R-rated director’s cut of X-Files film restores Chris Carter’s original horror vision

《X档案》电影R级导演剪辑版还原了克里斯·卡特最初的恐怖构想

There is a lot of excitement and some trepidation among The X-Files fans about Ryan Coogler’s reboot for Hulu, currently in production. While we’re waiting, Hulu just released Chris Carter’s revamped (and R-rated) director’s cut of the 2008 standalone spinoff film The X-Files: I Want to Believe, distinguishable from its predecessor with a slightly different title: The X-Files: I Want to Believe–Vrach Frankenshteyn. (Minor spoilers below but no major reveals.)

《X档案》的粉丝们对瑞恩·库格勒（Ryan Coogler）正在为Hulu制作的重启版剧集既兴奋又有些忐忑。在等待期间，Hulu刚刚发布了克里斯·卡特（Chris Carter）对2008年独立衍生电影《X档案：我要相信》（The X-Files: I Want to Believe）进行的重制（且为R级）导演剪辑版。该版本通过一个略有不同的标题与前作区分开来：《X档案：我要相信——弗兰肯斯坦医生》（The X-Files: I Want to Believe–Vrach Frankenshteyn）。（下文包含轻微剧透，但无重大情节泄露。）

I Want to Believe received mixed reviews at its release and didn’t exactly light up the box office, but it still grossed $68 million against its $30 million budget. By 2015, the project led to the return of The X-Files as a limited-run TV series, with the six-episode season 10 debuting in 2016. Mulder and Scully were reunited 14 years after the events of season 9 as the FBI reopened the X-Files under Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi). The response was strong enough to warrant a follow-up ten-episode season in 2018, focusing on Mulder and Scully’s search for their missing son, William. So one could hardly call I Want to Believe a failure.

《我要相信》在上映时评价褒贬不一，票房表现也算不上火爆，但它在3000万美元的预算下仍获得了6800万美元的票房。到了2015年，该项目促成了《X档案》作为限定剧集的回归，第10季共6集于2016年首播。在第9季事件发生14年后，穆德（Mulder）和斯卡利（Scully）重聚，FBI在副局长沃尔特·斯金纳（米奇·皮莱吉饰）的领导下重新开启了“X档案”。观众的反响非常热烈，足以支撑2018年推出10集的后续季，该季聚焦于穆德和斯卡利寻找失踪儿子威廉的过程。因此，很难说《我要相信》是一部失败的作品。

I quite enjoyed the film, but I always had a niggling sense that something was missing. That suspicion was confirmed when Carter made an appearance on David Duchovny’s podcast last summer and revealed that the studio had insisted he cut numerous scenes to get the desired PG-13 rating. Carter also hinted that a director’s cut was in the offing. “I made it too scary,” Carter told Duchovny of his original vision. “Now I have a chance to go back and make the scary movie that I always intended.”

我个人很喜欢这部电影，但总有一种隐隐的感觉，觉得少了点什么。当卡特去年夏天出现在大卫·杜楚尼（David Duchovny）的播客中时，这种怀疑得到了证实——他透露制片方坚持要求他删减大量场景，以获得预期的PG-13分级。卡特还暗示导演剪辑版即将推出。“我把它拍得太恐怖了，”卡特在谈到他最初的构想时告诉杜楚尼，“现在我有机会回去，把它制作成我一直想要的恐怖电影。”

Originally slated for a June release on Disney+, I Want to Believe–Vrach Frankenshteyn eventually moved to Hulu with an August 14 release. It’s largely the same film as in 2008, just rejiggered to emphasize the stronger horror aspects that Carter originally envisioned.

《我要相信——弗兰肯斯坦医生》原定于6月在Disney+上线，最终改在8月14日于Hulu发布。它在很大程度上与2008年的版本相同，只是经过重新剪辑，以强调卡特最初构想中更强烈的恐怖元素。

Per the official premise: When a group of women is mysteriously abducted, it becomes a case right out of The X-Files. Years after walking away from the FBI, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are pulled back from the shadows when a federal agent vanishes without a trace. In a case you’d never see on TV, their only lead is a disgraced, defrocked priest claiming to have horrific psychic visions of the crime. Forced to confront the ghosts of their past, the partners must navigate a chilling winter landscape and an even darker human monstrosity. The truth of these crimes is out there somewhere… and it will take Mulder and Scully to find it.

