things the x-files taught me, part 1 of ?

[intertribal]

Words:
- Syzygy. A kind of unity, especially through coordination or alignment, most commonly used in the astronomical and/or astrological sense.
- Conduit. A means of conveying something from one location to another or between persons.
- Je Souhaite. French for "I Wish."
- Kitsunegari. Japanese for "Fox Hunt."

Arcadia. (Arcadia) As in Et in Arcadia Ego.

You can put swear words in dialogue. As in, "and you're in the wrong house, you son of a bitch!" (Paper Hearts)

Villains must be compelling. This is not an option. (Cigarette-Smoking Man, Krycek, Marita)

It's okay to kill the dog. (Quagmire) But only once in a while. (Ice)

"Make your own damn sandwich." (Arcadia)
"This is where you pucker up and kiss my ass." (Paper Clip)

"Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter. (D.P.O.)
"Beyond the Sea" by Bobby Darin. (Beyond the Sea)

Color-blindness. (Wetwired)

Kuru. (Theef)

The Hanta virus. (X-Cops)

Moby. (Closure, all things)

People that society thinks are dangerous are not always the real dangers. Vice versa, pillars of society can be predatory. (Sanguinarium, Fresh Bones, Signs & Wonders, Chimera, Die Hand Die Verletzt)

Unreliable narrators. (Field Trip, How The Ghosts Stole Christmas, Bad Blood)

The inner lives of hegemonic assholes and the people who put up with them. (Dreamland I and Dreamland II, Two Fathers, One Son)

Animals are part of the world too. (Fearful Symmetry, Alpha, Red Museum, Biogenesis, The Jersey Devil)

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. (X-Cops)

And technology, we also have to fear technology. (Ghost in the Machine, Blood, Wetwired, First Person Shooter)

Ghosts can be caught on video/camera. Fantastic! (Born Again, The Calusari)

Old people are scary. (Excelsis Dei, Dod Kalm)

Watch your fucking vents. (Squeeze, Tooms)

Don't even think about the port-o-potty. (The Host)

If stuck in the middle of nowhere, don't get on a midnight bus. (Roadrunners)

And obviously avoid the creepy mutant neighbors. (Home)

Also avoid Santa's Villages. (Sein und Zeit)

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I love "Je souhaite"

the kitsune concept I like best is "kitsune no yome-iri"--the fox bride's wedding procession. If the sun comes out during a rain shower, then somewhere a fox bride is making her wedding procession to her new home. Then cue lots of cool images of foxes in Japanese wedding gear.

The X-files was one of the scariest shows I saw as an adult.

Edited to get rid of random indefinite articles....

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

The fox wedding is cute. There must be a lot of fox weddings around here, in that case.

The X-files was one of the scariest shows I saw as an adult.

Yeah. Damn, I should have added one about how you don't need CG or even much of a budget to make something scary. I stayed up way too late watching it last night, but it's always worth it. It's a show that shaped me, no doubt about that.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

LOL, now I'm imagining your town filled with fox newlyweds.

And so right about not needing CG. In some ways, CG makes things less scary. Sometimes suggestion and indirection make things much, much more scary than spelling everything out.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

This was actually a major reason I was turned off of Fringe (I knew it was an X-Files rip off going in, but I thought, well, at least it's an X-Files rip off). There was so much CG. So much was shown. And it's overkill, you know? It was like, buckets of acid immediately thrown on an entire plane of people. Gross, but not scary and not realistic. Whereas the X-Files would have shown, you know, one drop of acid on the pavement and you would have instantly been like, "ohhhh shit," because you have been slowly but surely taught that that means aliens nearby.

CG = a way out of story-telling, esp. in horror.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Whereas the X-Files would have shown, you know, one drop of acid on the pavement and you would have instantly been like, "ohhhh shit,"

Yes--I got a chill just reading your sentence in fact.

CG can be embarrassing, really.

It's like, what was that movie you blogged about some time ago? The one that's done all small-budget, but you said was super scary? Paranormal something-or-other?

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Paranormal Activity! Yes, exactly. $15,000 with almost no CG. And I bet it'll be better than Cameron's 500-million-dollar green-screen-fest Avatar (not that that's horror, but you get my point).

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Totally! (I was actually thinking of Avatar when I made the remark about CG being embarrassing...)

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Great minds think alike!

[pgtremblay.livejournal.com]

Toom!

Nerd that I am, I actually went to an X-Files convention back in the day and I have a script to HOME here somewhere.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

OMG, seriously? (the convention and the script) That is amazing. You X-Phile, you.

[pgtremblay.livejournal.com]

oh, I forgot, I had a picture taken of me sitting at Fox Mulder's desk while at the con. (Green screen). Heh.