'The X-Files' Understood a Rule 33 Years Ago That Modern Sci-Fi Keeps Forgetting

Back in the early '90s, if you wanted a story full of UFOs, little green men, sewer mutants, and monsters that would haunt your dreams, there was no better place to go than The X-Files. Created by Chris Carter, the Fox drama perfected the "spooky procedural," complete with a complicated mytharc and exceptional characters who set the standard for imitators everywhere. But perhaps one of the most crucial elements of the show that makes it hold up so well today is that it relied heavily (if not exclusively) on practical effects to bring the otherworldly, the unnatural, to life on the screen. Long before CGI was the industry standard, The X-Files made its monsters real — and that's something that television ought to remember today.

'Stranger Things' Season 5 Fell Into the CGI Trap

It is far too common these days for productions to rely so much on computer-generated imagery that actors are forced to perform almost entirely on sound stages where they're surrounded by blue or green objects and screens. The same goes for digitally-made monsters, which can take the viewer out of the experience. Take Stranger Things, for instance, where the final season felt too heavily greenscreened compared to earlier installments.

Of course, there are instances where a heavy use of CGI is necessary, but the show suffered visually in its final season for its over-use of digital effects rather than practical. Compare the Demogorgon of Season 1 to those in Season 5, and you can clearly see how the creatures of Stranger Things have been slowly replaced by lesser CGI renderings. The same even goes for Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), who was largely practical in the fourth season but a blend of practical and digital in the fifth.

Practical Monsters Make 'The X-Files' Feel More Grounded in Reality

Yet, when you look at a show like The X-Files, part of the reason the monsters, creatures, mutants, and aliens still look especially terrifying is because they were constructed physically. Rather than taking the easy way out over time, The X-Files largely used practical effects when it came to its individual monsters, from the Flukeman in "The Host" to the alien from The X-Files: Fight the Future, to the horrifying Mr. Chuckle Teeth in "Familiar."

Everything from eye contacts to make Eugene Victor Tooms' (Doug Hutchison) look more mutant and unseemly to the silicon-made tentacles in "Aqua Male," and the blurry bug monster in "Folie à Deux" were done practically, with in-camera effects used to heighten the terror. While digital effects were certainly used on the show as it continued, The X-Files still holds up so well visually because the production did everything it could to legitimately bring their monsters to life week in and week out.

'The X-Files' Is a Timeless Sci-Fi Because It Smartly Blends Practical and Digital Effects

Computer-generated effects and creatures can certainly look good if done right. There are plenty of instances where those techniques are vital in bringing certain fantastical elements to life. But there's something remarkably timeless about practical effects that still feels more real, even if the techniques are a bit dated. Some of that has to do with how practical effects interact with the actors and the environment. In the case of the aforementioned Flukeman, it just looks more real on-screen than Stranger Things 5's Demogorgon's tossing soldiers like footballs.

Of course, to say that practical effects are inherently superior on their own wouldn't fully be accurate either. Sure, we prefer practical effects because they (generally) look more tangible and less like something out of a video game. But bad practical effects can ruin a show just as easily as bad digital ones. The key to both is doing them well, using CGI as an enhancement to practical effects rather than the main event. The X-Files did this masterfully in its revival seasons, as seen in the "4345 The Making Of A Struggle - Crashed Saucer" featurette.

If contemporary science fiction tales wish to continue to look as good 30 years later, then modern productions need to make a concerted effort to blend the two. Monsters are scary not just because of their visual design or the impact their actions have on our heroes, but due to how we see them physically engaging with the world. If the horror doesn't appear to be real, it can just as easily take the audience out of the material. Thankfully, The X-Files was a show that specialized in monster-of-the-week tales that emphasized just that.