White haired X-Files creator on a mission to scare the hell out of you. Out of everyone...

    "Chris Carter Must Die For The X-Files Chris Carter Must Die."
The internet is wallpapered with such bizarre phrases - mantras all the more chant-like, for their lack of punctuation. Welcome to the world as seen through the lens of X-Files fandom.
    "Yeah, I know," Chris Carter sighs, grimacing. This is a rare moment of inarticulateness for the normally well- spoken X-Files guru. He laughs the matter of swiftly, however, dismissing it as an "unexplained phenomenon".
    Facing him across an all-white hotel room, Empire is struck by how Carter curiously befits this blanched environment. Even his hair is white, which strangely also grants him the air of a California surfer dude. For a creator of a paranoia-sated franchise whose viewers take impassioned notes on every gesture and idiom, he is surprisingly wholesome-looking.
    Make no mistake though - the former TV exec and jour- nalist wanted to create something that would unnerve a de- sensitied generation or two. A few years back, Carter got the greenlight for The X-Files on the simple promise that there was nothing on TV approaching the scariness of the bygone show The Nightstalker. He then drew on his Watergate-scarred psyche to hatch the perfect government conspiracy plotline.
    "I came up with this idea that the FBI must have some kind of unit that dealt with paranormal phenomena. And then I created the man and the woman, and I switched the gender stereotypes, and just started playing with it."
    "Here´s the simple recipe - I´ll give it to you," he says magnanimously, "for the success of a TV show. You find two very good leading actors to play two inter- esting characters, and you give them interesting stories to be in. Except," pausing for several beats, "that you fid those two actors, and you just hope that they have the chemistry that David and Gillian have together. That´s the magic. That´s the alchemy that´s involved here. And that´s why it´s very hard to duplicate."
    The movie, designed to span two seasons and enthral fans as well as attract new ones, continues to bring back fear to the masses.
    "I made a point of not trying to answer too many things that would have only made sense to the hardcore fan in the movie. Everyone started in a level playing field. With the X-Files being closed (as they are at the start of the movie), everyone who came into the theatre was seeing Mulder and Scully for the first time, wearing those FBI jackets, in another assignment. So newcomer and fan alike were starting in the same place.
    "The feature works by itself," he continues, "but I´m still going to remain honest to the series and the movie. I must be honest to what I think is the ongoing progression of events in the history, if you will, of the characters."
     His speech reaches its most earnest tones when explaining away several criticisms of the movie by revealing the behind-the-scenes mindset. You won´t see much of the aliens, for example - you´ll have to watch the next season for that. They decided to make Brit John Neville appear to get into an exploding car. Not to mention, of course, the action.
    "It can´t just be a talkie thriller, it has to be something of a ride. There are some action sequences - the big screen requires you to do things you wouldn´t do on the small screen. Being a summer movie, you have to."
    Being Chris Carter, you also have to deal with feverish internet speculation about rumours of an impromptu cameo by Duchovny´s derriere, a scene which has been cut off from the final version.
    "I can´t believe that so many people would be so inter- ested in David Duchovny´s butt," he says. "You would think that a man´s butt is not all that..." he laughs, trailing off.
   The real FBI lent a hand to the film (as they do to the show). But it´s officially unofficial - the input originates from individual agents.
    "They believe The X-Files puts the FBI in a very good light. A lot of people have wanted to join as a result. They´re quick to tell you there are no X-Files but, you know," he chuckles, "trust no one..."
    As for Carter´s future film career, he envisions himself trying his hand at a sweeping Romance - a period piece, by God - from an original story. For now, though, he´s happy on the small screen.
    "You can tell stories that you can´t tel on the big screen. It´s funny that you look at movies over time, and you see that what´s happened now is that there used to be a kind of movie made for the big screen that won´t be made anymore - that has become kind of the cable movie."
   To illustrate his point, he asks Empire to imagine a modern-day pitch meeting for Kramer Vs. Kramer or even The Graduate. Both, he presses, would wind up being made for the telly.
   Meanwhile, Carter is already beginning work on seasons six and seven. Is he happy the show has moved to LA to accomodate Duchovny´s desire to be near to his new wife Tea Leoni?
   "Part of me is, and part of me is not," he says, his aswer oddly ending on an higher note, as if he was asking a question. Leaning back in his chair, with more than a hint of wistfulness, he continues, "I love Vancouver. Millenium´s going into its third year - it´ll still shoot in Vancouver, so I´m going to still live a very schizophrenic life."
   Fear not - there´s always the ever-present aliens to keep him company on his Pacific coastal voyages. Or maybe not. He claims (to his continuing disappointment) that he´s never witnessed any paranormal activities.
   "But," he offers, "I´ve had these experiences, and I have to call them paranormal because every once in a while, it´s like a harmonic convergence of sorts. I´ll be walking down the street, and I won´t know people on the street, but I know them all. I recognise them all. They´re all very familiar to me. And I don´t know what it is. I´m sure it´s very Jungian." he pauses. "But it could be beer..."

Catherine Scroop