(VHS) X-Files: Unruhe & Paper Hearts [VHS] [Import]

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The fourth season of The X-Files was one of the show's finest, with consistently excellent writing that fearlessly dealt with disturbing plots and characters on the darkest fringes of psychosis. Superbly written by coproducer Vince Gilligan (who is interviewed on this video) "Unruhe" and "Paper Hearts" are excellent examples of the show's fourth-season confidence, forcing agents Mulder and Scully to confront evil in the form of two very ordinary looking but extraordinarily dangerous men.

"Unruhe" (German for "unrest") guest stars the perfectly cast character actor Pruitt Taylor Vince as a serial killer who possesses the paranormal ability to psychically project images onto unexposed film, resulting in photographs that capture eerie images of the killer's terrified victims. Mulder and Scully investigate this phenomenon and discover the killer's history of violence, leading to a cat-and-mouse pursuit that escalates to a climax as suspenseful as any episode in the series.

"Paper Hearts" features a more insidious villain, played by Tom Noonan with chilling understatement, who is serving a life sentence for confessing (in Mulder's first murder case) to the kidnapping and murder of 13 young girls. Vivid nightmares lead Mulder to suspect that the killer's list of victims is incomplete--a suspicion confirmed by a newly discovered corpse bearing the killer's heinous signature: a heart-shaped piece of fabric cut from the dead girl's clothing. When it's discovered that one of the remaining victims might be Mulder's missing sister, "Paper Hearts" turns into a battle of wills and wits between Mulder and the now-escaped killer. Their climactic showdown in an abandoned school bus is directed by Rob Bowman for maximum intensity.

Taken together as stand-alone episodes, "Unruhe" and "Paper Hearts" are brilliant examples of The X-Files at its best--plausible, horrifying, rich in humanity and emotional impact (no matter how unsettling), and unflinchingly provocative. --Jeff Shannon