根据官方剧情简介：当一群女性神秘失踪时，这变成了一个典型的“X档案”案件。在离开FBI多年后，福克斯·穆德和达娜·斯卡利因一名联邦探员离奇失踪而被迫重出江湖。在这个你在电视上绝无可能看到的案件中，他们唯一的线索是一位名誉扫地、被剥夺神职的牧师，他声称自己对犯罪现场有着恐怖的通灵幻象。被迫面对过去的阴影，这对搭档必须在寒冷的冬日景观中穿行，并面对更黑暗的人性怪物。这些罪行的真相就在某处……而只有穆德和斯卡利才能找到它。

Ars Technica: The original series always had some elements of horror. I’m curious about why you wanted to make a feature film that was more overtly horror with I Want to Believe.

Ars Technica：原版剧集一直包含一些恐怖元素。我很好奇，为什么你想在《我要相信》中制作一部更明显的恐怖电影？

Chris Carter: We certainly mined the horror genre over and over. The show always works at the intersection of science and science fiction. The original inspiration for this movie was that I read about a doctor who had done a head transplant from one monkey to another monkey’s body, and he’d done it successfully. Immediately I said, “That’s an X-File. I’ve got to tell that story.” Of course, I wanted to tell it with human beings. So I flew to Cleveland, Ohio, where this doctor was, and he told me how he did it. It was successful, but ultimately the monkey died. But then I started thinking, “Well, maybe this is a way to live forever.” If you could transplant your head onto a younger person’s body, you could possibly keep doing that until something went wrong. There’s this tech-bro fascination with living forever right now. So this story is as relevant now as it was back then. It’s a great time to tell this story. And I got to go back and revisit something that I was unable to make the way I wanted to make it, due to studio executives who really didn’t know the show. I had promised them I’d make a PG-13 movie because I thought, “That’s what I make on TV every week.” But it turns out that both the executives and the MPA, the people who do the ratings, are less permissive with a PG-13 movie than network television was with horror.

克里斯·卡特：我们确实反复挖掘了恐怖类型。这部剧集始终处于科学与科幻的交汇点。这部电影最初的灵感来源于我读到的一位医生，他成功地将一只猴子的头部移植到了另一只猴子的身体上。我立刻说：“这就是一个X档案。我必须讲这个故事。”当然，我想用人类来讲述它。所以我飞往俄亥俄州的克利夫兰，找到了那位医生，他告诉了我他是如何做到的。手术成功了，但猴子最终还是死了。但我开始思考：“也许这是一种永生的方式。”如果你能把头移植到年轻人的身体上，你可能就能一直这样做，直到出现问题。现在科技圈对“永生”有一种迷恋，所以这个故事在今天和当时一样具有现实意义。现在是讲述这个故事的好时机。而且，我终于有机会回去重新审视那些我当初没能按自己意愿完成的内容，因为当时的制片高管根本不了解这部剧。我曾向他们承诺会拍一部PG-13电影，因为我想：“这就是我每周在电视上制作的内容。”但事实证明，无论是制片高管还是负责分级的美国电影协会（MPA），对PG-13电影的宽容度都远低于电视网对恐怖内容的宽容度。

Ars Technica: There’s more to your director’s cut than just restoring a few deleted scenes. You’ve done a full re-edit.

Ars Technica：你的导演剪辑版不仅仅是恢复了几个删除的场景，你还进行了全面的重新剪辑。

Chris Carter: I worked with two different editors, people I respect and I’ve worked with before who weren’t involved with it all originally. I asked them to watch the movie…

克里斯·卡特：我和两位不同的剪辑师合作，他们是我尊重且曾共事过的人，但他们最初并没有参与这部电影。我请他们看了这部电影……