe reunites Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) several years after their departure from the FBI, when a female agent disappears and the bureau’s only lead comes from a disgraced former Catholic priest (Billy Connolly) who claims to be receiving psychic visions. So far, so X-Files. The priest, Father Joe, is a convicted paedophile who abused dozens of altar boys, which gives Scully some fairly understandable reservations about accepting his apparent supernatural gifts at face value.
