Stephen King’s ‘X-Files’ Episode Broke From Its Usual Sci-Fi Formula 28 Years Ago

Stephen King is having another big year on the small screen. Mike Flanagan‘s latest King adaptation, Carrie, is set to arrive on Prime Video this fall, while another major genre property is preparing for a return of its own. The X-Files is getting a new take from Sinners filmmaker Ryan Coogler, with Hulu ordering a pilot for the long-awaited project. But decades before both franchises found themselves back in the spotlight, King actually got the chance to write an episode of The X-Files himself.

When someone as big as King says that they want to write for your show, it just makes sense to let them. The King of Horror was as popular as ever back in the ’90s (Needful Things, Gerald’s Game, and The Green Mile all came out that decade). Some poor adaptations of his work (plus Maximum Overdrive) aside, translating King from the page to the screen has often been a treat. Season 5’s “Chinga” offered something a little different, with the horror author getting the chance to pit Scully (Gillian Anderson) against a terrifying talking doll. It has a certain King-style flair, but the final results may surprise you.

‘The X-Files’ Episode “Chinga” Is a Creepy Horror Story

If there’s one thing to be said about Stephen King’s foray into The X-Files, it’s that it’s a creepy standalone episode. Not an instant classic like “Home” or “Die Hand Die Verletzt,” “Chinga” has merits on its own as a one-off monster-of-the-week flavor. This Scully-centric hour follows our favorite red-haired FBI agent as she takes a vacation to Ammas Beach, Maine for some much-needed R&R. But, as this is The X-Files, Scully is immediately pulled into a case the moment she arrives in town when she arrives at a grocery store only to be met by a bunch of patrons and store employees who are bleeding from their eyes due to an erratic (and unexplainable) case of mass self-harm. One of them, the butcher, even ends up dead after he attempts to battle the culprit: an evil, talking doll that belongs to one Polly Turner (Jenny-Lynn Hutcheson), daughter of local widow Melissa Turner (Susannah Hoffman).

Working alongside local police chief Jack Bonsaint (Larry Musser), Scully eventually comes to the conclusion that something supernatural is going on. As people who encounter Polly and Melissa continue to end up dead or disfigured around town, she forsakes her initial conclusions that there must be some rational explanation to all this, and begins to entertain Mulder’s over-the-phone theories about witchcraft. (Mulder doesn’t work this case with Scully, but is seen throughout the episode via phone conversations between them.)

Though the FBI agent notes that the New England folklore surrounding witches (particularly in Salem, itself a sly reference to Salem’s Lot) is likely nothing more than fables, upon watching Melissa Turner nearly kill herself and her daughter, she takes a different course of action. Scully nukes the demonic doll in a microwave, which ends the paranormal hold it has over the Turner family. However, when the doll is fished out of the harbor at the very end, we get the sense that this isn’t really over.

“Chinga” Is a Different Sort of ‘X-File’ With Plenty of Stephen King-isms

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If “Chinga” sounds more like something you might see from The Twilight Zone or even Supernatural rather than The X-Files, then you may be on to something. The original Twilight Zone episode “Living Doll” has a similar premise, though in true Stephen King style, Chinga is much more deadly. But if you think that this episode is going to be immediately frightening just because King’s name is attached, think again. The titular doll isn’t quite Annabelle from The Conjuring series, nor is she as terrifying as the usual King-penned antagonist, but the implications of such a cursed object as this one manifest themselves in some pretty spooky ways, mainly in Melissa Turner’s visions of death before they happen. If you’re looking for an X-File that wraps itself up neatly at the end, then “Chinga” isn’t the episode for you, but that’s part of what works about this episode.

Although it would’ve been fun to see what King would’ve done with both Scully and Mulder on an actual case, the way the episode plays out works well for the concept. King-isms about here, with an angry child who causes the deaths of those around her (Firestarter, “Children of the Corn”), an evil-possessed doll (Duma Key), old-time music (“You Know They Got a Hell of a Band”), references to witchcraft and the witch-hunting (The Dark Tower, Carrie), and, of course, Maine itself, which is the primary location of many of King’s most famous tales. Okay, some of those came out after “Chinga,” but there’s a frightful thread that runs through much of the horror author’s material, and this episode of The X-Files is certainly a part of it.

