The X-Files creator Chris Carter wanted to make a more horrific movie
The X-Files creator Chris Carter wanted to make a more horrific movie
《X档案》主创克里斯·卡特曾想拍摄一部更恐怖的电影
Hulu’s new R-rated cut of The X-Files: I Want to Believe is closer to the director’s original vision. Hulu 推出的《X档案：我要相信》（The X-Files: I Want to Believe）全新 R 级剪辑版，更接近导演最初的构想。
The version of The X-Files: I Want to Believe that premiered in 2008 was not exactly the movie co-writer / director Chris Carter intended to make. Carter wanted to bring agents Mulder and Scully back to the big screen with a grisly story about faith and the supernatural. But executives at 20th Century Fox felt that Carter’s ideas were too dark, and he was pushed to turn the project into a PG-13 feature. Now, almost two decades after I Want to Believe’s theatrical debut, Carter is back with a new director’s cut of the film for Hulu that’s much closer to his original vision. 2008 年上映的《X档案：我要相信》并非联合编剧兼导演克里斯·卡特（Chris Carter）最初想要拍摄的版本。卡特当时希望让穆德（Mulder）和斯嘉丽（Scully）两位探员重返大银幕，讲述一个关于信仰与超自然现象的惊悚故事。然而，二十世纪福克斯的高管认为卡特的构思过于黑暗，迫使他将该项目改成了 PG-13 级电影。如今，在《我要相信》院线上映近二十年后，卡特带着该片全新的导演剪辑版回归 Hulu，这一版本更贴近他最初的创作愿景。
“We got to tell a good X-Files story,” Carter said of the original cut during a recent conversation we had about the new release. ”We just didn’t get to tell it in the way that we had intended.” “我们确实讲了一个不错的《X档案》故事，”卡特在最近一次关于新版电影的谈话中谈到原版时说道，“只是我们没能以预想的方式把它讲出来。”
The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn’s Russian subtitle is meant to clue you into how heavily the movie leans into the series’ monster of the week-style storytelling. Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) find themselves unwittingly investigating a string of gruesome kidnappings with the help of a predatory priest (Sir William Connolly) who claims to have psychic visions. Neither of the agents know what to make of the man’s supposed abilities, but they can’t ignore the way he consistently leads the FBI to dismembered body parts hidden in the frozen, West Virginian wilderness. 《X档案：我要相信——弗兰肯斯坦医生》（Vrach Frankenshteyn）这一俄语副标题旨在暗示该片在多大程度上借鉴了剧集中“每周一怪”的叙事风格。穆德（大卫·杜楚尼饰）和斯嘉丽（吉莲·安德森饰）在一位声称拥有通灵能力的掠夺性神父（威廉·康诺利爵士饰）的帮助下，无意中调查起了一系列骇人的绑架案。两位探员起初对该男子的所谓能力持怀疑态度，但他们无法忽视他总是能引导 FBI 在西弗吉尼亚州冰封的荒野中找到被肢解的尸块。
The new cut of I Want to Believe puts an emphasis on its Frankenstein elements that almost makes it feel like 20th Century Studios wanted to tap into Hollywood’s recent fascination with reimagining Mary Shelley’s seminal sci-fi novel. But Carter told me that he thinks his version is actually exploring some of the real world horrors that are woven into people’s desperate searches for youth and immortality. 新剪辑版的《我要相信》强调了其中的“弗兰肯斯坦”元素，这让人感觉二十世纪影业似乎想借此赶上好莱坞近期重构玛丽·雪莱这部开创性科幻小说的热潮。但卡特告诉我，他认为自己的版本实际上是在探讨现实世界中的一些恐怖之处，这些恐怖与人们对青春和永生的绝望追求交织在一起。
“There’s this tech bro idea that if you do the right things and eat the right things, you might be able to live forever and ever,” Carter explained. “But if you’re able to transplant your head successfully onto younger and younger bodies, who’s to say that’s not everlasting life?” “现在有一种科技精英的观点认为，只要做正确的事、吃正确的食物，你或许就能长生不老，”卡特解释道，“但如果你能成功地将头部移植到越来越年轻的身体上，谁又能说这不是永生呢？”
