"Irresistible" is dark, bleak, and nasty, the story of a "death fetishist", mutilating the dead post mortem as a means of gratification, before later going looking for the dead themselves. All well and horrible, but then he fixates on Scully.
Make no mistake: this is psychological, rather than showy. Apparently the demonic images surrounding the killer - in which, at times, he morphs into another person - were added to the show very late on in the proceedings, when they realised that there was nothing technically paranormal about the story. The agents are called in to investigate the mutilations as evidence of UFOs, something which Mulder dismisses off-hand early on, and other than that, our killer is just a bad, messed-up person. It's frustrating, because without those images, the show works fine as a stand-alone, and we know the characters well enough by now for them to do a show about them, without having to crowbar some paranormal element into it.
The point being made, all the way through, is that the human "monster" can be as dark and disturbing as any ghoul or ghost. Personally... I'm not so sure it comes across. It seems a little unfair to criticise Scully's reaction to the desecrations of the bodies - her fear and disgust is palpable and perhaps intended to indicate an innate understanding of the evil which Mulder is able to dismiss - but the scheduling of the show precludes the depiction of a real monster. Pfaster is horrible, sure, but no more horrible than a lot of the monsters the show has depicted (personally I found the guy from "Young At Heart" a lot creepier). I'm not sure if there was something screwy with the sound, but he always sounds slightly too loud when he talks, which is more disconcerting than a lot of his more ghoulish behaviour.
The "sequel", surprisingly, works a lot better, so this is worth watching if only to make that better. And it's not a bad little episode. But a few little flaws - the unnecessary morphing being a major one - undermine it really badly.
Make no mistake: this is psychological, rather than showy. Apparently the demonic images surrounding the killer - in which, at times, he morphs into another person - were added to the show very late on in the proceedings, when they realised that there was nothing technically paranormal about the story. The agents are called in to investigate the mutilations as evidence of UFOs, something which Mulder dismisses off-hand early on, and other than that, our killer is just a bad, messed-up person. It's frustrating, because without those images, the show works fine as a stand-alone, and we know the characters well enough by now for them to do a show about them, without having to crowbar some paranormal element into it.
The point being made, all the way through, is that the human "monster" can be as dark and disturbing as any ghoul or ghost. Personally... I'm not so sure it comes across. It seems a little unfair to criticise Scully's reaction to the desecrations of the bodies - her fear and disgust is palpable and perhaps intended to indicate an innate understanding of the evil which Mulder is able to dismiss - but the scheduling of the show precludes the depiction of a real monster. Pfaster is horrible, sure, but no more horrible than a lot of the monsters the show has depicted (personally I found the guy from "Young At Heart" a lot creepier). I'm not sure if there was something screwy with the sound, but he always sounds slightly too loud when he talks, which is more disconcerting than a lot of his more ghoulish behaviour.
The "sequel", surprisingly, works a lot better, so this is worth watching if only to make that better. And it's not a bad little episode. But a few little flaws - the unnecessary morphing being a major one - undermine it really badly.