Though it never quite feels exactly like a Stephen King novel, watching Scully interact with a world that is clearly King’s (even if it’s only on the surface) is enough of a dream come true for fans of both the series and horror literature. Despite that, this isn’t as straightforward a Stephen King production as one might initially think.

Chris Carter Received Co-Writer Credit After Rewriting Much of Stephen King’s Material

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The making of “Chinga” sounds like it was quite a production. According to Resist or Serve: The Official Guide to The X-Files, Vol. 4 by Andy Meisler, the King-penned X-Files had its roots in Jeopardy! of all things. X-Files star David Duchovny was on the game show alongside Stephen King for the 1995 “Celebrity Jeopardy! Game 1” (which aired during The X-Files‘ third season) where they first spoke about the show. King mentioned to Duchovny that he wanted to write for the series before contacting series creator Chris Carter directly. “One day, Stephen called me out of the blue,” Carter recalls. “He said, ‘Hey, Chris, you know, I’d love to do a Millennium.’ Which I thought was a little strange, considering what I’d heard, but he told me that he’d wanted to do an X-Files but then decided to do a Millennium instead.”

Soon after, Carter received another call from King who, having changed his mind once again, now wanted to write for The X-Files. It was then that Carter locked him in, and they began to develop the script for “Chinga,” though, frankly, this author wishes he’d tackled a Millennium episode. That would’ve been something to see.

Unfortunately, though King’s story felt like a classic X-File, his words didn’t quite match the feel and tone of the series. “Stephen wasn’t used to writing for Mulder and Scully,” Carter told Meisler, revealing that the series creator rewrote much of King’s original material to better fit within the aesthetic of The X-Files. As audacious as it might sound to rewrite a horror master like King, nobody knows Mulder and Scully quite like Carter. When you compare one of King’s earlier drafts to Carter’s revised draft later, there are noticeable improvements in the Mulder/Scully banter, which feels more like what we’d expect from the show.

More than that, although King seems to be a Mulder/Scully “shipper,” Carter toned down (or at least reworked) any romantic tension between the two, as he famously avoided putting the characters together until absolutely necessary (they would nearly kiss in the first feature film, which hit theaters the summer between the fifth and sixth seasons). All in all, Carter’s draft, though perhaps less interesting in some respects, is more true to The X-Files.

Of course, “Chinga”—which is a swear in Spanish, hence why the word is never spoken in the episode — is arguably a better episode because of Carter’s interference, but that doesn’t mean everyone was happy about it. The late Kim Manners, who directed the episode, later lamented the fact that King’s episode was not what he had originally hoped for. “I was very excited to be able to direct a Stephen King piece,” he once explained (via Vulture). “And when it was all said and done, there was very little Stephen King left in it. The nuts and bolts were his, but that was really one of Chris’ scripts.”

Even so, “Chinga” remains an episode of The X-Files that many go back to for its gory exterior and classic banter, which might make it the best Stephen King/Chris Carter collaboration we never asked for.

“Chinga” Is Divisive Among Fans — but It Is Still an ‘X-Files’ Episode Worth Revisiting

Over 25 years later, “Chinga” is still an episode that fellow X-Philes debate about. While it’s nowhere near as bad as, say, “Fight Club” or “Space” or “Teso Dos Bichos,” it’s also not remotely as good as “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” or even the “Pilot.” In many ways, “Chinga” feels like a slightly above-average episode of The X-Files, which is a bit odd given all the surrounding hype concerning Stephen King’s involvement. On their own, both King and Carter have produced some masterful genre works that would be considered among the best in their fields, especially in the late 20th century. But together, their constricting styles don’t mesh the way one might hope they would, and while the results are still favorable (“Chinga” is still a good episode), it wasn’t as groundbreaking as the network thought it might be.

It’s easy to blame the way “Chinga” turned out on either King’s inexperience in television writing or Carter’s interference with King’s original draft. If both factors had been removed, maybe “Chinga” would be considered one of the greats. But as it stands now, this X-Files episode is notable primarily because of King’s work on it in the first place. Though perhaps not the best of either of their bodies of work, “Chinga” is a fine collaboration piece that uniquely highlights Carter’s mastery over the Mulder/Scully partnership and King’s penchant for making the mundane into the horrific. Whether you’re a fan of King’s larger body of work or just love the ’90s hottest genre series, “Chinga” is a spooky hour that you can’t ignore.

The X-Files can be streamed on Hulu in the U.S.