While writing I Want to Believe back in the early aughts, Carter was inspired by the work of Robert J. White — a neurosurgeon and bioethicist who successfully managed to transplant the head of one living monkey onto another’s body in the 1970s. Before White’s death in 2010, Carter met with him in Ohio to speak about his work, and their conversation informed some of I Want to Believe’s beats. With Vrach Frankenshteyn, Carter wanted to highlight the visceral sense of fear that might be felt by someone undergoing experiments similar to White’s. The new cut spends less time focusing on Mulder and Scully’s personal relationship, and puts more of its energy into making you feel the terror of its victim characters. 在 21 世纪初创作《我要相信》时，卡特受到了罗伯特·J·怀特（Robert J. White）工作的启发。怀特是一位神经外科医生和生物伦理学家，他在 20 世纪 70 年代成功地将一只活猴子的头部移植到了另一只猴子的身体上。在怀特 2010 年去世前，卡特曾在俄亥俄州与他会面，探讨了他的研究工作，这些对话为《我要相信》中的一些情节提供了灵感。通过《弗兰肯斯坦医生》，卡特希望突出那些经历类似怀特实验的人可能感受到的那种发自内心的恐惧。新剪辑版减少了对穆德和斯嘉丽个人关系的关注，将更多精力放在让观众感受受害者角色的恐惧上。
“You have these women who have been stalked, violently taken from their cars, and then trapped in boxes, where they witness these terrible medical procedures they’re going to be subjected to,” Carter said. “If the audience now comes into this movie thinking about head transplants and this title, plot details like finding an arm in the ice and snow brings them into this story in a different way.” “这些女性被跟踪、从车里被暴力劫走，然后被关进盒子里，目睹了她们即将遭受的可怕医疗程序，”卡特说，“如果观众现在带着对头部移植和这个标题的思考进入电影，那么在冰雪中发现断臂等情节细节，会以一种不同的方式将他们带入这个故事。”
Though I Want to Believe was met with mixed reviews when it first hit theaters, the series continued with two revival seasons on Fox that ran from 2016 to 2018. Those seasons and the rise of digital streaming brought a new generation of viewers into the X-Files fandom. Carter told me that he’s regularly surprised to meet young people who feel a deep connection to the world he created even though they weren’t alive when the show was originally airing. Carter appreciates that, for those fans, The X-Files is something they’re experiencing for the first time, and it’s markedly different from the new generation of streaming sci-fi series. 尽管《我要相信》在最初上映时评价褒贬不一，但该系列在 2016 年至 2018 年间于福克斯电视台播出了两季复活季。这些剧集以及数字流媒体的兴起，为《X档案》粉丝群带来了新一代观众。卡特告诉我，他经常惊讶地遇到一些年轻人，他们对他创造的世界有着深厚的共鸣，尽管在剧集最初播出时他们甚至还没出生。卡特很庆幸，对于这些粉丝来说，《X档案》是他们第一次体验的作品，它与新一代的流媒体科幻剧集有着显著的不同。
Carter — who’s currently working with his wife, Dori, on a movie about a woman forced to live her mother’s life in the 1950s titled Queens for a Day — knows the pleasure of watching truly original and distinct stories unfold. That’s why he has tried to keep himself in the dark about what Ryan Coogler is cooking up with his own upcoming spin on The X-Files. That said, while shooting Queens for a Day in Vancouver, Carter couldn’t stop some of the members from his production crew from visiting Coogler’s nearby set. And while Carter insisted about being kept in the dark about any “secret inside information,” he has faith that Coogler is going to “bring his stamp” to the franchise. 卡特目前正与妻子多里（Dori）合作拍摄一部名为《一日女王》（Queens for a Day）的电影，讲述一名女性被迫过上她母亲 20 世纪 50 年代生活的故事。他深知观看真正原创且独特的叙事展开是一种享受。正因如此，他尽量不去了解瑞恩·库格勒（Ryan Coogler）正在筹备的《X档案》衍生剧。话虽如此，在温哥华拍摄《一日女王》期间，卡特还是没能阻止他的一些剧组成员去参观库格勒在附近的片场。尽管卡特坚持自己对任何“内部秘密信息”一无所知，但他相信库格勒会为这个系列打上“属于他自己的烙印”。
“Ryan is a filmmaker I completely respect,” Carter said. “I’ve made a point of not reading [his script] because I want to watch it like everyone else. But I’ve got an inkling about what he’s doing with his approach and this diverse cast, and it’s very exciting to me.” “瑞恩是我非常尊重的电影人，”卡特说，“我特意没有去读（他的剧本），因为我想像其他人一样去观看它。但我对他所采用的方法和多元化的演员阵容略知一二，这让我感到非常兴奋。”
The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn is now streaming on Hulu. 《X档案：我要相信——弗兰肯斯坦医生》现已在 Hulu 上线。