User Reviews

Very few X-Files episodes went for flat out horror, but this one might be the most terrifying of all. The murders depicted are unusually graphic, all perpetrated by an ax to the forehead. What I did have some trouble with was a discussion between Skinner and Doggett about the murder weapon, making it sound like there was only one of it's kind in the whole world, and that one was locked away in some foreign museum. Come on, the hatchet you could pick up at your local True Value would do about the same job as long as it had a six to eight inch blade. I couldn't buy their explanation trying to fit it into some bizarre theory.

But hey, I guess that was no more bizarre than A.D. Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) coming up with an X-File, paranormal type explanation for what was going on with Anthony Tipet (Keith Szarabajka) - the guy's consciousness was killing victims while his body was elsewhere! Wow, Skinner really has come a long way, hasn't he? The out of body stuff was attributed to a drug called iboga, extracted from the bark of an African tree. I really had to marvel at the lab set-up Andre Bormanis (Grant Heslov) had to create the drug synthetically; it was in the tradition of all those great Frankenstein flicks from the Thirties, revisited a couple decades later by the Hammer folks. You're not a real horror fan if you haven't seen any of those.

What really got my attention in this story was the mention of the CIA's secret mind control experiments dating back to the 1950's titled MK Ultra. One of the hallucinogens they used was LSD, and believe it or not, an actor you might recognize by the name of Cary Grant was subjected to some of those LSD sessions while participating in the project. It's described in a biography of Grant by author Marc Eliot, so you can check it out for yourself. Another volunteer for MK Ultra was the merry prankster himself, Ken Kesey, who eventually authored "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Read the book or see the movie, both are great.

The zone-out sequence by Agent Doggett struck me as rather surreal, and maybe just a bit too reminiscent of Mulder and Scully's adventure in the sixth season's 'Field Trip'. Going back to the well was something the writers did every once in a while, and I guess by Season Eight they might have been stretching for ideas. Having Doggett team with Skinner for this one was kind of interesting for a change of pace, while keeping viewers on edge about Scully's pregnancy. I thought it was great the way both Skinner and Doggett covered for her absence with Deputy Director Kersh (James Pickens Jr.). It's too bad she wasn't around to witness their loyalty.

"Nightmare on Elm Street" meets "The X-Files" is what we are given in Via Negativa. Written by Frank Spotniz, Via Negativa has people meeting a violent demise while in their sleep behind locked doors. Of course, it's not Freddy Krueger this time killing off horny teenagers, it's Anthony Tipet, leader of a religious cult.

Via Negativa is a good, creepy episode, with Doggett wondering whether he is awake or asleep. Skinner surprises us in the beginning of the episode by giving Kersh an x-files explanation for the murders much to Kersh's chagrin.

Doggett works this case alone while Scully is in the hospital, due to some complications with her pregnancy (we assume). Although, she still hasn't told Doggett yet that she's pregnant, not trusting him completely yet. So, instead, she refers Doggett to the Lone Gunmen to assist Doggett with the case. Surprisingly, the Lone Gunmen appear to be very cocky when they first meet Doggett. He humbly accepts their help and offers up a theory that he himself does not believe in.

Now, where the episode loses some points with me is with how confusing it is. Doggett works out the theory that Tipet has achieved the Third Eye through the use of hallucinogenic drugs. But by going through the Via Negativa (path of darkness), Tipet has become a murderer. And that's the only explanation given. Bormanis states how Tipet is the only one who was able to go on the "trips" into the higher consciousness, yet somehow Doggett gains the Third Eye as well, without using hallucinogenic drugs and Tipet instructs him to kill Scully. Maybe the episode is supposed to be all confusing and mixed up, just like a real dream is. But it left me a little too puzzled.

Tony Wharmby, who directed the episode, does a fine job conveying a creepy, dark atmosphere, especially in the final scene of Doggett approaching Scully with the ax. The scene is flashing blue and has a totally surreal feel to it.

Via Negativa has a great premise and is very interesting to watch, but fails to deliver to its full potential due to its perplexing nature. After watching this episode, you might end up having a nightmare on "your" street.

This is one of the all-time scariest and most disturbing episodes of this show, not to mention one of the most gory. There is a certain subtle, powerful sense of brooding spiritualistic menace about it. It's sorta mind-bending to figure out, because you really have to work out in your head not the reality of what's going on, but the unreality... I love it cause it gets you thinking about dreams and nightmares and fear, and what could be lurking in the subconscious corridors of our minds. I thought the later season eight episode "Empedocles" had some similarities to this: man infected from within by mysterious outside force of evil. Of course that one was nowhere near as good. I find Scully's little denouement at the end truly chilling. I thought it was a great little bit of acting from Robert Patrick in the scene where he shakily confesses to Skinner that he's not sure whether he's awake or sleeping. It's a change of pace for the normally tough as nails, "Dogged" character, and it was pretty interesting to see him freaking out. ::: There is something terribly visceral and especially nasty about the violent bluntness of bloody death, via axe to the forehead. And they sure as heck play it to the blood-splattered hilt! I don't get why some people don't seem to understand why, if the phantom killer slays someone in a dream, the wounds appear on their physical bodies. Well, that part is fantasy, but if you really want an explanation, it's like a hypnotist telling a subject he's stubbing a cigarette on his arm, and then touching the spot with a pencil. A blister appears because he *believes* he has been burned. If your subconscious believes you're dead, you're dead. If it orders the stigmata of a cleaved skull, there it is. An axe-wielding nightmare triclops certainly cuts a unique and unsettling figure. I find the blankness of the expression much more frightening than some snarling, wisecracking demon. I thought the actor was great in his role of a spiritual leader who has fallen from grace. He didn't just "suddenly become a murderer" when he achieved his "enlightenment", he was clearly terrified of what was happening, it was out of his control. It was possessing him, this terrible and dark predatory spectre of the mind that he had unleashed upon himself. The dreamlike sequences that accentuate his creepy phantasmal doppleganger are superbly unearthly and spooky. My favourite is the one with the pulsing blue glow that I believe captures the atmosphere of the irregular time and broken consciousness of real dreams. There's a lot of wonderfully disorientating work in some of those scenes. The series always seemed to manufacture new ways of expressing horror, and Via Negativa is an excellent spin on an old horror idea, and an all-round classic episode in my book.

It seems the intelligence left the show. The one before a guy with undeniable proof of innocence is still arrested. This one the dead agent in the car is a mystery because "it was locked from the inside"! Yes, they said that. Because he couldn't have possibly been placed in the car & then someone locked all the doors before closing it. That could never happen. A house is locked from the inside. A car can be locked with the door open and then closed. No mystery there. The weapon that they believe is the murder weapon can't possibly be it because it's still on permanent display. I guess the idea of someone making a replica is out of the question. So far the only mystery is people's lack of intelligence. It's been a long time since I watched all of these & I apparently never saw these because I think I would've remembered how ridiculous it was.