Fox’s ‘X-Files’ Supplies Scares Without Gore

(For the record, Tuesday, February 1, 1995:) Gillian Anderson portrays Agent Dana Scully in the Fox TV series “The X-Files.” Her last name was wrong in a story in Tuesday’s IN Life section.

Chris Carter’s “The X-Files” may be the only show on network television that people have to watch twice because they missed so much hiding under the covers the first time.

“The X-Files” is not only the scariest show on TV today, but may be the scariest TV show ever. Remarkably, writer-producer Carter has made it that way without much of the gore that characterizes the horror movies playing in theaters these days.

“I think we’re pushing the level of scariness, which is what I always like to do,” says Carter. “But I still like to do it without any gratuitous violence, keeping it smart rather than pandering.”

“X-Files” airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on Spokane’s KAYU-Channel 28 (channel 3 on Cox Cable).

In just two seasons on the air, the Fox show has become as hot among male viewers as “Melrose Place” is among women. Better yet, women also watch “The X-Files” in large numbers, which gives it a broader demographic appeal for the young adult viewers Fox delivers to advertisers with ever more impressive statistics.

Two weeks ago, for instance, enough fans peeked out from under the covers to make a rerun episode the most-watched show in its time period among men aged 18-49 and 25-54 and No. 2 among women aged 18 to 49.

With demographic appeal like that, it’s no wonder Fox has announced it will attempt an “X-Files” spinoff for next season and there’s talk of an “X-Files” movie for theaters.

Naturally, Carter is delighted and so are his stars, David “Agent Mulder” Duchovny and Gillian “Agent Scully” Armstrong, who now can’t go anywhere without being mobbed by fans and the occasional extra-terrestrials and devil worshipers.

For Carter, the formula for success has been a concentration on mood and atmosphere in the tradition of famed 1940s horror-film producer Val Lewton, whose classic films “The Cat People,” “The Seventh Victim” and “I Walked With a Zombie” produced stark terror in viewers without drenching them in blood.

Carter’s carefully calculated stories often put FBI agents Mulder and Scully into tense situations where neither they nor the viewers know what to expect. With masterful use of lighting and eerie music, he breeds fear about what might be lurking in all those shadows that seem to crowd in on every frame. The result: Absolute paranoia.

“I’d be flattered if I could create a lot of paranoia out there,” says Carter. “It has become part of the design. We have a kind of ‘X-Files’ mythology we’re building, and it definitely involves creating paranoia about certain government institutions.”

Creating that mood isn’t easy on a TV schedule, which usually means flat lighting and easy camera setups if an episode is to be finished on time and on budget. Carter agrees that getting what he wants for the show has meant enormous sacrifices by everyone involved.

“David and Gillian are in almost every scene,” he says, “so they work just hellish hours. Doing the show requires such a concert of technical ability and attention to detail that I can’t imagine there’s a harder show to do on television.”

In the beginning, Agents Mulder and Scully were investigating cases routed into the “unexplained” category or the so-called “X-Files” at the FBI. But the closer their investigations got to revealing government involvement in alien contacts, the more paranoid they became.

The first season ended with their superiors closing down the files and breaking up the team.

But the files now have been reopened, and Carter promises a terrifying cliffhanger episode to end this season, returning Mulder and Scully to the brink of learning the truth about extra-terrestrial involvement with our society.

The “mythology” Carter is gradually weaving around his characters comes in and out of the story lines. There is no “bible” for the show, laying out a master plan of what’s ahead, and Carter says the writers are only a step or two ahead of Mulder, Scully and the viewers.

So, what happened to Mulder’s sister in his childhood? Was she really abducted by aliens? And what residual effects may Scully be feeling from her own alien abduction earlier this season?

Carter keeps mum, saying only, “Stay tuned.”

Another key to the show’s success may be the personas of actors Duchovny and Armstrong, who are so understated on screen - and in person - that they often appear to be under hypnosis. However, both actors possess a sly sense of humor that suggests they’re in on the joke.

Duchovny insists that “underplaying is reality,” which is why he and Armstrong so often tend to speak in what some critics have called “ominous” tones. He says they both strive to make their characters seem credible in the midst of some truly far-out stories, and resisting the temptation to be overdramatic is part of the scheme.

Whatever theories are operating, they obviously are working.