By Chris Snellgrove | Published
X files it is a game with many good qualities, including creative writing and a great cast. However, arguably the show’s greatest strength was its ability to infuse its audience with some of the scariest creatures ever to grace the small screen. The best example of this is the Flukeman, a monster that invades sewage and can come out of the toilet to kill its victims.
This episode does a great job of playing on the fears of its viewers, and more than a few fans started taking a second look at the toilet after watching “The Host.” After all, this episode (written by X-Files creator Chris Carter) had enough unusual details to make you sick, and most of us are still processing what we first saw all those decades ago. However, what many fans didn’t realize was that this episode made the workers literally sick for a simple reason: it was partially filmed in a real sewage treatment plant!
The smell is there
The plot of “The Host” is that of FBI Agent Fox Mulder (who is involved in dead cases because X-Files closed) was assigned to investigate the death of a Russian man whose body washed up in Newark, New Jersey. After hitting the pavement and visiting a sewage treatment plant, Mulder discovers a horrifying truth: a Russian was killed by a human-sized worm. He captures the Flukeman, but after it escapes from custody, Mulder ends up cutting the creature in half through an overflowing sewer, preventing it from escaping into the ocean and creating another version of itself.
“The Host” is considered the gold standard for “monster of the week” episodes, as well X files The team did a great job bringing this horror story to life. They really went the extra mile, including building a leaky sewer set that even included real tanks and running water. However, some shots required a bit more precision, and that meant getting down and dirty by shooting a real toilet bowl.
No One Was Ready For The Smell
As you can imagine, this place smelled like heaven. To make matters worse, this X-Files the episode was filmed on a hot summer day, so the producers gave the cast members a choice: they could take the day off or wear special rebreathers (which cost the show a fortune to get) to help block the smell. In an amazing show of unity, no one took a day off, and the respirators helped keep the stench at bay long enough for them to finish shooting the episode.
However, there was only one problem with this odor control system: the location of the cooking truck. The crew truck was outside, airy, and as far away from the sewage treatment plant as the producers could. On paper, this would allow workers to grab a much-needed lunch without worrying about the stench of the plant.
Unfortunately, the cooking truck was not as powerful as it needed to be, and the results were immediate: several production workers who had discarded their respirators to contain the bites became seriously ill. They all gathered at the fence outside the sewage treatment plant, and they all had the same goal. That is, emptying their stomachs, cleaning until there is nothing left!
Trust No One (Especially Your Nose)
Anyway, the crew went back to work and finished shooting one of the best episodes X files to like the small screen. It wasn’t easy, however, with production worker Al Campbell (as reported in IX marks the spot (In the area with The X-Files)) later reported his trick whenever he felt confused: “I used to visit the first septic tank – the place where raw, unwashed sewage came in.” He reported that after “a few minutes of that, I would go back to whatever I was doing, feeling relieved and thankful that nothing else was as bad as where I had just been.”
X files remains one of the most captivating shows in television history, and this story proves that the cast was never afraid to get down and dirty to give us one killer episode after another. “The Host” sickened the crew working on it, but that didn’t stop them from creating a monster episode of the week. Forget blood, sweat, and tears: that’s what happened break it’s the real secret ingredient to the most dangerous TV show ever made!
